One of the major trends I have been observing is the migration to media. Almost every event organizer wants to hold onto the audience they have and to grow it in as many ways as possible. Remember this simple fact, sponsorship can’t grow without growth in attendance (up to the point of saturation, that is). It is this understanding of the world that has driven a lot of the experimentation in the conference industry. The truth, of course, is that there is not much room to not embrace new media and methods. Attendees have ever-changing needs and event organizers must adapt to new models.

In the last 2 weeks alone, I’ve been approached by no less than 4 events to assist in integrating social media into the attendee experience. I think it is a definite sign that more and more, everyone is looking back to the social dimension of events. It’s quite amazing how unsatisfying many events seem now when this is not properly planned and accounted for – after all, conferences are really about the contacts more so than the content.

This post was inspired by some discussion flowing today regarding the Nielson BuzzMetric client-only conference. The official word from the organizer was that the event was intended for its clients and that there were presentations of case studies from a variety of clients. Steve Rubel’s poses a broader question in response, “Should conferences ban blogging?” My simple answer: it depends.

While there are a number of reasons that organizers should consider integrating blogging and other social media into their event experience, I can undertand that under certain circumstances they might seek some privacy – though I do beg they consider it very carefully. In this case, it was a private event and there is no requirement for transparency. Naturally, asking people not to do something is often more like demanding they do the opposite – potentially undoing any attempt to “contain” the content.

Ultimately, I think we need to be more constructive in our criticism (Scott Karp agrees). While we all are empowered with our new suite of media tools, entitlement is still something quite different.

Apple computer released a very unique network recognition system, aptly named Rendezvous as part of its OSX operating system. The basic role of Rendezvous is to allow machines, and inadvertently their operators, to locate available networks and initiate conversations, in one form or another. For the most part, these conversations are either social a la user-user chat or functional a la synchronization, streaming, and sharing of files/resources.

In the next few weeks, the Rendezvous methodology of auto-discovery will be unlatched from Apple, and more importantly. from the desktop and destined for your pocket. A bright developer, Razvan Dragomirescu of Simedia, is poised to release his newest application: Pocket Rendezvous. As described:

It’s a web server for the Pocket PC that advertises itself to other Pocket PCs in the neighbourhood wirelessly using ad-hoc WiFi networks and Rendezvous. Windows users can look here for a Windows Rendezvous browser/publisher. Pocket Rendezvous also allows you to browse for nearby devices running Pocket Rendezvous and view the content published by the Pocket Rendezvous server on those devices. You can also browse for regular Rendezvous services published on your network.

Source: Smart Mobs, “Pocket Rendezvous”

Though the road traveled to complete this application posed many challenges, the developers have found a way to step through the process while avoiding all of the political pitfalls the larger players have been subjected to. Lacking contractual and intellectual restrictions, the harness was removed and tremendous progress has been made.

As The Register reports, there are many interesting uses for the new application:

But it isn’t just for sharing music. Pocket Rendezvous allows Pocket PC holders to browse whatever you want to reveal on your portable web server. (Simeda has a dating service that runs on Symbian mobile phones). Users can assign an icon, or ‘avatar’ to a published service. Razvan told us that the software, provisionally called “Pocket Rendezvous” (although given trademark considerations, this might not be the final name) will be released on June 16 in two versions: a free basic version and a pay-for package that can join corporate networks and advertise multiple services.

Source: The Register, “Promiscuous BluePod file swapping – coming to a PDA near you”

Thinking outside of the advertised uses, I can see a ton of potential in the ever-emerging socially networked world. Consider these simple use cases:

• Conference Management – Conference organizers could have to ability to distribute, in real-time, session schedules, maps, location services all via a simple publication model.

• Classroom Coordination – Students can bootstrap their notes with the collective notes of other classmates. Arriving late to class could provide a simple Note Synchronization process that brings the latecomer up to speed in a flash.

• Business Networking – Conference attendees, with the appropriate xDA could engage in proximity networking. Services like these already exist though the technology is either expensive or cumbersome.

• Location-based Services – Advertising and other services could employ mounted servers that deliver prompts, and potential payloads, to interested users.

We can only expect that these usage scenarios will only grow and expand as we see further convergence in the cellular/wi-fi industries. It should be noted that the use of Wi-Fi makes many of these things possible where other wireless technologies (Bluetooth, RFID, etc.), simply because of the range afforded the 802.11x-based solutions.