PROVO, UT--(Marketwired - Jun 19, 2013) - InsideSales.com, the leading provider of cloud-based sales automation technology for inside sales professionals, is creating a seismic shift in best practices for trade shows and seminars . Tomorrow the company will host the Inside Sales Virtual Summit from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. MDT with 62 presenters, including keynotes from Guy Kawasaki, Jeffrey Gitomer, Matt Dixon and Josh James. There is no cost for registration.
"We did our research and decided to go for the opportunity to create value for the inside sales world," said Ken Krogue, Founder and president of InsideSales.com. "Imagining the summit was simple; making it work has been a 24/7 effort, all in less than 3 weeks."
Registrations are being taken even during the event right up to the last keynote!
This is the challenge the two founders Krogue and CEO Dave Elkington and their company are facing this week, and if they succeed, perhaps live conferences will become a thing of the past. The savings in facilities, travel, catering, booths, printing, computer/internet and labor are clearly a great idea. Krogue, also a Forbes.com weekly contributor, wrote about the unique changes in best practices where waiting until the last minute is actually a benefit. And with no need to worry about locking down travel arrangements and expensive meeting venues, these virtual events are becoming pretty appealing to companies needing results.
The team wanted the top sales minds in the world to present. They scoped out 62 and decided it would be great to set a record for a virtual sales trade show. Guinness told them a mere 11,000 participants would do. The event is scheduled for June 20 to avoid the end of the month. And the major keynote is scheduled for lunchtime. Technology, clout and dominoes are all that is needed.
Technology Is Only Half the Battle
The technology side of the equation is accomplished by combining webinar software with technology from virtual trade show company ON24. Thousands, or tens of thousands of people, can register and attend the event from their home or office, visit online trade show "booths," watch presentations, network, chat, talk to company representatives and even hang out with their favorite authors and experts in a Google hangout chat at the end of the day.
It Helps to Have Klout
Think of the advantages of getting the King of Social Media Guy Kawasaki to put his personal network to work on a program's behalf. Some 4,483,646 people have Kawasaki in their Google+ circles. 1,322,903 people follow him on Twitter. His Klout score: 88. On Facebook, 294,738 people follow Kawasaki.
As the bestselling author of The Art of the Start , Rules for Revolutionaries , Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions (among other works), the former chief evangelist for Apple has nothing to prove.
Why does Kawasaki love this idea?
"From a speaker's standpoint, not having to get on an airplane is everything. And if you think about it, when you go to a large conference, best case, you're going to see the person's slides every once in awhile and get a glimpse here and there of the speaker's face on a screen. So you might as well be online, right? And to offer 61 speakers of this caliber in the space of a day... So you know I love this idea," remarked Kawasaki.
The 'Domino' Method
How did InsideSales.com, a small business in Provo, get so much industry support on so little notice? Pleasant persistence and employing the "domino" method -- first, secure everyone else, then the collective list makes it progressively easier to get the rest to agree:
- Matt Dixon, co-author of The Challenger Sale;
- Mike Bosworth, author of Solution Selling;
- Jeffrey Gitomer, author of Little Red Book of Selling;
- Josh James, CEO of Domo;
- Jill Konrath, author of SNAP Selling;
- Bob Perkins, CEO of the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals;
- Executives from Accenture, LinkedIn, Marketo, Eloqua, Act-On, HubSpot, Hoopla, Xactly, DocuSign.
For anyone who misses the live feed or who has too much difficulty deciding among the seven simultaneous speakers in some of the slots, the company is preparing to make the majority of the content, slides, audio and video available within 90 minutes of the sessions. And there's another aggressive goal afoot to convert the content in each session into an ebook within the space of two weeks.
About InsideSales.com, Inc.
InsideSales.com is the global leader in cloud-based sales automation and predictive analytics for inside sales professionals. They were first to combine dialer technology into a CRM tool. Their PowerDialer for Salesforce 5.0 has been one of the most popular applications on the salesforce.com AppExchange for 5 years. The company was recently recognized #9 by Inc. Magazine for employee growth in Utah and #347 Fastest Growing Companies on Deloitte's 2012 Technology Fast 500. The company was named Service Provider of the Year for the 2 nd time by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP). Enterprise customers include Dell, Gannett Local, Inc., Marketo, ON24, Re/Max Cornerstone, Seagate, Groupon and more. To test-drive the technology, visit www.insidesales.com/ .
Press Contact: Jordan Karpowitz 801-615-1639 Email Contact
