Expo! Expo! To Feature Blogs

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 7/25/2005

As the worldwide proliferation of weblogs continues, should show organizers make a contribution to the kazillions of words filling the blogosphere?

Blogs were a feature of IDG World Expo's Syndicate and Wireless Sensing Solutions. Now, the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management will feature blogs for this year's Expo! Expo!

Meetings industry consultant Corbin Ball calls blogs "a very inexpensive way to provide a lot of value."

MediaLive Intl., producer of Interop and other technology events, was one of the first to add blogs to its show Web sites. And Alan Meckler, CEO of technology event producer Jupitermedia, has been posting his unedited thoughts to the company Web site for the past two years.

"The blog creates an extension of the marketplace for everybody," said FuelDog senior partner Ted Doyle, whose company will help to produce the IAEM blog.

Doyle described magazines as vehicles for in-depth critical thinking, Web sites as marketing brochures, and blogs as "what we're thinking about right now."

Blogs also lend themselves to sponsorship opportunities, according to Doyle, although the jury's still out on whether that can make up for the investment.