Let’s face it, the Facebook revolution is upon us. According to statistics on its website (www.facebook.com/press.php), Facebook is a “social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers.” They report more than 150 million active users, half of whom are outside of college.
Validating my own observations, today the fastest growing demographic is those 30 years old and older. And unlike many smaller online social networks, Facebook has a highly active user base. The average user has 100 friends on the site, more than 3 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide), more than 13 million users update their statuses at least once each day, and more than 3 million users become fans of Pages or group members each day.
A quick Facebook search shows up a generous helping of seemingly relevant groups that serious-minded, networking-hungry meetings industry professionals can join. Among the many dozens of options are examples for individual businesses (Black Ty Limousine), CVBs (Sarawak Convention Bureau), geographical consortia (Chicago Meeting and Event Professionals) and industry trade associations (PCMA, MPI, ASAE).
These official and unofficial virtual business niches are mostly collections of Facebook profiles bonded together within the group, but, as it appears, do little else. There is hardly any activity at any of them, and most of what is there is either posted by the group owner, blatant self promotions or severely mundane yammering (like much of the rest of Facebook).
It is remarkable, however, that there are 109 results for a group search on “meeting planners,” indicating a communal need to band together for some level of professional bonding. However, based upon the severe lack of UGC (user-generated content) within these groups, there is a clear gap between the need for online social networking and the right idea to technologically enable it. This is where i-Meet enters the picture.
i-Meet (www.i-meet.com) was founded by John Pino, a meetings industry technology visionary best known for creating Starcite (www.starcite.com), which has become the “leading online solution to strategically manage meetings and events.” Pino recognizes the growing trend toward universal acceptance of online social networks, but points out that there is a real need to be able to separate “friends” into appropriate categories, such as personal and professional.
“Is there a friend you have on Facebook who shouldn’t be there? I know there is on mine,” Pino says.
Furthermore, the most successful technologies are those that support existing behaviors and activities in the physical world, making the case for separation of business, friend, family and special interest relationships.
Pino senses that Facebook is for social relationships, but lacks the professional components, and Linked-in is for professionals, but is limited in flexibility and capability. I-Meet is intended as a social network of meetings industry professionals, a place where they can connect, learn and do business together, all of which reflect what planners and suppliers strive to do in the physical world. In my view, this validates the concept of i-Meet.
Pino recognizes the hefty need for bonafide stickiness, so his vision is to create a virtual community where professionals can connect in meaningful ways, and on a regular basis. To accomplish this, i-Meet developers are putting a great deal of their resources into two important features, the Skills Marketplace and the RFI (Request for Information).
The Skills Marketplace allows industry professionals to go in and find a job, and to be found by those who are looking for qualified staff for a specific program or project.
Corporate planners will be able to use this system to find the right people, with the right skills, credentials and geographic availability when the need arises. They will have the capability to find qualified people, and ultimately to create their own “favorites” list, or even a proprietary directory, a private network within the larger i-Meet community, leveraging all of the communications technology.
The other key functionality that exists today is a revolutionary software system that supports the normal planning process we use in the physical world:
- Destination research: Request for Information (RFI)
- Practicality test of availability and price: Request for Quote (RFQ)
- Request for Proposal (RFP)
The vision of i-Meet is to enable this continuum (RFI-RFQ-RFP) by linking i-Meet profiles of planners and suppliers through an integrated software application.
The outcome is a better way to do what we do: establish a secure individual communication thread with every supplier, build a 1:1 relationship with any or all, and then link with an RFP of choice, be it directly with a hotel or other supplier, or via Starcite.
I like that John Pino. He’s always thinking.
