Pathable

As someone who is probably the most critical of our industry and social networking I decided to look into Pathable which we briefly discussed last week. Throughout the semester we have considered several social networking sites including facebook, linkedin and iMeet but pathable is the newest and again specifically designed for the events industry.

Pathable is unlike these other social networking sites as it is intended specifically for certain a certain conference. A planner has the opportunity to build their own personal networking site for their conference using this service, quotes are not available online. The homepage for your event will have pictures of your most recent RSVP's, statistics regarding who is attending, the opportunity to converse on a wall page and to follow attendees facebook and twitter accounts.

Okay so here is where the "creepy" or "stalker" action comes into play... you can search people interests learn more about them, find links to their twitter, facebook, linkedin pages, message them or check out the matches the page suggests you meet online or at the conference. To me, not so creepy, I think its a really cool idea like a facebook just for your conference!

You can also manage the schedule, event marketin, profile of speakers and a chatroom for attendees to talk before the conference. Of course, the service may also be used on cell phones. This is similar to SpotMe where you can check out the schedule, search the event, look up attendees names and photos however it only works with an iphone apparently. But if you dont have one you can print this info before the meeting, not very green.

Overall, I think the service is a great idea and something that planners are more than likely to invest in. First of all I would like to have an idea of exaclty how expensive the service is and how many attendees it can manage at a time. Also, if it only works with the iphone that is a serious problem at least for some groups. In knowing your group this service may not be the best if they are traditional business with blackberry's or not very technology forward at all. The industry is seriously in need for such a tool and I look forward to watching it launch.