This is the third in a series of six interviews of CEOs of online community platform providers to the association industry, in conjunction with a white paper we're writing about them. The first two interviews are here. The white paper will be available for free download in the next few weeks.
CEO Interview - Chris Bucchere, The Social Collective
Tell us a bit about the history behind The Social Collective. How did you get where you are now?
I've been running a consulting company for over six years now and about twice a year, we invest some of our bench time and resources into building products. If the products don't generate any traction, we drop them. If they do, we put more resources into them. It's very much a "strategy" of throwing lots of spaghetti at the fridge and seeing what sticks.
The Social Collective came out of one of these experiments. We launched it at a 1000-person BEA conference in May of 2008 to rave reviews and outstanding usage statistics. We knew we were on to something when we saw how well it was received. I remember thinking that in five years, every conference will be running software like this. It's just a question of who can get the right product to market at the right time.
The Social Collective came out of one of these experiments. We launched it at a 1000-person BEA conference in May of 2008 to rave reviews and outstanding usage statistics. We knew we were on to something when we saw how well it was received. I remember thinking that in five years, every conference will be running software like this. It's just a question of who can get the right product to market at the right time.
We went on to do a handful of other small events, but our real breakout moment came when we launched My.SXSW on our platform in early February of 2009. SXSW, being on the bleeding edge of technology, gave us the street cred we needed to approach other events with confidence. We now have a very strong pipeline and some real marquee customers using our software and telling us that they're getting more registrations, generating more buzz and even saving money (on things like printing costs) by using our hosted software.In the summer of 2009, LaunchBox Digital -- a DC-based startup incubator -- invested in us and provided the leadership and guidance to attract other investors. Although we have not yet made a formal announcement of our funding status, we're making significant progress toward a seed round and participating in investor pitch days on the East and West coast in August.What's your vision for the company? Where are you going?
Quite simply, we want to be the hosted social networking, scheduling and vendor community platform in use by every major conference, tradeshow, festival and event in the world. We handle the large, high-end events with our "managed service" and we're also getting ready to launch a "self service" option whereby smaller events can set up their own sites without ever communicating with our support staff.
What makes The Social Collective's platform unique?
We're not in the business of loading up our product with tons of features. Instead, we're focused on the aspects of the software that address and solve real problems. Don't know who to meet at a conference? Import your Twitter and Facebook friends and search for other attendees by city, state, industry, title, etc. Don't know how to approach them? Send a quick online introduction using our Twitter-integrated messaging platform. Wondering how best to spend your time at an event? Build a customized schedule, view it on your smartphone (optimized) or sync it to your calendaring software and device of choice. Need to follow up with the great contacts you made? Download their vCards following the event. Need to attract and intice new event sponsors? Use our "Fan Pages" to create living, breathing communities of interest around your sponsor's products.
Every feature ties back directly to a value add for the conference organizer. Our argument is that -- for the cost of taking out an ad in a newspaper -- you can get social media credibility, generate year-round buzz, increase registrations, get your attendees to talk about you on social networks and attract more and higher quality sponsors.
How do you see your platform shaping the association industry? How does it change "business as usual" at the operational level?
The tools we're using have already been proven to work in a social context -- look at Facebook and Twitter -- and in a business context, e.g. LinkedIn. As I mentioned earlier, in five years, every event is going to be using these tools. Those that don't take the plunge will quickly become obsolete. If an association has outgrown the free toolset and is looking for a "social media in a box" strategy, The Social Collective is a great choice.
If you could use just three adjectives to describe The Social Collective, what would they be and why?
Exciting -- get the word out about your event and get people talking about you in social media
Cohesive -- transform your once-a-year IRL community into a buzzing hub of year-round marketing
Essential -- give your attendees the tools they need make your conference a must-attend event
Stay tuned for more CEO interviews, as well as more details about the white paper in due course.
Want more info on the Social Collective?
www.thesocialcollective.com
Want more info on the Social Collective?
www.thesocialcollective.com
Email: info@thesocialcollective.com
Call: 415.516.3941
Twitter: @nowgetsocial
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