Confabb
If you’re looking for a place to find information on all kinds of conferences, connect with speakers and attendees, or even promote your own event, take a look at confabb.com.
“Confabb…combines an aggregate database of major conferences, conventions, and trade shows sorted by industry with social networking tools designed to empower conference attendees to improve their overall experience.” — from Summary of Confabb, The Conference Community
More than just a database of events, the site aims at “maximizing the conference experience” by providing tracking and social networking tools, along with an avenue for critique, review, and discussion.
One wonders though how many conference attendees will sign up and, more importantly, continue to participate over the long term. It seems reasonable to believe that most attendees are more concerned with their industry as a whole than with individual events. If that’s true, they’re more likely to find out about and discuss conferences on web sites, forums, and listservs that focus on their particular industry. There’s a danger that Confabb could become a sort of Facebook or MySpace for event promoters rather than a real community including a sizable representation of the attendee population. That may not be a bad thing, but it’s not quite Confabb’s stated goal.
Founder and
president of IT Exchange Group, Dana Toland oversees conference programs and services, as well as operations. Under Dana's
leadership, IT Exchange Group has evolved into a premier strategic marketing and meeting planning company primarily serving
companies in the IT industry. She has over fourteen years of experience in event marketing and operations, and was previously
employed by Daratech, Inc. and Relocation Resources International.