Social Media & Events

• Even tinvitations offer convenience and help to organize and inform
• Event search engines aide in finding physical social networks 
• Virtual events evolve from the information being readily available online
• Public event planning needs a combination of multiple forms of social media in order to be successful.

Event Invitation Sites such as Evite (estimates over 25,000 invitations sent each hour on their site alone. )and Pingg  provide customization of "design", save on stamps ($) and trees (greener solution). They help the planner organize and possibly divide responsibility for the event. Recipients of these invitations are able to see who was invited, who is going, and have the option of other information the internet provides, such as venue information, directions, gift registries, etc.

Then sites like EventMingle were created to even further aide guests to prepare for certain events. EventMingle, for example, is designed for tradeshows to "meet, interact, & engage prior to events" This site allows the user to view company and individual profiles, communicate with fellow attendees, plan their schedules in advance, and even customize a walking map through the event space.

With all this information already on the internet, why waste the time and money to go to a physical event at all? This similar thought led to the creation of virtual events, where individuals can create a custom advatar and interact with others in virtual space created specifically for their purpose. Sites like On24 and Unisfair cater to the business world, offering solutions for conferences and conventions, while Second life is much more socially based and events vary depending on interests.

To pull off a successful public event these days takes more than an invitation. Other social media such as facebook, twitter, linkedin, youtube, flickr, google maps, etc, must be utilized in combination with one another before, after and even during the event to generate enough interest these days.

for more event information check out the Event Manager Blog