I wanted to share some thoughts and takeaways from the Virtual Goods Summit I attended in SF on Friday. The journey to the conference was almost as exciting as the conference itself, but I'm excited I took the chance to explore a new and emerging area within the online world.
The conference broke down into 5 sections divided by topic and hosted by a panel of experts in the particular area. In case you're curious, here are the 5 different topics:
- What Users Want--Branded and User-Generated Virtual Goods
- Making Virtual Economies Work--Lessons from the Leaders
- Virtual Goods and Social Networks
- Breakout Sections (Metrics for Virtual Goods, Music as the Ultimate Virtual Good, Virtual Goods and the iPhone
- Generating Real Revenue from Virtual Goods.
I most enjoyed the Metrics for Virtual Goods breakout seminar hosted by Andrew Chen and Daniel James. They shared hard data from their business and demonstrated how important it is to not only measure data, but measure the RIGHT things. The two key pieces of data they determined were:
- Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
- Lifetime Value of Paying Users
I was impressed by learning about these two pieces of data and thinking about how they correlate with my ministry. I don't have paying customers in the same way as they do, but each student involved definitely produces something and has an average lifespan of involvement. I'm curious to explore what it would like to measure these two pieces of data in my field and see what kind of decisions I would make as a result.
I hope to spend this week in my blog talking about the different ways I see online social networking affecting Christianity, specifically in ministry and specifically in Campus Crusade for Christ. I would love your thoughts and comments as this is very much a new area with much undiscovered territory.