Conferize: Lots of Connecting Implications
When was the last time a client asked you to list or book a conference? If you are in the public relations realm chances are good that you need to know a lot about conference schedules, and maybe even the “who’s who” of who is going to be there. This point of PR pain is where Conferize can really lend a helping hand.
Conferize, which launched at DEMO, is something I have wanted to test for quite a while. The startup, aimed at solving for all things conference related, was founded by Danish entrepreneur Martin Ferro-Thomsen. The service makes it easy to track attendees of conferences, monitor social talk about, and even stores data users may want to access about a vast array of conferences worldwide. But the “system” is actually a lot more powerful than it appears.
Signup for Conferize is ultra slick. One, two, three and just about everyone you know online can be looped into your Conferize stream of things. List interests, grab LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and gmail pals, and head on our on your journey of conference discovery. Starting off is just that simple.
What the user ends up with after initial signup is a very useful dashboard/home page that integrates who you know with conferences you may be interested in. The visual and interactive result looks a bit like a news feed of clickable events and peeps, as you can see in the screen below.
Users can submit conferences, discover people, find speakers, investigate conference events, and in general intermingle within the context of about any conference community from tech to food. All the back channel chat, trend, and investigative potential aside it’s the search that will interest most users of Conferize. The bottom line there is, it’s superb! A lot, lot, lot better than Google.
A client asked me just the other day to compile a list of relevant conferences to either attend or sponsor. Using Google or any other search engine known to mankind, or even events websites out there now, there’s no way to equal the utility Conferize offers. I have seldom been so impressed. Perhaps the frustration of finding events elsewhere has given me a jaded perspective?
Interestingly, Conferize is still in Alpha Testing phase? Back channel communication, media outreach, business development wise, Conferize has some powerful implications the wise PR pro should take a look at. That’s my assessment so far. More as the service goes into beta etc.
