By way of Small Business Labs blog, I discovered that Unisfair published findings from a survey in which they asked 100 marketing professionals where they plan to spend money in 2010. Take a look at the chart below for some key findings:

Chart courtesy of MarketingCharts.com

Almost half surveyed said that they plan to do more with virtual events in order to generate leads and retain customers. I’m happy to this see that virtual events made it to the list as it shows that marketing professionals are more savvy about the marketing power of this strategy.

On the flip side, it is troubling that virtual events didn’t score higher. I echo Steve’s sentiment about this:

I was a bit surprised the use of virtual events didn’t score higher.  They are easy and cheap to do and can be very effective.  Lack of virtual event knowledge and experience seems to be the key barriers to increased use.