Originally published May 22, 2006 in MeetingNews
Online social networking, in which people form personal or business relationships through the Internet, is growing as a tool to generate greater value for attendees and exhibitors at in-person meetings.
Only a few groups, for example, deployed ExpoExchange's SmartEvent social networking application in 2004, when the event registration and lead-retrieval unit of Conferon Global Services introduced the Web-based software.
By comparison, about 40 groups deployed SmartEvent last year, and this year some 70 are signed up for the software, according to Bruce Harris, newly retired president of Conferon Global Services, the parent company of Frederick, Md.-based ExpoExchange.
"The best way to determine its success is whether people want it for a second year," said Harris, pointing out that all but one group have either renewed their contracts or continue to deploy SmartEvent on three- to five-year deals.
Most effective for meetings of 3,000 or more people, SmartEvent costs $25,000 to $100,000 annually, depending on the show size, he said.
Social networking applications that complement in-person meetings typically operate like a combination of Match.com, the online personal matchmaking service, and Amazon.com, which suggests products that might interest the user based on a keyword search. Users can anonymously contact people whose interests match theirs, sharing information online or scheduling face-to-face meetings during the convention or trade show.
"Attendees get greater value from an event any time they can schedule a meeting beforehand, and exhibitors get greater value when they can set up appointments with qualified buyers rather than standing at their booths," said Harris.
An early adopter of SmartEvent, the National Association of Broadcasters, agrees.
"It is a valuable tool that's the feedback we got from attendees and exhibitors who used the portal," said Justine McVaney, vice president of operations and customer relations for the Washington, D.C.-based organization.
Last year, about half the approximately 100,000 attendees and exhibitors at NAB's annual trade show made connections through the software, about double the number as the year before, according to McVaney.
"They can define a community for themselves within the larger show," said McVaney.
McVaney expected an even greater percentage of participants to sign up for SmartEvent for this year's show, scheduled in April in Las Vegas.
"I would love to see 80 to 90 percent of the people using it," she said.
With the increasing popularity of social networking, other companies have jumped into the fray, offering applications of their own specifically for meetings.
Leverage Software, of San Francisco, launched its EventConnect at the end of 2004. In its first full year of operation, the company claimed 100 customers and 200 events. Leverage founder and chief executive Mike Walsh projects that 400 groups holding more than 1,000 events will deploy EventConnect this year.
Past customers included high-tech superstars Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, and just last month for the first time, the Northern California Chapter of Meeting Professionals International, for its annual conference and trade show.
Walsh is so confident in the growth of social networking and his company's prospects that he increased the starting list price for EventConnect from $10,000 last year to $15,000 this year. That covers up to 5,000 users for four months of service. (Groups often deploy social networking applications for several months or year-round to maintain and build communities of interest related to the in-person meeting.)
"Social networking has really taken off," said Walsh. "Everybody we talk to is looking at implementing this type of solution."