In some industries (you know who you are), the suppliers of products and services are treated a little like step children—responsible for most of the heavy (financial) lifting but never invited to the ball. That is about to change with some new Webinar programming and content developed exclusively for suppliers in the face-to-face meetings industry.

WARNING: “The trade show industry is not innovative” is a blanket statement. Yes, there are pockets of new ideas. Yes, there are individual shows and organizers who are trying new things and taking risks. But, for the most part, as an industry, we have been doing the same thing, the same way for the past 50 years.

My previous post, Marketing Trade Shows as Content, focused on the concept of using exhibitor-produced content to market a show and build a community. Traci Browne featured the topic on #expochat last week and the discussion yielded some excellent ideas on exactly how exhibition organizers can help exhibitors create and promote good content.

By visualizing trade shows as content, trade show organizers can begin to think about new ways to market their events and build their communities: becoming content curators, viewing their exhibitors as content producers, and positioning the live event as the “product” being offered for sale.

I don’t profess to be a social media expert myself. Like most everyone else, my knowledge on the subject is the culmination of many many hours of reading, listening and experimenting with social platforms. I do know about the mechanics of the meetings and trade show industry and how to apply social media principles to the marketing and promotion of event industry brands. Here are the “20 Tips in (Less Than) 20 Minutes” that I offered to session attendees last week.

Virtual events of any kind present both opportunities and challenges to an organization. Associations in the process of researching or integrating virtual events should first address a number of strategic questions.

One spin around the blogosphere will show you that trade show organizers use blogs to attract new readers and draw attention from search engines. But IAAPA—the association for amusements and attractions—turned to its blog to solidify the association’s relationship with exhibitors/members by using it as the central communication channel for the IAAPA Attractions Expo 2011 Space Allocation.

When the current wave of virtual event platforms first emerged, technology developers became the primary educators for the industry. In addition to teaching their clients and prospects about the features and benefits of their own products, they were also responsible for helping them to market the event, develop content, sell exhibit space, train speakers, and a host of other tasks. While they did so gladly, the explosion of interest in virtual placed a heavy burden on them. Fortunately, the situation has changed. There are multiple opportunities to learn about virtual event platforms and execution.

Event industry suppliers—general service contractors, marketing firms, and exhibit designers—are stepping out of their comfort zones to take advantage of the innovation that is sweeping over the industry. What might look like a desperate move by some companies to hitch their wagons to a star or an attempt to make up for the shortcomings of a flat industry is actually a smart business decision. A clear precedent for the trend comes from social media and the growing practice of content curation.

Rather than run towards the exits with brains on fire fearing the cannibalization or elimination of live events by virtual platforms, it’s time to take stock of the real opportunities that virtual event platforms offer to stimulate live attendance and grow face-to-face events.

In case you haven’t noticed, social networking is a movement, and where Tunisia and Egypt are concerned, it sparked an actual revolution. In the meetings industry, the experimentation with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and LinkedIn is training our attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, media and nearly everyone in the event ecosystem to expect MORE—more content, more information, more engagement—before, during, after, online, and offline. In response, developers have come up with some interesting ideas to help event planners expand their notion of “social networking” beyond online platforms.

In the future, says Dannette Veale, global manager of the Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual event, there will be no more live vs. virtual discussions. The two experiences will overlap so completely that what we now perceive as two separate environments glued together through some “hybrid” sleight of hand, will merge into a single seamless stream of content, entertainment, and engagement that can be accessed from either end of the physical to virtual spectrum.

Whether you are an exhibitor trying to navigate the new medium of virtual trade shows or a corporation using virtual platforms to enlarge the opening to your sales funnel, Dennis Shiao’s new book, “Generate Sales Leads with Virtual Events” and his upcoming presentation at the Virtual Edge Summit can help. As with any new environment—the Antarctic, third world countries, and the Moon—you have to take the surroundings into account. Much of what Shiao advocates is straightforward advice that will work in any scenario. However, paying respect, as he does, to the disruption in normalcy that occurs in a virtual setting is the key to having success with it.

It’s true. If you’re a professional membership association, your best bet in the pleasure dispensing department is to try to please most of the people at least some of the time. Despite the odds, Kevin Novak is working hard to take it to the next level using hybrid events to hit the educational and member benefit sweet spot that most association executives dream about. At the Virtual Edge Summit next week in Las Vegas, Novak, vice president integrated web strategy and technology of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), will talk about how a false sense of security led to a “shellacking” in his virtual attendance numbers and how his team regrouped after the dip.

Despite their brave faces, the producers of live events are still frightened about the impact of virtual events to erode their attendee base and diminish their profit margins. After all, if you can get the milk for free, why buy the cow? There’s been talk about employees at some associations fearing they might lose their jobs and the subject has been on the agenda of more than a few executive meetings. Apparently the “There’s no substitute for face-to-face meetings” mantra hasn’t convinced everyone.

If IAEE’s annual meeting and trade show (Expo! Expo!) were any indication, 2010 was the year that the industry “woke up” to the possibilities of mobile. A full house session on mobile apps, a printed and online guide for buyers, and a show floor chock full of developers were the tip offs.

In the beginning of the month (on December 7, the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor), I received an email from a company that I had previously blogged about. They somehow landed on my radar and I found their application interesting. The subject line of the email read, “A Christmas present from the Triqle Team.” After a pleasant opening—“we love you, because of your involvement and feedback…”—they made me a fabulous offer. Of course, I couldn’t refuse.

It’s no secret that advances in technology have rocked the event world. From mobile apps to virtual trade shows to social networks—not to mention gaming, geo-location, and cloud computing—tech is driving major innovation. But somewhere in the bowels of this business, there is another movement afoot. Open source platforms—free applications that are built by an individual but evolved communally by sharing the source code with other programmers and enthusiasts —could be the next big thing in trade shows, conferences, and meetings.

At the risk of seeming like a Rick Calvert Groupie (I’ve already written about BlogWorld twice at TSNN.com: The “Networked Beat” Approach to Curating Event Communities and The Day That Banners Died: BlogWorld and the QR Code Trip), I’m going to take yet another shot at it. Earlier this month, I was able to attend the MTO Summit in Washington, DC where Rick Calvert, co-founder of BlogWorld and New Media Expo, gave a presentation on affiliate marketing for trade shows and conferences. He has used the techniques he described at his own event with impressive results. For all of those event organizers still unsure about the value of cultivating a strong community, this post should make you sit up straight in your chair.

Hybrid events (live events with a virtual audience) are becoming more popular. Tools to live stream content, platforms to handle Q & A, and remote attendees comfortable with Twitter are commonplace. However, bringing all of the virtual channels together into one “room” is still a little clunky. Plus, finding virtual events that weren’t previously on your radar is nearly impossible. A start-up out of Sydney, Australia is working to streamline the search and simplify the access to virtual events.