Focus

Connect with the world's leading business experts.

Get instant access to their expertise via world–class Q&A, Research, and Events.

Dennis Shiao

Follow Following Unfollow

Director of Product Marketing, INXPO

665 points

I'm Director of Product Marketing at INXPO and author of the book “Generate Sales Leads With Virtual Events.” At INXPO, I'm responsible for go-to-market strategy and execution, and for shaping product and platform evolution via the “voice of ...

I'm Director of Product Marketing at INXPO and author of the book “Generate Sales Leads With Virtual Events.” At INXPO, I'm responsible for go-to-market strategy and execution, and for shaping product and platform evolution via the “voice of the customer”.

I've provided strategic consulting to clients on their virtual events and have managed virtual event campaigns for Cisco, HP, Oracle and Microsoft, among others. I blog about virtual events and virtual worlds at “It’s All Virtual” and am a frequent author and speaker. I can be found on Twitter at @dshiao.

» read more » read less

WEB: Blog

Dec. 4, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 9 other people answered this question at this roundtable

B2B Marketing: The Year in Review and Predictions for 2012 [12/13 @ 1 pm]

What did b2b marketers learn in 2011?

1. The world has gone mobile.
Tablets have become a primary computing device. Over time, we'll all be consuming B2B content from a tablet or smartphone (NOT a desktop or laptop). If your B2B content is not formatted for consumption on mobile, you lose.
2. ... more

Content Marketing

Nov. 16, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 8 other people answered this question at this roundtable

Successful Tactics in B2B Demand Generation [11/11 @ 11 am]

Why do webinars work so well with today's busy prospects?

Every single B2B buyer is also a consumer.
Deliver compelling content to consumers and they'll go out of their way to view it. We'll wait in line for 60 minutes, so that we can sit in an uncomfortable seat for the 162 minutes of "Avatar."
While I ... more

Demand Generation

Nov. 16, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 7 other people answered this question

What are the unwritten rules to a successful webinar?

In simple terms, my Top 5 Tips would be:
1) Be an engaging host.
2) Formulate content to match the precise needs of your audience.
3) Interact with your audience.
4) Q&A and interactions should consume more time than slides.
5) Reference (and thank) individual viewers/commenters by name.
Hope that helps. more

Customer Service

Channel Management

Nov. 16, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 2 other people answered this question

How is the virtual trade show market trending right now?

You're probably not seeing them because they're happening in B2B markets outside of your realm (ha ha ;-).
To tie two components of your question together, I do see two trends:
1) Growth in adoption from B2B industries beyond technology;
2) Use of hybrid trade shows, whereby a ... more

Nov. 10, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 8 other people answered this question

Who's more influential?: A popular blogger with lots of Twitter followers or a Gartner analyst?

The Gartner analyst has more influence, because corporations pay his company for his insights and analysis. The blogger, on the other hand, has more Klout ;-) more

Influencer Marketing

Nov. 7, 2011

Dennis Shiao is now following Adam Arthur and 11 other people

Aug. 30, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 3 other people answered this question

What's the benefit of doing a live virtual event vs. a pre-recorded virtual event?

Let's consider the assorted options for delivering webinars:
1) Live, presented truly live.
Some attendees prefer webinars to be "truly live", as they know there's a presenter on the other end who's speaking to them in real time. For presenters, presenting "truly live" affords opportunities to engage ... more

Event Marketing

Aug. 17, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 2 other people answered this question

What are the best ways to get your audience to participate during your virtual or hybrid event?

For a hybrid event, hire a virtual emcee. The role of the virtual emcee is to serve as the "connective tissue" between the on-site and digital audiences. The emcee is stationed at the on-site (physical) event, so that s/he can give digital viewers a "taste" ... more

Event Marketing

July 29, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 3 other people answered this question

Do you attend a brand's virtual event to decide if you'll attend their live event/trade show?

I can't answer this based on personal experience (especially since I live and breathe virtual events ;-), but I can reference an example. And that's Cisco Live, the annual customer conference from Cisco.
Cisco Live found that users to their virtual extension (some of whom have ... more

July 28, 2011

Dennis Shiao answered this question

What qualifies as a virtual event?

Laura: yeah, whether it's a satellite feed providing the "transport" or the World Wide Web, I think that both scenarios qualify as "virtual events." more

Event Marketing

July 27, 2011

Dennis Shiao answered this question

What are some of the biggest myths surrounding virtual events?

Here are common myths that I hear and try to dispel ;-)
1) "VIRTUAL EVENTS WILL CANNIBALIZE PHYSICAL EVENTS"
Quite the contrary - virtual events, as digital extensions to physical events, can broaden the overall reach of the "event" (combined) and, serve as a great marketing tool ... more

Event Marketing

July 15, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 3 other people answered this question

How do you select someone to write the foreword to your business book?

Disclosure: I asked Craig Rosenberg (who asked this question) to write the Foreword to my book. Thankfully, Craig said "yes."
So my real-world example: my book is about lead generation using virtual events. I had more confidence in my expertise on virtual events than on lead ... more

General Management

July 15, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 3 other people answered this question

What are your tips and tactics for promoting your business book?

Here's my Top 10 List:
1) Create a Facebook Page for the book. Before you do this, however, be sure you're prepared for the care and feeding required. It's kind of like having a child. OK, not that intense, but you get the point, I think.
2) ... more

General Management

Public Relations

July 15, 2011

Dennis Shiao recommends this answer by Ardath Albee

What are the pros and cons of self-publishing a book versus using a conventional book publisher?

Here are a few off the top - your mileage will vary based on which publishing house you choose or that chooses you:
Self Publishing:
Pros: Speed to Market, Higher Royalties, More Editorial Control
Cons: You pay to publish, Less clout or credibility than a conventional publisher, add ... more

June 15, 2011

Dennis Shiao answered this question

What is the most effective method to generate exploration meetings during a tradeshow?

Dustin: can you elaborate on what an exploration meeting is? Thanks.

Event Marketing

June 15, 2011

Debbie Laskey MBA selected a best answer for

How do you re-engage your audience when a webinar starts to fall flat?

Due to the constraints of a webinar, i.e., speakers cannot see their audience, it is difficult to determine if, and at what point, attendees lose interest, so what can speakers do - and at what point during a webinar - to add pizazz to the ... more

Presentation Delivery

May 28, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 1 other person answered this question

Who invented Twitter hashtags?

We can thank Chris Messina (@chrismessina), who lists this claim to fame in his Twitter profile: http://twitter.com/#!/chrismessina. This GigaOM article provides additional details: http://gigaom.com/2010/04/30/the-short-and-illustrious-history-of-twitter-has... more

May 28, 2011

Dennis Shiao and 3 other people answered this question

What's on your summer business book reading list?

I'm starting off summer with The Next Evolution Of Marketing ("Connect with your customers by marketing with meaning"), by Bob Gilbreath, Chief Marketing Strategist at Bridge Worldwide.
http://www.amazon.com/Next-Evolution-Marketing-Connect-Customers/dp/0071625364/ more

Marketing Professionals

Following 8 Topics

Event Marketing

Focusmarketingrt

Following 23 People

Followed by 32 People

Knowledgeable in 53 Topics

#23 of 2755

#2 of 58

#1 of 44

#6 of 338

General Management

#51 of 1194

Events and Trade Shows

#2 of 36

Virtual Trade Shows

#2 of 20

#141 of 1982

Event Marketing

#3 of 47

#53 of 437

#2 of 51

#52 of 418

#1 of 28

Demand Generation

#19 of 158

Content Marketing

#31 of 202

#5 of 33

#11 of 64

Information Technology

#371 of 2263

#211 of 1211

#21 of 130

#23 of 111

#54 of 314

#5 of 29

#470 of 1411

Marketing Strategy

#50 of 135

User Experience

#6 of 30

Market Research

#63 of 205

#51 of 132

#8 of 25

#7 of 24

Focusmarketingrt

#6 of 34

#25 of 54

#156 of 391

Marketing Automation

#320 of 497

#49 of 56

#136 of 180

#66 of 117

Lead Management

#147 of 223

#85 of 102

#138 of 168

#9 of 20

#25 of 33

#8 of 21

Inbound Marketing

#76 of 97

#64 of 118

Return on Investment

#24 of 44

Sales Enablement

#117 of 140

#22 of 44

Sales and Marketing Alignment

#71 of 123

Lead Generation

#89 of 188

#33 of 40

Demand Generation Strategy

#21 of 31

#25 of 27