{"id":288,"date":"2007-05-17T05:18:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-17T12:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulgillin.com\/2007\/05\/events-that-cios-actually-love.html"},"modified":"2007-05-17T05:18:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-17T12:18:00","slug":"events-that-cios-actually-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/events-that-cios-actually-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Events that CIOs actually love"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past few months, I\u2019ve been working with a company that has quietly pulled off a major coup in the corporate events business. You\u2019ve probably never heard of Evanta, and that\u2019s just fine with them. What you will be hearing more about \u2013 particularly in you\u2019re in tech marketing – is the CIO Executive Summits<\/a>. <\/o:p> <\/p>\n

The Summits are a series of regional, one-day events that attract the top chief information officers (CIOs) in the country for a day of speeches, networking and camaraderie. They are without a doubt the best IT events I have ever attended (and I\u2019ve attended hundreds). Marketers and publishers could learn a lot from what Evanta is doing.<\/p>\n

Tech publishers have been trying to create successful, sustainable conferences for CIOs for two decades. Their efforts have mostly failed. Believe me; I\u2019ve been involved in several of those failures. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Evanta, in contrast, is not only attracting the right people, but it\u2019s got them actively involved with and enthusiastic about the events. Case in point: last week in New York<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>, more than 300 CIOs showed up for the tri-state event<\/a> and only 275 were pre-registered. <\/i>Think about that, event marketers: in a business in which 50% attrition is considered normal, this company is getting negative attrition<\/i>. <\/p>\n

I just got back from Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>, where more than 150 CIOs packed the conference<\/a> held in the Georgetown<\/st1:PlaceName> University<\/st1:PlaceType> Conference<\/st1:PlaceName> Center<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place>. I was privileged to moderate a panel that included the CIOs from the FBI and CIA. The CIO of the Department of Justice had gone on just before us. The CIOs of the State Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (the most important national security body in the U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>) were in the audience. The CIO of the American Red Cross gave the closing keynote. It goes on an on. Look at the agenda<\/a>. And there will be 18 events just like the two I mentioned in 2007. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The proceedings are off the record, so I can\u2019t talk about what was said at either event. However, I will point out a few reasons why I believe Evanta is experiencing this phenomenal success:<\/p>\n

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