Discussions on developing a “Buyers Guide” began in early 1997 through a series
of e-mail discussions between Rey Whetten, Gary McGuire, Howard Patton, Joe
Greene, Bill Rogers, Donna Bakale, and Peter Sheldon. At the time, a number of
other organizations were in the process of developing on-line guides and it was
clear that we needed to act soon or lose an important opportunity. On July 28,
1997, following a Long-Range Planning Committee meeting, AVS President Jerry
Woodall sent an e-mail establishing a committee that was to develop an on-line
buyers guide. The subject line of this communication read, “Let’s get rollin’
on the buyers guide project.” The last sentence read “Please try to get this
thing online by Sept. 1 [1997!].” Roughly one month to design, implement, and
beta-test a new site with more than 200 vendor listings and a fully functional
reference guide. After several phone calls, we settled on October 1, 1997, as a
launch date (prior to the AVS National Symposium). The committee was composed
of Peter Sheldon (Chair), Howard Patton, Bill Rogers, and Rey Whetten.
Although this marked the official start of the Buyers Guide, there were several events that helped lead to the evolution of the guide. In the Fall of 1994, the AVS successfully initiated an experiment to offer JVST on CD-ROM, with a goal of reducing the number of copies of JVST printed. Although this had many advantages, it had one disadvantage: it reduced the value of advertising in JVST to many of our vendors (fewer paper copies in circulation). This was of concern to the Publication Committee because we wanted to maintain the revenue stream from JVST advertising. In an effort to reduce the impact on our advertisers of the growing number of CD-ROM subscriptions, Pete Sheldon (a member of the Publication Committee at the time) took on the task of developing a Web-based and CD-linkable site that listed all JVST advertisers. This Web site was called “The MarketPlace” and listed nearly 25 companies. Although this was a valuable first step, its usage was limited due to the relatively small number of companies listed (simply stated, it lacked critical mass).
These two events set the stage for the Buyers Guide project. With less than two months to develop a completely new Web site, we had to move quickly. With the support of Bill Rogers (Publication Committee Chair), we agreed that the Publication Committee would cover the development costs and that the Publication Committee budget would benefit from any revenue that the Guide might generate. We contracted with the American Institute of Physics (AIP) Internet Publishing Group and quickly began designing the Buyers Guide. We agreed on the following set of six key goals for the Buyers Guide:
• Develop a plan
that would ensure that we have more than 200 vendors listed in the Guide the day
we launch it (address the critical mass issue);
• Make it “THE” place to go for vacuum-related information (ensure that
users have a reason to visit the site);
• Provide a value-added service to AVS exhibitors and JVST advertisers;
• Develop a business model that would integrate JVST advertising and
Exhibits marketing efforts;
• Make it financially self supporting; and
• Offer opportunities for expansion.
Without the support of the Northern California Chapter, it would have been impossible to meet these goals and the aggressive timetable set by Jerry Woodall. The Northern California Chapter had been publishing a Vendor Directory for many years that included both vendors and an excellent vacuum reference guide. Thanks to the enthusiastic support of Howard Patton, Pete Biltoft, and other Northern California Chapter members, we were able to use their reference guide as a base to develop an interactive, on-line reference guide in less than one month. This was a critical element, because we felt that it was necessary to attract people to the site thereby increasing our user base. At the same time, we were hard at work helping AIP develop a user interface for the Buyers Guide. The Guide was designed with a database-driven back-end that dynamically constructed pageviews based on search information provided by the user. To meet our goals of integrating JVST advertising and Exhibit marketing, as well as addressing the critical mass issue, we offered any vendor that exhibited at the AVS national symposium a free basic listing in the Guide, and we offered any JVST advertiser a free listing and the ability to include a company logo with a link to their company site. Others had to pay for these services.
On September 12, 1997, a beta-version of the Buyers Guide was launched for testing. The site had two major components: a “Buyers Guide” and a “Reference Guide.” The Buyers Guide was a fully searchable database of vendor products and services that could be sorted by product category or keyword. It provides a year round showcase for vendors and a resource to vacuum technologists. The Reference Guide was an interactive on-line resource for the vacuum technologist, providing a full range of tools, including conversion calculators, vapor-pressure tables, optical emission spectra, working-pressure ranges of vacuum pumps, and gauges, and a glossary. On October 1, 1997, the site went live with more than 250 vendors listed. In the first month, the site had 274 visitors, which grew to almost 1700 within three months. By January of 1998, we had vendors that were paying for additional value added services and the guide had recovered 87% of the initial development costs. The Buyers Guide was self supporting within the first 18 months of operation.
Over the following two years, the Buyers Guide and Reference Guide underwent two major updates in an effort to keep the Guide dynamic and to increase its value to vendors and users. For example, the Reference Guide was expanded, and several new products were added to the Buyers Guide including a “Featured Product” option and Banner advertising. By December of 2000, the Buyers Guide was attracting nearly 7000 visitors per month. In early 2001, the Buyers Guide was handed over to Robert Childs as Chair and was transferred from the direction of the Publication Committee to the Exhibitors and Manufacturers Committee chaired by Charles Bryson.