Cisco Virtual wins Grand Ex Award

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Press Release: Cisco Virtual and Hybrid Events Take Top Honors with Grand Ex Award

Cisco Sweeps Global Event Awards Program With Virtual Events in Two Categories and Takes Top Honors Among All Global Brands with Grand Ex Award.

Chicago, IL – May 5, 2010 – Virtual Events emerged as a major force in marketing communications and business last night at the 8th Annual Event Marketers Ex Awards. Cisco swept the virtual event and hybrid event categories and was awarded the Grand Ex, beating out more than 600 other programs from such brand luminaries as Coca Cola, Ford, Motorola, Nike, Pepsi, Microsoft, and Audi. Both the Global Sales Experience (GSX) and Cisco Live were recognized for breaking new ground with virtual-only and live-virtual hybrid programs.

The Grand Ex award is the top honor of the night reserved for the highest scoring program across 30 event categories. “Not only was it the first hybrid event to win the Grand Ex prize, but this is also the first BtoB Event ever awarded this honor. It has always been dominated by the major consumer brands. This is a real breakthrough,” stated Dan Hanover, Publisher of Event Marketer Magazine and Host of the Ex Awards.

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Cisco Live & Networkers Virtual conference powered by InXpo.  (Image courtesy InXpo.)

“Cisco Live is a global strategic initiative and in 10 months has now become a thriving 365-day community with 40,000 members in the platform from 190 countries,” Kathy Doyle, Director, Global Cisco Live & Networkers Conferences indicated. The creative and technology resources behind Cisco for this effort included global experience marketing agency, George P. Johnson, who managed the physical event, and leading virtual platform provider, INXPO, delivered the virtual technology.

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The landing page for Cisco Global Sales Experience, which was powered by InXpo. (Image courtesy InXpo.)

In addition, Cisco’s all-virtual GSX event won for bringing together more than 19,000 sales executives for a multi-day, web-delivered combination of networking, education, competition and reward. “GSX demonstrates that it’s possible to deliver highly engaging web-based content and experiences that deliver results,” said Angie Smith, Manager, Global Sales Experience.

“This recognition represents a major shift in how organizations think about event marketing. It underscores the importance of combining digital and physical experiences in the future to extend the reach and improve the effectiveness of events.” elaborated Nancy Neipp, Senior Director Global Corporate Events.

The Ex Awards are hosted annually by Event Marketer Magazine to recognize excellence in event marketing and communications globally. This year’s entries included over 600 submissions from most major brands for events all over the world.

Visit www.ciscolive.com to view the award-winning live-virtual hybrid event.

About George P. Johnson
GPJ is a worldwide experience marketing agency that enables brand marketers to create great ideas and bring them to life through integrated live and online experiences and environments, helping them cut through marketplace noise, differentiate from the competition and create lasting relationships that directly impact the bottom line. Consistently ranked one of Advertising Age’s “Top 25 Marketing Agencies,” GPJ provides its services through 26 offices around the world. The agency’s clients won 37 awards in 2008 and five Ex Awards in 2009 alone, an unprecedented achievement in the event and experience marketing industry.

About InXpo Inc.
InXpo is the leading provider of privately branded virtual events and virtual business environments that connect, engage and educate audiences. The InXpo Platform delivers a full suite of applications including Virtual Trade Shows, Virtual Career Fairs, Virtual Events & Conferences, and Virtual Communities as well as Audio and Video Webcasts. These virtual solutions are transforming the web by dramatically reducing travel time and related costs, in addition to making the world a greener place to live.

InXpo enables organizations to cost-effectively communicate with their worldwide communities for lead generation, peer-to-peer networking, training, internal and external communications, as well as generate new online revenue opportunities. InXpo has delivered more than 1,000 successful virtual events and experiences for global customers and publishers including AAA, Cisco, Forbes, HIMSS, GE Healthcare, PennWell, SAP, TechTarget, UBM and Ziff Davis Enterprises. The company is headquartered in Chicago. For more information, visit http://www.inxpo.com

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