In case you haven’t noticed, social networking is a movement, and where Tunisia and Egypt are concerned, it sparked an actual revolution. In the meetings industry, the experimentation with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and LinkedIn is training our attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, media and nearly everyone in the event ecosystem to expect MORE—more content, more information, more engagement—before, during, after, online, and offline. In response, developers have come up with some interesting ideas to help event planners expand their notion of “social networking” beyond online platforms.

If IAEE’s annual meeting and trade show (Expo! Expo!) were any indication, 2010 was the year that the industry “woke up” to the possibilities of mobile. A full house session on mobile apps, a printed and online guide for buyers, and a show floor chock full of developers were the tip offs.

It’s no secret that advances in technology have rocked the event world. From mobile apps to virtual trade shows to social networks—not to mention gaming, geo-location, and cloud computing—tech is driving major innovation. But somewhere in the bowels of this business, there is another movement afoot. Open source platforms—free applications that are built by an individual but evolved communally by sharing the source code with other programmers and enthusiasts —could be the next big thing in trade shows, conferences, and meetings.

At the risk of seeming like a Rick Calvert Groupie (I’ve already written about BlogWorld twice at TSNN.com: The “Networked Beat” Approach to Curating Event Communities and The Day That Banners Died: BlogWorld and the QR Code Trip), I’m going to take yet another shot at it. Earlier this month, I was able to attend the MTO Summit in Washington, DC where Rick Calvert, co-founder of BlogWorld and New Media Expo, gave a presentation on affiliate marketing for trade shows and conferences. He has used the techniques he described at his own event with impressive results. For all of those event organizers still unsure about the value of cultivating a strong community, this post should make you sit up straight in your chair.

Of all of the urges, predilections, and addictions that social media has spawned, the most obvious is the “need for speed.” Where information is concerned, we want it now, we want it continuously updated, and we want to get it wherever we are. Trade show and conference attendees are no different than regular folk—the info consuming public. In fact, their time is at a premium on the trade show floor and the printed show/conference schedule is going the way of the dodo. What to do? Enter startup company, Triqle Event Intelligence, based in Amsterdam.

Hybrid events (live events with a virtual audience) are becoming more popular. Tools to live stream content, platforms to handle Q & A, and remote attendees comfortable with Twitter are commonplace. However, bringing all of the virtual channels together into one “room” is still a little clunky. Plus, finding virtual events that weren’t previously on your radar is nearly impossible. A start-up out of Sydney, Australia is working to streamline the search and simplify the access to virtual events.

The MeetingTechOnline Buyer’s Guide to Mobile Apps for professional event organizers and corporate meeting planners has just been released and will be available (in print) at the MTO Summit in November.

March’s MTO Summit in Chicago still has me thinking about some of the interesting perspectives that were shared during the conference. Here are some of the ideas that made me sit up a little straighter in my chair. Mobile Apps Event organizers aren’t necessarily interested in the new sponsorship opportunities (too many already) available with [...]

This Thursday, March 25 at 9:30 a.m. CDT, I will be moderating a panel at the MTO Summit in Chicago on mobile apps for events. I was initially thinking that the discussion might center primarily around applications that bring the traditional attendee “needs” to life on a Smartphone but recent product releases pairing social networking [...]

Remember the days when you attended a trade show with a hard copy of the show program and a highlighter? Drawing a pink line over the exhibitors you wanted to visit or the sessions you wanted to attend was almost a ritual—a cathartic process to help you feel productive. Then, everything went online and so [...]

Reviewing event technology options can be both invigorating and exhausting. The good news is that there are many different online and mobile productivity tools available for social networking, bookmarking, scheduling, mapping, messaging, lead retrieval and polling. The bad news is there are so many different tools available. If social networking is hot, mobile apps are [...]

Between the Avatar in 3D movie craze and the 3D televisions rolled out during the Consumer Electronic Show, “3D” may be the acronym of the year for 2010. Since virtual events are a hot ticket in the event industry this year, it makes sense to take a closer look at 3D virtual events to see [...]

You may not remember “For the Love of Money” by the O’Jays from listening to your own records, your parent’s or watching Soul Train on TV, but that’s what the quest for social media ROI reminds me of. Once the business model for social media provided event organizers with new revenue streams, it suddenly became [...]

A posting by David Berkowitz on the Social Media Insider blog caught my attention. It contains some interesting suggestions and observations from a conference attendee and meetings industry outsider. I especially like his suggestions about putting speakers’ twitter handles on the screen while they present and treating bloggers like press (selfish I know). However, I was a [...]