Posted Tuesday, September 8, 2009 by Brett Weigl

Today's technology allows event attendees to connect with each other and with meeting planners and event organizers in new and interesting ways. Through the use of online services like Twitter , Facebook , and LinkedIn , attendees can form bonds, schedule one-on-one meetings, and keep tabs on each others' responses before, during, and after the event.

On Twitter, event attendees are beginning to narrate their experiences at conferences, market their services by sharing links relevant to the subject matter of meetings and sessions, and let meeting planners, hoteliers, and others know about the quality of their experiences.

At NBTA 2009, I posted a negative review of the room service at my hotel on Twitter (which otherwise was a fine place to stay), and had an apology from the hotel within an hour (also on Twitter). What a heads-up use of social networking tools: kudos to the Westgate Hotel .

Providing a place for all this event-related content to live and breathe is going to be more and more crucial to meeting success as we get deeper into the social networking age. On Thursday, September 10 at 10 a.m. Pacific, Certain will hold a webinar entitled "Enhancing the Attendee Experience Using Social Media".

Our special guest for this webinar will be Jordan Schwartz, CEO of Pathable . Pathable specializes in creating social communities for events. We'll go over leading technologies in this emerging area, give you tips and tricks for using social media around your events, and show you how online registration can lead seamlessly into a rich social networking experience for your event attendees.