jFor the last 17 years I have been involved in live events in some form or another, from concerts to sports events and even some corporate meetings. Regardless if it’s U2, the Superbowl or Microsoft Company Meeting people will never stop loving the live event. And no matter how fast the Internet becomes or how much you can view or download at one time the live event will never disappear. Now you may think I’m nuts, but the live event can mean many things to many people. For some it’s going out to eat, for others it’s shopping at the mall, but for me, and the purposes of this blog, it’s the rock concert. It may be a question of analogue versus digital, but that is really a discussion for another time.

The first large concert that I was involved in was a European festival called Dynamo Open Air. I was there with a band that none of you would know, let alone remember. I was 19 years old, impressionable and extremely naive. I had talked myself into a position of mixing the sound for this unnamed band at a festival with an average attendance of one hundred thousand kids, a far cry from the clubs of my hometown of Austin Texas.I remember standing behind the large mixing console looking out at a sea of screaming kids as the band began to play their thunderous songs. The crowd immediately began to move to the beat of the songs like a giant single organism focused and intent on one thing. As the band finished their set the organism at once leapt into and furry of applause and preceded to purchase the band’s merchandise.

Now I doubt that many of the audience ever knew of this band, but by the end of their set you can sure bet that everyone did. Seventeen years later, and more events than I can count, it still amazes me how much power music has to move people.

In the 1969’s Woodstock created a revolution that changed the world and brought needed attention to the Vietnam War, in 1985 Willie Nelson and some other famous friends created Farm Aid to raise awareness about the loss of family farms. Also in 1985 Bob Geldolf created Live Aid to raise awareness for famine relief in Ethiopia.

In the nineties Kevin Lyman created The Vans Warped tour and Sharon and Ozzy Osborne created Ozzfest, both of which are traveling festival style tours designed around a life style.

What all of these live events have in common is their ability to focus and drive attention and not just any kind of attention, but extremely attentive and driven attention. The attention that Geldolf or Nelson brought to a humanitarian cause or the attention that Lyman or Osborne brought to products is extremely beneficial to the recipients. It is those on the receiving end that have the potential for the most gain.

In the decade or so since Vans has been a part of the Warped tour they have grown from what was perceived as a mom and pop shoe line relegated to specialty skate shops to a national chain with presence in practically every mall in North America and at this very moment you can bet that a corporate company like Microsoft is organizing another live event for their partners, affiliates or employees.

I have been involved with Microsoft for over five years now and I traveled around the world for two years on The Warped Tour and I was amazed at the number of live events both entities continued to present every year until I realized the power they both captivated over people.

Much like the unknown band above, Microsoft, Warped tour or Farm Aid, will put on live events to drive attention towards their products. And weather it is a humanitarian cause or a skate-shoe the producers of these events have learned that live events and the Rock Star can create spikes of focused and energy.

And isn’t this what we all want for our products?