Thank you Robert Scoble! Robert is Microsoft's technical evangelist for Longhorn (the next version of Windows), a photography buff and a blogger extraordinaire at Scobleizer.
Early this morning Robert posted an item in Scobleizer about how "to make a ton [of money] in the conference business."
Robert says...
"OK, want to make a ton in the conference business? Here's something to do:
"Put on a Camera Phone Conference. Require that all attendees must have their camera phones. Get AT&T Wireless or some cell phone carriers to sponsor it.
"Sell phones outside. Just in case someone doesn't have a cell phone yet.
"Inside have all sorts of fun things to take pictures of. Yes, naked people. Have you ever been to a Consumer Electronics Show? They have an entire "porn industry" hall. No one will ever admit that's why they go to the CES, but my brother and I went to a CES in the 80s and it was hard to get into the porn hall.
"Have sports figures. Movie stars. Big-name CEOs. Line up to take your picture. Have someone there to run the camera phone for you.
"Then, hire Alan Reiter to run a series of conference sessions and panel discussions. Instead of putting a microphone in the audience, have people call in on their phones.
"Have all the big players there. Nokia. Microsoft. Motorola. Etc.
"Who knows? Certainly couldn't do much worse than the enterprise-focused shows I've been a part of."
Camera phone conference suggestions
Robert has some good ideas. I have a few, too.
* Offer a conference-wide moblog, such as Microsoft did at its Professional Developers Conference and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association did at its Wireless I.T & Entertainment 2003 conference (and I had a little bit of a hand in it).
* Offer moblogs to all attendees
* Lease for a modest fee or offer free camera phones to all attendees -- just the way WiFi cards are offered (with a credit card as a guarantee) with service (free or not) at conferences.
* Educate users about moblogs. Hint: Sometimes a picture is not worth a thousand words!
* Provide information about how to best use camera phones. (I am just about finished with an eBook that offers camera phone tips for people who are new to camera phones and digital photography in general.)
Not "getting" camera phones
For more than a year I've been beating on the doors of trade associations and conference companies to develop camera phone conferences or present camera phone panels, with or without my direction. (I'm a wireless data consultant, but I also create conferences, tutorials and workshops.) Many conference groups don't "get" camera phones.
The digital photography associations have been especially slow to understand the ramifications of camera phones and how they will capture a significant share of the digital camera business in certain market segments. However, the associations (some at least) are, finally, beginning to understand that their members had better understand the worldwide camera phone ecosystem.
Frankly, if you're in the digital photography business and you don't understand the ramifications of camera phones, you might not remain in business.
Even the wireless industry -- which is indeed enthusiatic about camera phones -- isn't doing a good job of promoting camera phone applications. Indeed, it has been doing just about nothing to promote the business applications or to educate consumers about the myriad of ways camera phones can be used.
Need more information
If you want to create a public or private corporate camera phone event (I created the world's first cellular conference and first wireless data conference as well as conducting detailed camera phone tutorials), send me an e-mail.
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