Last week, we coordinated all PR and analyst relations activities for ARIS ProcessWorld 2007 presented by our client, IDS Scheer.

This conference started out as a typical user conference in 2002 and has emerged as one of the premier thought leadership events for business process management (BPM). In parallel with the growth of the event and concept of BPM, so too have our PR efforts scaled accordingly. In 2003, we had one reporter -- Jim Ericson who was with Line56.com at the time and now at BI Review. Jim holds the distinction of attending every ProcessWorld to date.

Last week in Amelia Island, Florida, we sent four Springboard account professionals to support the 19 press and analysts in attendance. BPM blogger extraordinaire Sandy Kemsley from eBizq.net captured all details of the conference in her 16 blog entries from the show – if you read her blog, you will feel as though you were actually at ProcessWorld.

The theme for the conference was “Accelerating Innovation and Growth with Open BPM.” I will not attempt to dive into the topic in this blog. However, the theme can be easily applied to the coordination of public relations activities at a trade show or conference. The concept of adaptability, agility and really “thinking on your feet” is paramount.

We basically divided up the press list among our team, and like casino hosts, were responsible for ensuring all reporters/analysts optimized their ProcessWorld experience, were able to connect with IDS Scheer executives, attend the invitation-only roundtable, meet with customers and partners, and have fun during the process.

To survive the rigors of a conference, you need to really keep yourself sharp in order to be able to quickly respond to the inevitable last minute changes. As an example, we were in an interview at the conference and a reporter asked one of our executives about a new partnership. In the middle of the interview, I sprinted to the Partner Pavilion and pulled the partner in question into the interview and he performed brilliantly leading to a glowing article in eWeek.

There were more instances like this one including an editor request for the ProcessWorld presentations on a USB stick drive. To stay agile at a conference, the key takeaway for PR pros to thrive in this atmosphere is respond quickly, assess your resources, leverage the strengthts of your team, accommodate the press and provide the best client service possible.

In the end, you will serve the needs of your client (“Thanks SPR – our press and analyst activities were outstanding this year. Congrats…..” Markit Klein-Smith, Head of Corporate Marketing, IDS Scheer) and may get nice kudos from the press. And a personal thank you to my Springboard colleagues Mark, Dom and Kelly for really hitting it out of the park – you made IDS Scheer and the press/analysts proud.

Len, thanks for the link! It was a great conference, and all of you at Springboard did a wonderful job at your part of the organization.

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