30,000+ attendees are expected to attend the IBM Think conference in San Francisco next week, and TrustRadius is along for the ride! This is the first year that IBM is capitalizing on their event to capture meaningful content from their customers. For large enterprises like IBM, touchpoints like live events are a  vital source for reviews and user-generated content that is otherwise difficult to procure. It is shaping up to be an exciting event and we hope to see you there!

IBM knows the value of authentic customer stories, and IBM’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Michelle Peluso, said it best when she said,

“[IBM] relentlessly thinks about every aspect of the customer journey.  We also try to keep a challenger mindset as we know that things are changing so fast. We always have to be willing to challenge the status quo and challenge what we used to do.”

If you’ll be coming to #IBMTHINK, be on the lookout for our TrustRadius Ambassadors, who will be on site on behalf of IBM to hear from you, their customer. We’ll be asking users of a variety of IBM products to provide us with detailed insights into how they use the product, features they like or dislike, and how the product stacks up against competitors. To sweeten the deal, we’re offering an Amazon gift card to product users who write an in-depth review on our site.

You’ll also be able to find us at booth #107 in the Security Campus, and make sure to follow @TrustRadius for other conference events we will be attending.

Why events are important in your review strategy

In a world riddled with professional sales pitches and biased information, business buyers are looking for a more honest source of information – but we don’t need to tell you that! The new norm for B2B buying lies in customer-sourced advocacy and unbiased content, and customer events are a great place for you to get that content.

These events are a hotbed for your most experienced, engaged product users, and if you’re not taking advantage of your events to gather great content, then you’re missing out!

In this post-GDPR world, it’s a not only a winning strategy, but a necessary one if you want your content to stack up against the growing number of companies of all sizes that are taking advantage of their customer events to drive large numbers of authentic customer reviews.

What were some highlights in 2018?

Our team has attended many events over the last few years, but 2018 was truly a success. Here are some highlights from EMS Live and Oracle OpenWorld, two of our most successful events that we attended in order to drive reviews.

EMS Live:

600+ attendees. Denver, Colorado. October 2018. 

Accruent: 1000+ employees in 11 countries.

Global software company Accruent acquired EMS Software in 2018 and leveraged the EMS Live event to drive new content for their brand. We had 250+ of their customers raise their hands to be included in their customer reference program, and 125+ of those people wrote full reviews for them. This is a great example of how a company can gather fresh content from their users to re-enforce their changing brand narrative.

Oracle OpenWorld:

60,000 attendees. San Francisco, California. November 2018

Oracle: 430,000 customers in 175 countries.

We’ve been attending Oracle OpenWorld for a couple of years now, and this year we collected 6,000+ ratings from 2,000+ customers, as well as 120+ in-depth reviews across a range of their products. This was a great opportunity to connect with both their local and international audiences and gather a rich content library to leverage as a part their sales and marketing toolbelts.

–

The B2B buyer journey has changed, and we as vendors must change with it or risk becoming ignored and obsolete by buyers who demand to hear the candid voice of real customers. Companies including Adobe, SAP, ScienceLogic, Cisco, Marketo, IBM, and Oracle are making big plans with us for their 2019 events. Are you?