Bio Convention Website Development

About the Project

The BIO2007.org website needed to serve the needs of over 19,000 attendees, exhibitors, high level sponsors and the media. Attendees and exhibitors of such a large convention need to feel a sense of connection with each other in order to get as much value from the event as possible. Balance Interactive worked with BIO to create that sense of connection online prior to the start of the conference.

The goal was threefold:

• Create a buzz. Balance Interactive suggested an “energy campaign” using new media tools. The key themes of the campaign focused on excitement, exchange of ideas, and networking. The campaign created energy around the BIO International Convention as well as other BIO conferences in the calendar year, increasing registration and awareness of events.
• Recruit new attendees and exhibitors and increase the return rate of previous years' attendees and exhibitors.
• Develop an easy and streamlined way for each audience to perform essential pre-conference tasks.

Web site success was measured primarily by the number of convention registrations and attendees and comparison of web statistics from previous years.

The Balance Interactive solution included:

Translate the Vision into Actionable Strategy

The Balance Interactive web strategy for BIO resulted in the following ideas being implemented:

• Video, podcasting & RSS
• A database driven content management system
• Stronger relationships with trade publications
• Blog campaign before the show and on-site targeting journalists and attendees that did not sign up for the show but may next year
• Aggregating the hundreds of bloggers that were talking about the show
• Presence on social networking sites (YouTube, MySpace)
• Intranet for conference planners
• Viral marketing campaign
• Technology tool recommendations that included interactive planners, database-driven exhibitor and sponsor lists, and banner management software

Balance Interactive furthered the excitement by leveraging the theme “New Ideas, Bold Ventures. Global Benefits” on the home page of the website by featuring a large globe that was on-site at the convention. Attendees and exhibitors were encouraged to use the globe as their meeting place so that they could feel the spirit of the conference in full.

The 2007 conference was a success with over 22,000 attendees and increased number of exhibitors.

Integrate E-Mail Marketing

Balance Interactive played a greater role in the 2008 campaign by helping integrate email marketing into the strategy to:

1. Increase response and click through rates
2. Host relevant and customized content to the reader
3. Position myBIO as a tool to connect with colleagues
4. Pack the most punch with the best content, offers, contact strategies and creative
5. Help determine performance rates and ROI
6. Make the best use of the two BIO marketing personnel

Build on Success

The 2008 convention site was designed and implemented by Balance Interactive. Strategies were used that built on the successes from 2007.

The site featured:

• A home page Flash element that brought the show messaging and graphics to live.
• Integrated images from the 2007 show throughout the site to show the energy and excitement that a Bio convention brings.
• A social media newsroom that gave Bio’s social media efforts higher profile with the media.
• A content management system that enabled staff to manage content efficiently.