Event Search + Calendar + Invitations + RSVP + Ad Tools for Events

In some comments on an earlier blog post, Brian Dear of EVDB makes the distinction between the purpose of EVDB vs the purpose of a calendaring application:

In EVDB, you pick the events you like, and you add them to your own calendars. We don't care what calendars you add them to. We have some simple calendar tools, but you're just as welcome to take the event or events and add them to iCal, Outlook, Trumba, Mulberry, Chandler, whatever.

This morn, I was reading Peter Brown's musings on CalendarHub and had a small epiphany. Peter starts to compare whether using upcoming.org or CalendarHub would be better for someone who wants to market their event.

CalendarHub handily beats out Upcoming.org as a use-it-everyday calendar application. Its group calendaring integration is pretty cool too. You can subscribe to another CalendarHub user's calendar, and see their event laid over your calendar (or not if you choose to filter). It also has a handy tagging feature that lets you filter your calendar events just like you do your delicious links.

So sharing calendars with people you know is one thing, and it is useful. I could see a club promoter, say, using this to specify her upcoming events and then sharing them out on her website or via RSS. One place it falls down however, compared to upcoming, is in making it easy to navigate events posted publicly by other users. If you want to allow others to haphazardly discover your events because their listed in an “even market-place”, upcoming is as yet the better bet.

And that's when I realized: All of these approaches are great. But, none of them alone is going to gain a critical mass of users or generate significant revenue.

That's when the epiphany came. Upcoming.org, Trumba, EVDB err Eventful, WhizSpark, Zvents, Send-o-Matic, Mollyguard, cvent, evite, socialweb, nTag, introNetworks, Ticketmaster, etc, etc... These can't be stand alone applications. Not if we want to create frictionless event publishing, promotion, search, find, discovery, registration, community, etc.

The whole chain needs to be integrated. From event planner to promoter(s) to sponsor(s) to advertiser(s) to attendees. We must figure out how to link:

Before. During. After.
Before. During. After.
Before. During. After.
Before. During. After.

An event is a very difficult thing to put together. Putting together an event is like  starting a business. Budget. Promotion. Planning. Fingers Crossed it all works.

Therefore, an event planner or promoter is never going to solely rely on one web calendar application, social networking website, event directory, event website, event invitation service or event search engine to market their event. In fact, most promoters post their event in 5 places or more, when they are posting them to the internet. Blogs, discussion forums, event directories, etc. So, comparing the usefulness of Upcoming.org vs CalendarHub for the purpose of event promotion (like Peter is doing) is like comparing the functionality of your left shoe vs your right shoe for the purpose of walking. Most likely, your going to use both.

BUT... what if the following was built into one service?

Event publishing. Advanced Event Publishing.
Aggregating content around events.
Event search engine.
Event directory.
Event  syndication.
Calendar sharing.
Calendar publishing.
Event invitations.
Event website.
Email Marketing for Events.
SMS promotion for events.
Online advertising tools and tracking for events.
Viral advertising for events.
Event registration. RSVPs
Event surveys.

And then I realized it wouldn't be too hard to put this all together. And I've even heard that some companies have even placed this kind of integration on their medium term roadmap.

That's when I thought I'd have a little fun. If all of these companies were simply building blocks, here's how I'd put them together. The dream team(s):

Upcoming.org + Blogdigger (for search) + CalendarHub + WhizSpark.

OR

Eventful + Trumba + Stun1 + Cvent.

OR

Socialweb + Planzo + Constant Contact + OnVantage.

OR

Evite + Ticketmaster + Citysearch + Barry?

I could probably continue. But, I think the point is driven home. We need integration across the chain.  Because of business interests, the likelihood of this happening through open standards is very low. So, expect to see some combinations.

Comments

[Nick Douglas]

I'd love to see combos like that. I'm still frustrated with every calendar and planning app out there.

[Chad Edge]

I have been repeating your above post for the last six years. The closest thing anyone has come up with even remotely close has been Microsoft's Connected Services Framework, but your article hits the arrow on the head.

I'm in a cold sweat now; I realize that my time to reach critical mass is growing shorter with every intelligent article (like the above) written.

Perhaps we can talk without me ranting and raving like a looney, or you feeling like I'm looking for advice [freebies]? I'm so damn nervous about opening my mouth around intelligent people since I'm sure I'll wake up one morning and see my co. all over the interweb.

[BillyWarhol]

one i saw that looked cool was Lovento

;))

[chasen]

I would like you'll to visit www.eventsBug.com and tell me what you'll think. Also, does anyone know how I can secure some investors?

Thanks in advance