[arin-discuss] Legacy RSA

[Bill Darte]

"Marketing" is a complicated issue.

The ppml has for years hosted comments about how limited a number of industry individuals are aware of ARIN, its role and the relevancy (directly or indirectly) of policies adopted. "Outreach" has been called for and ARIN has undertaken some of its outreach in response.

Measuring value by the number of ARIN trinkets distributed or the number of business cards collected is an attempt at being objective in its assessment of value, but it is more complicated than that.

Simple exposure is an important beginning to greater stakeholder involvement. Most large organizations do some form of awareness marketing and the benefits of these activities are very hard to measure.  One could argue that sponsorship of sporting events by organizations like Anheuser-Busch are 'junkets' for their corporate attendees, but a huge market share may indicate true value.  Yet ask anyone at a NASCAR event whether they drink Bud because of that sponsorship and the answer is likely to be NO.

It is hard enough to get people who are direct stakeholders(with allocations or assignments) of ARIN to participate let alone other's who are less directly involved but have an great impact upon the effectiveness of policy or those in the supply or consumer chain of these entities.

If more people are aware of ARIN and its role, then they will determine for themselves whether they should become involved.  Clearly those participating in the tradeshows have trouble getting attendees to stop and become engaged in the message then they will no longer visit that show.  It's common sense.

Anyone who has ever stood on hard concrete all day(s) at a tradeshow hawking a product or service know that it is a hard job and one they would prefer not to do without much success.  Having done so in various jobs and capacities in times past, the word 'junket' doesn't come to mind when I am reminded.

Any exposure that proves effective in engaging a larger stakeholder base in the policy development process is a good thing.  Certainly one may question the ROI of each endeavor and I am confident the professionals at ARIN do so much more effectively by their presence than we might by reviewing the 'numbers' they may collect and distribute.

Bill Darte
Washington University in St. Louis
ARIN AC





Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

Attendance at a tradeshow to further the technical understanding of the
Internet is fine.  However, if no "furthering of the technical
understanding"
is taking place, then attendance at such a show is a waste of time and
money.

The effacy of ARIN's attendance at any of these trade shows - like VON - is
a
metric that is EASILY measured.  I already suggested some of the ways to do
it
- such as taking down names, or taking business cards, etc. AT THE SHOW.

If the metrics for attendance at a particular show do NOT bear out the
requirement of the charter that education of the Internet community is
taking place, then ARIN should not continue attending the show in the
future.
There are plenty of other shows out there to attend.

Dean is arguing about ARIN's attendance at a specific show - VON.  Too
many responders on this list seem to be responding to an assertion that
ALL tradeshow attendance by ARIN is bad.  This was not the assertion that
Dean made.

As I already mentioned, management review at ARIN should have occurred
after attendance at VON, to determine if the show was money well spent.
If such review has NOT occurred then I would encourage ARIN's board members
to request that ARIN's managers do it.  If such review DID occur then
perhaps we could have the conclusion of the management team posted here
as to whether the VON show attendance was worthwhile or not.

Ted

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