With over 10,000 members from all over the world, Event Planning and Management is one of the fastest growing groups on Linkedin. The group is designed to promote discussion, sharing of ideas & networking by professionals in all areas of the event planning industry. The group provides an opportunity for members to:

- Share their experience and best practices
- Ask questions
- Ask for opinions
- Post job offers
- Share and discuss articles and news stories
- Discuss current trends in the event planning industry
- Anyone involved in event planning or interested in an event planning career is welcome.

So What’s New?

Number of Members: 10,369
Member of the Week: Mr. MW Savant, CEO of savvyplanners.com™
New Members: 100+
Newest Member: Gloria Lombardo , National Account Manager at The Pohly Company
New discussions: 71
New news articles: 18
Most active thread of the Week: ·What responsibility do event planners have to provide healthy food and beverage menu options at events? – 23 Comments (Posted by Anne Thornley-Brown)

Hot Topics:
This has been a very busy week with active participation from some members we don’t hear from often. We’ve woven a theme about catering for events and explored a range of related topics including:

Services that Pick up Leftovers After Events and Distribute Them to Shelters and the Homeless http://tinyurl.com/surplusfoodforcharity  – 14 comments  (Issue was raised by MW Savant)
Meals, Refreshments and Menu Options for Event Staff http://tinyurl.com/eventcrewmeals  – 15 comments (Issue was raised by Richard Hughes)

Other active topics include:
Can any one suggest what kind of events I can organize in and around the airport? – 13 comments (Posted by Roohi Arshad)

Breaking Topics:
Would you pay for a Standing ticket on a flight? (Posted by Tarun Marwah)
How To Accident-Proof Your Event (Posted by Jeff Cason)

Latest News Stories:
- Social Media; Event Marketing Part IV: Video, Pictures, Presentations (posted by John Gibb as part of an excellent series that he has been presenting)
- Are You Maximizing Linkedin Groups? (Posted by Chad Rothschild)
- When Will the Meetings Market Turn? (from PlannerWire)

Jobs Postings:  9 job postings. Locations: include New York, Miami, London, Las Vegas and India

Check out the Group here

Last week I had the chance to attend the first Xing event held in London. Definitely great fun and spot on.

Xing has been advertising heavily in London lately. You could see the ad below pretty much everywhere on the tube.

Image by edmittance via Flickr

As an active networker, I checked it out and was definitely impressed. The interface is much better than Linkedin and it serves the networking purpose in greater detail (Wants/Haves section).

I was also happy to receive almost two years of premium membership for free just inviting my network to join (you get a month every 10 new sign ups).

What got me hooked up with Xing is the focus on events. They have a large, dedicated section and they feature Xing official events. Now you know I run a Meetup called Linked in London. I’d have been much happier if Linkedin did it for me, but my emails never got a reply.

To demonstrate the difference in the approach, Xing has an ambassador program which empowers top local users to carry events and evangelise on the territory. The major concern of Linkedin, on the other hand, appears to be cashing in the premium membership, although they recently replied to a post in this blog and possibly things are changing.

Going back to the event, it was very packed. They announced 75% turn up rate which is impressive, considering that the event was free and we all know how though is to get people to show when there’s no money involved.

Food was great, free drinks and several goodies. Now this is what I am talking about.

What Xing understood very well is that online networking is a tool to network better offline. And they delivered a great event to do so.

I also had the chance to chat with Liz, UK and Ireland BDM who was very nice and welcoming.

I definitely suggest you get a profile there and join our Events 2.0 Group!

Linkedin yesterday introduced a new event section, here are the first impressions

If you use Linkedin and follow me on twitter, you know I have been talking about Linkedin introducing http://events.linkedin.com thanks to Brian pointing that out.

Up until yesterday nobody knew what the section was for. Linkedin is very popular within the community for not talking to users but just announcing changes in a oligarchic style. This was no exception.

So what happens is that yesterday I saw magically appearing on the right hand side of the screen an “Events” widget.

No news here as if you are on Xing they have a super cool event section as well as an ambassador program with Xing official events (1st in UK on Nov 25, 2008 in London)

I started to add the events for the Linkedin Event Planning & Management Group as well as ecoCamp and an online free seminar I am running on how to improve your career using Linkedin.

The RSVP section is also an highlight. You can point out whether you are presenting, exhibiting, attending or organizing.

In your My Events section you have some stats about the events you are running.

The event section is very well done. You have extensive tag area, a description and you can highlight the job roles interested in the event. When I added ecoCampLondon which has an RSVP in place on EventBrite the system automatically filled in the fields which is a great thing.

There is a promotional section where you can forward the event to your connections. What a disappointment to discover you can send it to a maximum of 10 connections, may work for a pub crawl though.

In the Browse Events Section they talk about Premium Event Opportunities. At the moement you can just send an email, which I did obviously with no reply (why not a messenger pigeon then?)

My first impressions in the end are mixed.

On one hand I welcome the long awaited change. It took Linkedin 3 years to realize events are a huge chunk of online networking.

On the other hand, I am simply getting tired of Linkedin not getting in touch with its user base. I expected they got in touch with our/their community of almost 4000 event professionals to get feedback on how to develop the service.

What’s your opinion? Have you tried the service?

I’ll also ping Jason Alba, a Linkedin guru, to tell us his experience and thoughts.

If you are experiencing the negative impact of the economic crisis or you find very difficult to keep up with new technologies this post will help you in keeping up.

I am not sure if you are aware but there is a community of event professionals which is facing new economic and technology challenges brilliantly. I talk to them over twitter, I see them interacting in the Linkedin Discussions, I meet them at free networking events or at BarCamps. They save money using free software, the cut budgets promoting on social networks the maximise satisfaction by integrating new technologies.

There are few easy steps to keep yourself ahead of the game and be up to date with what is going on with Event Planning 2.0. I’ll be happy to assist you in this and you will notice most of the first steps involve me. Nonetehelss, as soon as you’ll join, you will find like minded people willing to help, possibly in your area and with great expertise.

1. Join the Linkedin Events Group and add me as a direct contact there.

Get in touch with me, send me messages and participate to discussions.

You cannot afford to be shy or to just read. Get active.

I’ll be soon hosting a free webinar on how to get a better job using Linkedin, followed by an online speed networking session. You should not miss that! All the info in the Linkedin Events group discussions.

2. Join the group networking events in your area.

Upcoming Events include:

Subscribe to Spicy Networking for more information

3. Join twitter and add me as a contact.

Most of the people I follow on twitter know how things should be made. Feel free to bulk add them. If I am not following you on twitter send a message saying ” @tojulius I am following you! ”

4. Attend a BarCamp

You will find a complete list at the official website.

If you are in London I am organizing ecoCampLondon and will be attending MediaCampLondon. It’s usually free so come and say hi.

You will learn a lot on new trends in events and how you can empower attendees.

5. Join Xing and add me to your network

Xing is very similar to Linkedin. I am planning to develop few projects there as well so as for Linkedin, start being active.

Enjoy it!

Many people lately have been asking me to promote their events on social networks. My response to most of them is this post.

Social Media and social networks now offer great potential to cut costs on event promotions. Social media and social networks are just buzzwords to gain your attention.

Well now that I do have your attention I’ll tell you how to do it.

1. Linkedin Q&A

Linkedin has a Q&A section. A lot of marketers are using it to push their own conference/event or to get sponsors. Most of the people ask “Who is attending eventname ?”.

Then in the description they will go for paragraphs stating how the conference is going to be great and how you can’t  miss it. I did it myself. Results were appalling and I felt pretty idiot about it.

My suggestions;

- Be engaging in the question. If Frank Sinatra is performing, be catchy and ask “Would you like to meet Frank Sinatra?”.

- Target the need of attendees. If you don’t have great performers or if your objective is different, you want to make sure to be relevant. “Would you like to network with top professionals?” “Come and join us for an entertaining night at eventname”

- Offer something. Announcing is cool, but what’s in it for me reading? Promo codes, discounts, competitions should be part of this process. If you are restating your press release just use different media, it’s not gonna work here.

- Forward the question to those in your network from the event area or within the relevant industry. If you have a small Linkedin network you may want to read this post.

2. Blogs

You probably haven’t noticed that there are plenty of bloggers out there who offer promo codes on their blogs. It’s probably the oldest model to promote events and web 2.0 has revamped it.

How do you get to bloggers?

- Make sure you do your research and contact opinion leaders.

- Double check that they are already doing it. If they don’t do advertising (such as me), they won’t be happy of your pitches.

- Try to understand the point of view of the blogger, display interest for his/her posts and do your homework.

- Be relevant with the reward. Money is not necessary the best way to reward opinionated people.

- Check the Google Page Rank to optimize indexing

3. Mobiles

Hey I am sure you have some advertising budget there. I mean it can’t always be for free.

If so, a little bird told me that iPhone users are great targets.

- AdMob is doing great in integrating advertising in most of the iPhone applications. It is very relevant and personal.

- I also love the way The Deck is integrating ads in Twitterrific, a popular iPhone application for Twitter.

If money is not an option:

- I suggest you publish your event on Eventful. Eventful does integrate with applications such as Where! that displays events close to you, based on your GPS location. GPS is the social networking of the near future and you cannot afford to ignore it.

4. Upcoming

I can’t believe you don’t know Upcoming!

If you are still using direct mail to promote your events, it will proove ineffective shortly.

Upcoming is a strong candidate to become the platform where you publish your events. Eventful is great, but Upcoming has the Yahoo! power to push events socially and make them relevant for a number of people.

- Publishing your event on Upcoming comes at no cost and a 9yrs old kid is completely capable of doing it.

- You can promote your event within Groups and by choosing relevant tags.

- You can also see how many people saved the event to their calendar to manage demand.

5. Facebook

Ok, you know I am not the biggest fan of Facebook, but I feel very stupid ignoring 90+ Million users. Your target should be somewhere in that figure!

- You have an event section on your Facebook profile, as always don’t be lazy and fill it up in every part. Upload logos, pics and videos from previous or related events.

- The social component is very important. As for the Linkedin example I suggest you send the event to your friends and invite them to spread the word. Now, I am aware a lot of people use Facebook for their personal contacts. I have no particular issue with that, although you are missing out on the gigantic proportion of people doing business via Facebook.

I suggest you keep your personal life somewhere else if you want to be out there and get something out of social networks. My approach is to keep my personal stuff offline, full stop.

If you feel all of the above is not enough, feel free to contact me and we’ll discuss it further. If you have your opinion about it, as always, comments are now open!

On Tuesday, I hosted the first Linked in London meetup.

Great individuals, in a relaxed atmosphere talking about their business and networking.

This juicy practice has been stripped away from us planners, possibly we deprived ourselves of it.

Charging enormous amount of money for events like this and relegating networking to the coffee break made us feel like we were doing something illegal.

That is why probably most of us went on the Internet to get in touch with others.

The Linkedin Event Planning & Management Group has decided to bring back networking to the planners.

Next events include:

- 17 September San Francisco

- 30 September Austin

- 30 September Geneva

- 14 October Denver

Coming Up

Atlanta
Brussels
Boston
Chicago
Montecarlo
Dublin
Orange County – L.A.
NYC
Philadelphia
Seattle

All the events will come under the Spicy Networking Logo. (Thanks to Fabio Cannillo for the fast, reliable and professional design and Carmen and Domenico for the precious insights)

This logo confirms you are actually attending a free and user generated event.

Spicy Networking will collect all scheduled events, pics and so forth.

I can feel and read your excitement in the emails I am getting as I write.

The time has come, let’s claim back our right to meet!

Photo by: originalgoast

Iphone is a great tool for event managers.

It can actually perform productive work on the internet unlike most of other mobiles out there. I was using a Blackberry before but made the switch and I am being rewarded every day for that.

Iphone apps contribute to make it a better tool. There are free applications which will make you more productive, social and efficient, which are qualities we all share but in constant need of improvement.

But let’s see.

1. Evernote

The service in itself is great. Whenever you stumble upon something you need to remember you just save it to this small app. Being it a text, voice, saved or live pic. You’ll then be able to see it on your phone as well as on your online account, therefore on your main laptop.

2. Checklist

If we are talking about to do’s in the next hours or so, you want to check out this application. Very easy to use and simple, and we love simplicity.

3. Zoho

This is not an app, but the iphone version of the popular suite. Youcan actually create, view and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations from your phone. If you are using a spreadsheet say for budget, you definitely want to sync it with Zoho and later consult it or edit it from your phone. Google Docs is a good solution for that as well, but without the editing capabilities.

4. Writing Pad

Great to note down vital information when you do not have the time to tap every single letter of it.

5. Linkedin

Because you want to have your contacts handy all the time and want to network with similar minded people. More on how to use it here.

Photo by: psd

This blog started as a hobby in April 2007. At the time there were very few blogs about the subject. A year and a half later I find myself with a new job thanks to this blog and I am very happy to share that with you.

Without the thousands of readers and the popularity of the community built around the blog none of this would have been possible and the biggest ‘thank you’ goes to You reading this post.

Long story short, I got in touch with the great guys at amiando and I am now in charge of supporting the product, both online and in the UK. I would have never worked for a product that I do not believe in and amiando really nailed the issues with event platforms, firstly by listening to its customers.

What does that mean for the blog? Nothing much.

This blog remains advertising free. I’ll be talking about amiando when there will be a reason to do so and with the usual tone.

I invited you in the past to join the Linkedin Event Planning and Management Group. Most of the merit of this achievement goes to the group. I strongly invite you to join as there are other opportunities out there and in time of recession you definitely want to find new ways to improve your career or your business.

If you want to meet me to discuss further the matter, I’ll host a networking event called ‘Linked in London‘ where top professionals from Linkedin will participate, come along and mention this post, we’ll have a chat.

Thank you

Julius