Percona Live 2021: Fighting Virtual Event Fatigue
The challenge: In May 2021, Percona’s highly anticipated open-source conference, Percona Live, returned, but in a virtual format due to the ongoing global pandemic. Percona enlisted onebite to manage media relations and create content for this eagerly awaited event. The rationale: With virtual conferences becoming increasingly common, it was crucial to consider potential fatigue among attendees. The focus was on generating excitement and interest among the press and influencers. The execution: In the lead-up to the conference, which took place on May 12, 2021, onebite crafted and distributed a series of targeted press releases that featured keynote speakers, major topics, and product announcements to boost awareness and drive registrations. The event-related announcements were complemented by insights from Percona's annual State of Open-Source survey. By emphasizing significant news from the conference and crafting compelling narratives from the survey, Percona successfully participated in critical industry conversations during the event. Additionally, onebite identified more content opportunities by connecting with key industry figures and journalists. Collaboration with open-source influencer Eddie Jaoude led to the creation of pre-event video content, while respected tech journalist Jennifer Riggins provided live tweets from the conference. There was also a media partnership with Computer Weekly, which included social media promotion and featured a Percona eBook on their site. The results: The media coverage was exceptional, with 11 leading industry publications reporting stories from the State of Open-Source survey, along with an additional 24 pieces of coverage from Percona Live, resulting in an impressive combined reach of over 70 million readers.