Update: DARPA’s Red Balloon Challenge

Originally published on “Economic Architecture.”

As a follow up to our earlier post involving DARPA’s Red Balloon Challenge, Stephen Colbert interviewed MIT’s Riley Crane. Watch the video as he describes the MIT team’s viral platform for finding all 10 balloons in 8 hours and 52 minutes.

(H/T onedamnthing)

10 Ways to Increase Attendance at Your Event

Subtitled:
“You Need to Play to Win,
But You Also Need to Win to Play”
– Michael Scott

So, with the start of the new blogging year (of course that’s relative to the PodCamp Pittsburgh calendar), I am fulfilling my new year’s resolution to blog more with…a blog post.

Recently, I’ve been witness to some fairly poor marketing strategies surrounding local events. These ill experiences make me cringe every time I see something from these organizations and companies. So…I thought it would be appropriate to list some easy ways you can increase attendance at your event without breaking the bank.

1. Avoid Lame Gimmicks
Busy professionals don’t need gimmicks to get them to attend an event. Themes and novelties do not add value to the event program. For the busy professional, content is number one. So long as the content is engaging, elicits emotion, builds credibility and appeals to a relevant, targeted audience, the event will speak for itself. Gimmicks detract from an organizations mission and message of the event. The goal of the event should be to add value through a quick, meaningful program. If you need a gimmick to get attendees to your event, perhaps you should re-evaluate the event’s content.

2. Start Your Viral Strategy Early
Too many event organizers begin their viral marketing campaigns when their attendance isn’t where they’d like it to be, and by that time, it’s too late. Viral strategies should begin in coordination with the first release of information about the event. Additionally, strategies should be tiered to offer additional points of interaction on a gradually more intense level as the event draws closer. When considering these viral efforts, remember that people are about 6-times more likely to act on what someone tells them, over what they read. Dan Zarrella offers some great tips on creating contagiousness for viral marketing efforts.