I currently run global marketing for an enterprise software business. When I started this job 3 years ago, we used to have two major user group meetings per year. One was in the US and the other in Europe, and they both took place in November. Attendance in both was around 150 people. These meetings were typical in that we had a few executive presentations, some customer presentations and a whole lot of product presentations. Frankly, the meetings had settled into a predictive rut and were becoming boring. Nobody expected big surprises and nobody got them!
In an effort to stir things, we have instituted the following changes this year:
- We now invite prospects to the meetings so that they can mix with current customers
- We allow industry analysts to attend these meetings and give them access to everything
- The presentations have more of a solution focus rather than a product focus
- We have changed the timing to have the meetings in the May/June time frame, taking advantage of the fact that budgets are unlikely to be used up this early
- Registration fee structure has been changed to encourage multiple attendees from same company: 1 for$995, 3 for $1995. 5 for $2495
These changes will go into effect next year, so stay tuned for the results.
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