New Program Offers Digital Event Certification
The first educational program formally training and certifying event marketers, meeting and learning professionals, trade show and conference managers as digital strategists is being launched by The Virtual Edge Institute in June at the PCMA Education Conference in Baltimore. According to Market Research Media, virtual will be an $18.6 billion industry between 2010 and 2015. Virtual Edge says its Digital Event Strategist Certification program will help organizations take advantage of this new market opportunity.
“The industry has been growing leaps and bounds over the past few years, yet there has been no step-by-step approach to help organizations understand how digital environments fit into their larger marketing, events, learning and community strategies,” said Michael Doyle, executive director. “With our training and certification program, we are helping them to gain the real-world knowledge and skills they need to strategically incorporate online into their businesses.”
Developed by VEI, the program is designed to increase meeting and event professionals’ virtual expertise, enhance the value, status and credibility of digital engagement within the industry, and advance uniform standards of practice.
“Corporations and associations across the board are increasingly using virtual events as marketing and sales tools to provide education and share information,” said Kati Quigley, director of Event Marketing at Microsoft. “A certification program designed to train those that put these events together will be invaluable and couldn’t be better timed.”
The certification program will focus on hands-on workshops and sessions delivered on an ongoing basis at various industry events and in online venues. Subjects include: Creating a Digital Engagement Strategy; Mapping Digital Solution to Existing and New Programs; Developing a Digital Engagement Playbook; Audience Acquisition Strategies; Virtual Vendor Selection and Evaluation; Monetization Strategies; and Content Development Certification will be awarded to those who complete the training sessions and pass a written exam. virtualedgeinstitute.com.
