iPhone or content?
The “experiment” is on. They’re giving away free iPhones to attendees of Office 2.0 Conference. But does anybody care?
At last year’s Office 2.0 Conference, they gave out iPod Nanos to every attendee. What made it cool was that it was unexpected. It was a complete surprise. As people walked into the conference, they received a conference packet that included the iPods. Each iPod had been pre-programmed with the conference schedule, list of speakers, and sponsors’literature. That was a great example of taking a risk, thinking differently, and creating buzz.
What I appreciated about the iPod giveaway, too, was that it was not a gimmick to get people to attend the conference. Instead, the pre-marketing for the event was entirely focused on the content and quality of the topic. I believe over 300 people had attended and they pulled a profit; not bad.
Shouldn’t the focus be on the product and customers first, with marketing being a distant second or third? If you build a great conference, customers will gladly pay to attend and then spread the word afterwards. And they’re more likely to pony up again next year, too.
So I wonder if the strategy at the 2007 Office 2.0 Conference — pre-announcing the iPhone and building all the marketing around it — is backwards? Are they spending too much time marketing iPhones to really focus on the product—the speakers, panels, topics, food, networking, and all the other detail that goes into building a successful event?
I had met Ismael at last year’s event. He’s passionate about the topic and technology, and he’s an exceptionally nice and courteous person. He also refers on his blog to the iPhone giveaway as an “experiment.” I hope to see the published results 
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TANSTAAFL. iPhones and Playstations don’t appear from nowhere, therefore a substantial chunk of the $1500-$1700 registration fee must be going into this ‘experiment’. Which reminds me of those old AOL adverts that promised you 90 FREE hours… for your $9.95 monthly fee.
Of course, Office 2.0 know that in most cases it’s the company that foots the registration bill, so it’s either a case of keeping the iPhone quiet, or just laughing and thinking “Ooh, I get to buy an iPhone on my department’s budget!”
Which presumably makes the iPhone a taxable fringe benefit, but that’s another story.
If I was self-employed and wanted to attend, though, I’d be demanding a discount. It’s really unfair on people who want to attend on their own steam to require they pay for new expensive hardware.
It’s all a total rort, really.
Perhaps they’re trying to piggyback on all the mania surrounding the iphone release? (Please, they probably are, otherwise we wouldn’t even be talking about this, so in some perverse way, they’ve started this side conversation……urk).
It would be interesting to see if they use the iPhone to do interesting things for participants at the conference, like sending SMS messages or special emails/posts, whatever.
Or, perhaps, some of the speakers will address disruptive technologies like the iPhone as they continue to invade the staid world of corporate IT. I know some guys who still resent the introduction of the PC to the corporate LAN, lol. (exaggerating of course, but you know what I mean)
and then I see, lol, that the conference already occurred and I look like a prat. oh well.