Web Sites: How to Make an Impression

If people still are scratching their heads, wondering what a show, company or association Web site should look like and how it should function, take a look at the Biotechnology Industry Organization's home site, www.bio.org, and its show site, www.bio2008.org. Even though the association site already is designed well, it's about to be upgraded. The show site is full of bells and whistles, especially when it comes to Web 2.0.

Tradeshow Week Senior Editor Rachel Wimberly spoke to Margaret Core, BIO's director of sales and marketing, about the strategy behind both sites and what it takes to keep them fresh.

Question: Who designed the BIO and show Web sites?

Answer: For the last two years, our event Web sites have been a team project – our marketing firm, Fixation Marketing, integrated the event theme and graphics. The Web development was handled by Balance Technology Group.

The BIO association Web site is currently a legacy Web site that has been in place for a while. A new site is currently under development.

Q: What was the most important aspect on the show site that you requested during the design process?

A: We focused on the user experience and evaluated easy navigation for the prospective attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and media to find the information they needed to attend our event.

Q: How have the two sites changed since they were launched?

A: We added more value-selling copy and information to the sites. We also have invested in adding and upgrading our networking tools. A major and unique feature of our event is the more than 12,000 30-minute partnering meetings scheduled for investors, emerging companies and pharma to meet and discuss potential licensing arrangements. We have added myBIO, powered by BDMetrics, as our personal event planner tool.

Q: What are all the Web 2.0 products you have tried so far? What's worked and what hasn't?

A: So far, we have used Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, blogs, Google maps, SlideShare, Flickr, FeedBurner, del.icio.us and RSS feeds. All these tools have been low-cost and easy to implement. LinkedIn has brought us 700-plus new prospects easily. Susan Cato joined us this year as director of online communications, and she brings a fresh perspective to 2.0 tools and is willing to try anything to add value and interactivity.

Q: How has Web 2.0 changed the dynamics of both sites' use by members or show attendees?

A: Since introducing many of these new tools in the past couple of years, our members are connecting and addressing their key business issues more efficiently. Specifically, myBIO has enabled our attendees to search exhibitors and industry topics in advance of attending the event. As well, they were able to connect with attendees and exhibitors before, during and after the event. Our goal is that our four-day event is a platform for 365 days a year of connections, leads and new ideas for both our attendees and members.

Q: Who provides the content?

A: Our content is written by our staff. We assign sections to staff so they own appropriate sections. The marketing team has the project management responsibility, and we often prompt content. We also ask industry publications to provide content for our “free stuff” section and contribute editorials and opinions on sessions. We build these into our publication barters. For our future sites, we hope to triple our user-based content and provide commenting tools and idea sharing.

During the show, we have an editorial team in the office who is organizing the industry bloggers and repurposing the content being generated onsite.

Q: Is there one dedicated person who manages the sites?

A: It takes a village. There are folks involved in strategy development, marketing, communications, content and the technology behind it all.

Within the conventions group, marketing owns the event site and taps internal information technology and communications staff in addition to external developers. We recently reconfigured responsibility so the director (of) online communications and director (of) IT manages the external developer.

Q: How much time is involved?

A: The time to manage the site varies throughout the year depending on how many months or weeks we are out from our event, whether we are implementing new tools or CMS (content management systems), and our specific goals for the site for the year. Generally, about 50 percent of the year it involves about 20 to 25 hours a week for internal marketing management and the other 50 percent of the year about 10 to 15 hours a week.

Q: How does the www.bio.org site serve members?

A: Our association site organizes business and policy issues and information for our members. We provide a variety of tools and content that is specifically for our members, all behind a password-protected area. Eventually, we hope to offer a member dashboard, where members can view and track their involvement with us, manage subscriptions and other information.