Welcome to the world of the unexpected where restaurants, stores, and classrooms pop up overnight with the spontaneity of a pimple on prom night. While impromptu conference sessions have yet to appear in the traditional conference setting, there are signs that instant gatherings of like-minded people tipped off by the lightning fast transmission of messages over social media channels could be coming to a conference near you.

Rather than run towards the exits with brains on fire fearing the cannibalization or elimination of live events by virtual platforms, it’s time to take stock of the real opportunities that virtual event platforms offer to stimulate live attendance and grow face-to-face events.

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.

In the future, says Dannette Veale, global manager of the Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual event, there will be no more live vs. virtual discussions. The two experiences will overlap so completely that what we now perceive as two separate environments glued together through some “hybrid” sleight of hand, will merge into a single seamless stream of content, entertainment, and engagement that can be accessed from either end of the physical to virtual spectrum.

Whether you are an exhibitor trying to navigate the new medium of virtual trade shows or a corporation using virtual platforms to enlarge the opening to your sales funnel, Dennis Shiao’s new book, “Generate Sales Leads with Virtual Events” and his upcoming presentation at the Virtual Edge Summit can help. As with any new environment—the Antarctic, third world countries, and the Moon—you have to take the surroundings into account. Much of what Shiao advocates is straightforward advice that will work in any scenario. However, paying respect, as he does, to the disruption in normalcy that occurs in a virtual setting is the key to having success with it.

It’s true. If you’re a professional membership association, your best bet in the pleasure dispensing department is to try to please most of the people at least some of the time. Despite the odds, Kevin Novak is working hard to take it to the next level using hybrid events to hit the educational and member benefit sweet spot that most association executives dream about. At the Virtual Edge Summit next week in Las Vegas, Novak, vice president integrated web strategy and technology of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), will talk about how a false sense of security led to a “shellacking” in his virtual attendance numbers and how his team regrouped after the dip.

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.

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.

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 [...]

The MTO Summit, October 21-22 in San Francisco was the hub for discussions on event industry technology. Much of the discussion focused on social media and social networking applications and integration. Two interesting technology providers, Fantail Consulting and The Social Collective were on hand to offer new perspectives and solutions for social media pains. Michael [...]

When the National Speakers Association (NSA) considered social networking platforms to enhance their 2009 Convention, they compared private and public options. Platform features, cost and attendee preferences were among the top considerations. The main goal for NSA was to build community. “Community is a huge part of our organization. We look for ways to learn [...]

I’ve been seeing a pattern for a while and some recent tidbits that I’ve stumbled across confirm my suspicions. Social media has changed the way we WANT to consume product/company/event information–from long diatribes about a company’s product to short and sweet bursts of flavorful info that spark an idea. Twitter is the prime example. Natch! [...]

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 [...]