Strategic R&D (“Rip-off & Duplicate”)

I’d argue that there is no difference between using an ‘industry’s best practices’ and applying a good old fashioned R&D strategy…”Rip-off and Duplicate”. If you agree with this hypothesis, then let’s have a look at some great ideas and how they can be applied to business events.

Ten things we know to be true - Personally, if I’m going to liberate an idea from an organization, I want to borrow from the biggest and the best. Take a look at Google’s corporate “Our Philosophy”. They wrote this several years ago and have applied these values on a day-to-day basis. What’s interesting is how applicable their Ten things we know to be true are for business events. I could write a whole blog on just these ten principles, but would rather challenge you to read & apply these principles to your events. You might suddenly find your events become very strategic…making the ROI even higher.

http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/tenthings.html

Three for One – It’s no secret; I love technology and social media. It’s also not a secret I respect, follow and consider Gary Vaynerchuk a guru on both of these topics. So here’s a three-for-one strategy for you to consider:

1) Gary is a pioneer in video blogging and using online video to grow his now many business interests. The following link will take you to one of his recent video blogs; it will only take 3min to watch and should give you some strong ideas about how to use video to promote and market your business events year round.

2) In this video, Gary talks about “Smart Shopping” and how this new technology is going to revolutionize your wallet or purse. Think about how this will impact your conference or trade show’s registration process…the future is here.

3) When you follow the link below you can also see a great example of how to customize a YouTube channel for your event or brand. Look at the page construction, the many touch points you can have with your audience year round.

http://www.youtube.com/user/WatchTheDaily#p/u/5/Kq_QnsMQjv0

Innovation Starts with Disruptive Hypotheses – have you ever hit the ‘been there, done that’ wall? Maybe you’ve been asked to ‘re-invent the annual event’? Like many people, maybe you searched for an answer on the ceiling or the floor (and not found one). The below link will take you to an article posted on Fast Company’s website that provides you concrete techniques to be innovative. Warning: being innovative takes time and work, but the results can be outstanding.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663970/disruptive-hypothesis

So there you have it…by applying a little R&D you can find the answer to almost any challenge. If you have some R&D of your own that you would like to share please post it to the group!

Steve

thestevereport@gmail.com

PS: I apologize for being lapse in my blogging. The recent warm weather and new opportunities have consumed my time. My intent is to pick up the pace again in June. Thanks for following along.