@BasilPuglisi

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7 Digital and Internet Media Conferences you should know about

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Part of any smart businesses marketing plan is the continued education of the employees responsible for these vital tasks. For this reason many businesses schedule regular digital and internet conferences for their marketing departments.

7 Highly Informative Digital and Internet Media Conferences

  1. Over 500 of the top decision makers in the entertainment, technology, and media industries came together in Arlington, Virginia at the 8th Annual Digital Media Conference East held on June 17th, 2011. The event consisted of twenty separate panels spanning six content tracks. Featured tracks included digital media, mobile, TV/Video, Social, Marketing, and Law and Policy elements.
  2. The National Conference for Media Reform of 2011was held from April 8th until the 10th and helped to join thousands of educators, media specialist, activists, journalist, policymakers, and more who simply want to better our media option. This three day conference included panels, hands-on workshops, film screenings, meetings, live entertainment, speeches and more.
  3. Detroit Michigan hosted the Allied Media Conference as a part of the Allied Media Projects network from June 23rd to the 26th of 2011 . This conference focuses on organic relationship-building and the concept of do-it-yourself media. It seems that each year this conference brings more businesses owners who are interested in utilizing interactive media as part of social organizational strategy.
  4. September 18th through the 22nd will bring the Web of Change Conference in Hollyhock, Cores Island, British Columbia. Celebrating its 11th year this conference always brings alternatives and trending methods to harness the power of the world wide web in effecting social changes around the globe.
  5. The Media Relations in the Digital Age Conference held in Hong Kong on July 7th and 8th 2011 is focused on learning how some of the more widely renowned brands successfully incorporate the digital world into media strategies. This can help to build leverage on many different platforms to help deliver a lucrative brand message.
  6. The TM’s Forum Management World Americas Conference will run from November 8th to the 10th in November of 2011. Held in Orlando, Florida this communications management conference has a bit of something for everyone from suppliers and providers to business partnership education. This conferences focus is to teach technical as well as business strategies to encourage success in the market of tomorrow.
  7. LeWeb, a Paris based Internet Ecosystem Conference will be held from December 7th until the 9th in a three day conference on important and trending information in the web marketplace. With over 3000 planned participants from more than sixty countries this group of executives, investors, senior members of the press, and entrepreneurs are sure to present an unforgettable conference with a wealth of vital information.

With tons of conferences held on industry information and trending standards in digital and internet media each year, there is quite likely one held not far from your own back yard. Joining Meetup groups or watching out on your social media accounts can be one of the best ways to keep informed of up-and-coming trends in digital and internet media.

Stay Tuned for Social Media Conferences and Marketing Conferences.

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LinkedIn and Klout join the Social Button Revolution

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There does seem to be a button for just about anything digital these days. The Google +1 button provides a promotional value similar to Facebook’s “Like” button, and savvy blog readers will realize right off the bat if they have come upon an outdated blog if they arrive to one that doesn’t provide buttons to share their content on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and about 250 other social media websites and or aggregate sites.

Internet users have also grown increasingly fond of buttons that provide one-click sign up or register options that quickly and easily integrate existing social media accounts to a new sites registration process. Toolbar buttons also provide www users with endless options. Anything from quick-click website SEO buttons to buttons that can quickly send a user to their favorite email system pronto. 

LinkedIn Launches Quick Job App Button

Professional and business social network, LinkedIn, also has plans for their own button. The LinkedIn button will allow their users to utilize a button on employer’s websites labeled, “Apply with LinkedIn.” This handy button will allow any LinkedIn user to quickly apply for employment by submitting their LinkedIn profile as a resume. In the immediate future web users should begin to find this button cropping up on LinkedIn partner sites with a launch later this month.

Not only will this button make it incredibly easy for applicants to submit a full-bodied resume to a prospective employer, but on the employer end, it will also automatically sort candidates for them by pre-set configurations.

This doesn’t have any notable restrictions in that employers will also be able to include additional questions, requests, or requirements for applicants to their businesses. Employers will also be able to designate whether submissions will go to a URL, their email address, or even to a JavaScript callback.

Currently, hiring solutions generate about 43% of LinkedIn’s revenue. For a newly public company that will need to rely on employers as one of their leading demographics, this is an incredible and innovative tool.

Get Klout with +K

Providing social media analytics, Klout helps to provide the measure of a users influence across their own social networks. The analysis is provided by data that is collected from a users social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. This analysis includes taking a measurement of the size of a person’s network + content created + the reaction of your social network to your provided content. After this analysis users are provided with a number from 1 to 100 that will indicate their overall influence in their own niche, or on the topics they mention most.

Klout plans to increase their users’ clout by introducing their own button. Klout’s +K will allow users to designate other users as authorities on a given subject. This new button will allow individual users to +K any other person who has influenced their knowledge or ideas on a particular topic.

Users are provided with 5 +K’s per day that they can award to users on any topic. They can also +K the same user on the same topic once per week. The rankings will still be based on data from Facebook or Twitter, but users who regularly receive +K’s should definitely see a rise in their given Klout numbers.

While in the launch phase this new button will only respond to Klout’s own algorithms on a particular topic, in the future, Klout developers hope to allow users to submit their own topics.

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Mobile Business: Have All Shoppers Gone High-Tech?

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No, likely not all of them, but a recent study has shown that shoppers are now regularly checking prices online before purchasing in-store. Aware that shoppers had been checking pricing on larger items online, such as appliances, furniture, or home improvement items for quite some time, it seems this has finally carried over to everyday items such as grocery prices or even deals at local restaurants before enjoying a night out.

Shoppers Interact with Retailers Via Social Networking Sites

Many shoppers and retailers report an increase in social interactions via Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites, that can lead to purchases later off-line. It seems shoppers have begun to utilize these methods far more often. It is actually quite a smart idea and seems to have swayed once again, more of the power over to the shoppers.

Consumers are actually doing a great job negotiating pricing on anything from shampoo to a new washer-dryer combo. They are achieving the incredible when it comes to getting the best they can for the money available to spend. So how are they doing this?

  • By visiting the social media sites for major or even smaller retailers to browse for specials.
  • By interacting with retailers or their representatives via social networks and suggesting lower prices, providing proof of lower prices elsewhere, or simply just negotiating a special deal for themselves.
  • By suggesting helpful tips to retailers from consumers point of views.

 This interaction has definitely proven beneficial to many shoppers and encouraged them to continue to negotiate purchases from the largest to the most insignificant.

How Did This Get Started?

It is truly a mystery exactly what caused this to become a more common occurrence but a few have made some great suggestions as to why.

  • Gas prices. Gas prices have gone haywire. While many consumers consider the cost in fuel that may occur when they have to price compare via physical footwork, they have taken to the internet to save on gas funds.
  • In-Store pricing deals. Many consumers utilize pricing deals in-store such as Wal-Mart’s price guarantee that says if a consumer can bring in another stores flyer, or a coupon targeted to a specific retailer, they will meet or beat that price. Some consumers rightly assume that if price guarantees are the name of the game, the game applies everywhere. Seeking out better deals from other stores, to get better deals at their favorites has become far more common. 
  • Many may have simply headed to a retailers social media site in effort to stage the time-honored effort of saving time itself by pre-shopping for the best deals.

Interesting Shopper Statistics

There have definitely been some serious changes in the way consumers manage their shopping needs in the last few years.

  • There has been a 25% increase in price based shopping.
  • 62% of consumers report researching pricing online for the most basic items before they head to the store.
  • 80% of women admit to paying more attention to the prices on most things they buy.
  • 39% of shoppers research the prices of baby products before purchase.
  • 20% of shoppers report researching food and drink prices.
  • 33% of shoppers research their pet products prices before shopping in-store.

Online Shopping Statistics for 2011

  • 38% of consumers report purchasing online, up 5% from 2010.
  • 60% report carrying out more in-depth searches online before purchasing in-store, up from 52% in 2010.
  • 17% share that companies that provide social media interaction, or mobile applications for their stores do make price comparison shopping easier for them.

With sites like PriceGrabber, where consumers can set up alerts on pricing, even setting configurations to email or text message them when a price reaches a preset threshold, consumers are unlikely to forget that the entire retail world can be at their disposal when it comes to searching for, and finding the best deals available in the off-line shopping world.

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Who Are You?: A Life Balance & Social Media Practice

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Who Are You?: A Balanced Life & Social Media

A concept introduced at the #140Conf, Basil C. Puglisi believes that the engagement that takes place on the internet, specifically through Social Media, has identified an issue in our life balance. As a society in general we have become obsessed with objects and titles, social media has amplified this for some, if not almost all.

A Short Review:

Social Media is just another communication tool or stage. How we use this, in fact, should be no different than how we have socialized throughout history. However, this is both the problem and the opportunity.

Who are you? This is not only a great Social Media question but a great life question. I believe that some define their life by names, titles, employment and status, while others have a fuller more genuine approach to life.

How you answer this question may help define your life. If you answer with a name and a job title, function or status, then perhaps you are narrowing your life experiences and therefore in many cases, your social life and social media experience.

Social Media has a life lesson for us all, depending on the platform and how we use it, it may describe us better than we do ourselves. The key is in the balance to our message and the brevity with which we share it.

Social Media is a path with infinite crossings that move with life’s experiences. In many cases, when we get to know an individual in real life we are most bound to those that share similar interests and or experiences. While history is full of superficial affiliations based on money, power and title, one could argue that histories most influential people came from humble but genuine interactions. This is the experience that social media offers us, a chance to interact and learn from one another in real time.

If you think of Social Media Sites and Platforms as a communication tool, you find that each has its own purpose and in many cases its own crowds. Social Media is in fact a opportunity with which, “you get from it, what you put into it.” If you choose to talk only about work, you will find that the others you interact with will also be those that talk about work. If you are a mommy blogger then you will likely find that those you interact with will also be mommy or parent based engagements. If you choose to be a poster and only speak at people, then in turn you will find your connections limited to those that do the same.

Why Dating Sites are ahead of the Social Media Sites:

Treat Social Media as a genuine full experience, just like the one you want for yourself in real life.

Engage and be engaged, talk about what you do, how you do it, what your hobbies are, your education, family, issues surrounding your age, health concerns, vacations or lack of, your dreams and so on.

Many treat social media as if life was meant to be a secret! Life is something that happens all the time, you experience it just as everyone else does, secluding “who you are” will only hinder your ability to make genuine relationships and explore the power of people and humanity, in both its most tremendous aspirations and its disappointing moments.

Dating Sites have evolved to a science of compatibility, they are succeeding in their mission because they are not asking for a photo, name and job title only! Dating Sites want to know “who you are” with questions about everything from religion to sexual orientation. Social Media can learn from this practice and in fact, Facebook did by adding relationship status in its early development.

Who You Know:

It has been a long standing tradition that jobs and opportunities come from who you know, don’t risk not knowing or being known!

I once heard someone speak about how they didn’t want to know what restaurant that others liked, or where they had visited. Surprisingly, that same person today makes decisions on how to spend their money, where to go and who’s opinion counts based on those same topics. Social Media offers us shared experiences that provide insight to how we might experience something for ourselves, be it an event, location or product. If you do not share experiences and communicate, how can you learn or request advice without a basis for justifying or qualifying the response?

People want to work with people. The day and age of robots is behind us, if most business owners speak about wanting real life interactions with real people, then the hiring process is going to require a more in depth look to social media practices in order to find a fit for a community, function or career. If a resume only outlines education, past employment and is followed by a credit check, then you have absolutely nothing to work with as a hiring manager. The purpose of interviews have been to take a look into the personality of the potential candidate and how they behave. “Who are you” is the most distinguishing feature for employment fit. Will you interact with the team, clients, product/service in a way that will be efficient, positive and successful?

Social Media may have gotten its first distinguishing mark from drunk college kids on the cover of Facebook, or rants about customers and clients on Twitter, but the very transparency that has scorned some, is the path to relationship solutions in business. The law prevents companies from asking personal questions in an interview or during the hiring process, but yet companies and education institutions all have unofficial policies to “google” the candidate before hiring.

While some choose not to engage, I argue that this practice is already starting to hurt them. Social Media offers the chance to humanize and qualify the candidate. It allows people and businesses to learn, do they (candidate) really care about this? Do they interact and network like they presented? These can be the distinguishing factors in fit for employment, education and other opportunities. Unless there is something to hide, you should be who you are, this is a best practice for both you and the employer.

A Sustainable Practice: You as a Brand

The greatest part of being a genuine engager on social media comes from the fact that you are investing in you!

While the last decade has been full of amazing technology, platforms and software, none has had the potential to empower people more than Social Media. While some have engaged from business accounts and company profiles, others have taken the initiative to learn, write and speak for themselves. These people have created their own brand, a sustainable practice that allows them to seek employment as who they are. This combination of learning, networking and sharing has positioned them to be successful in any roll, be it one representing someone, something or themselves.

If you build a following and engage an audience, it is likely because you share common interest, values and/or experiences. This has value, it speaks to who you are and why someone would interact with you. It is this practice that has value both in employment and in entrepreneurism.

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ICANN: Domain Dispute?

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The Following Article was published in response to a issue raised in with two Real Estate brands in the Hamptons. It is issues like these that are at the heart of this publication and its mission. “It is my hope that when someone isn’t sure about digital media or the information that has been presented to them, they can turn to this blog as a source to verify or self educate so that they can make better more informed decisions”.

Saunders to Give Back Two Domain Names to Non-Saunders Agents published in 27East.com

ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

To reach another person or a company on the internet you have to type a name or a number as an address into your computer. This address has to be unique so computers can find each other. Who regulates it and decides on a uniform system? Who decides who owns what?

From the start there were a few known addresses called top level domain (TLD); .COM, .NET, .ORG, .EDU and endings which denote countries: .UK, .FR, .LI (Libya) or .IL (Israel).  These are called country code top level domains.

Up until September 1998, the United States Government completely controlled the system. The entity which supervised the internet was called IANA – Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.

As the internet grew and became more commercial and wide spread, the US control became increasingly untenable. The Clinton Administration was looking for a way to make the governance of the domain system global and free.  One option was to hand over control to the UN, and indeed the UN pushed to have that authority under its International Telecommunication’s Union, but the Clinton Administration decided to privatize the domain name governance. It did so to keep the web’s critical system away from political influence and stifling bureaucrats.

The ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a non-profit corporation was established. It was commissioned to oversee a number of internet related issues; managing the internet protocol address, assigning regional internet registries for countries, maintaining registries of internet protocol identifiers, management of top level domain names space and introduction of new generic top-level domains. Their principles call for helping preserve the operational stability of the internet, promote competition, and have a broad representation of the global internet community.

ICANN is located in Marina Del Ray, California, and remains in the same building where it started at the University of Southern California. Jon Postel who thought about an entity like that and was set to be the first CTO, died unexpectedly at the age of 55 before he saw it come to life.

At present ICANN is managed by a board of directors, composed of six representatives of sub groups that deal with specific section of the ICANN charter. They are supported by 3 organizations: the Generic Names Supporting Organization who deals with policy regarding generic top level domain, the County Code Names Support Organization and the Address Supporting Organization who deals with policy on IP addresses. There are advisory committees on different subjects like risk, finance, global relationships, IANA and structural improvements.

ICANN doesn’t control content and it can’t stop spam. It does not deal with access to the internet.

ICANN holds public meetings rotated between continents to encourage global participation in its processes. The resolutions, reports, and minutes of meetings are published on the ICANN website. In September 2006, ICANN signed a new agreement with the US Department of Justice for another 5 years.

Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy

One task the ICANN was asked to do is ownership dispute resolution for generic top level domains. Together with the World Intellectual Property Organization it drafted a policy that is known as Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy. This policy attempts to provide a mechanism for a fast, cheap and reasonable resolution of domain name conflicts, avoiding the traditional court system and relying on arbitration. According to their policy a domain registrant agrees, when he signs the domain contract, to be bound by the resolution of the arbitration.

The UDRP currently applies to .BIZ, .COM, .INFO, .NAME, .NET and .ORG and some country code top-level domains.

A complaint has to establish 3 elements:

  1. The domain name is confusingly similar or identical to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has the right to.
  2. The registrant has no right or legitimate interest in the domain name.
  3. The registration was done in “bad faith”.

A single arbitrator or a panel of three arbitrators  will consider factors such as whether the domain was registered in order to be resold, rented or transferred to the owner of the trademark; whether the domain name was registered to prevent the owner from  registering corresponding domain name, whether it was registered primarily for the purpose of disrupting a competitor or whether, by using the domain name, the registrant attempted to attract internet users for commercial gain, creating a likelihood or confusion.

Those services come at a price; from $1,500 for a single arbitrator to $5,000 for a panel. A very long list of the disputes brought to them is published on their wesite.

Much of the published arbitration has to do with famous cases: Madonna v. Dan Parisi who registered the domains MadonnaCiccone.com and Madonna.com. He was ordered to turn over the domain names to Madonna.

Robert de Niro claimed ownership for all domain names that include the word Tribeca plus any content related to the film festival. His dispute was with a domain called Tribeca.net. Rihanna.com came up for sale and the legal team of the singer filed a UDRP. Other famous arbitrations were conducted regarding ElitrModels.com, WWF.com and AirDeccan.com. All the information about procedures and timelines can be found here: http://www.icann.org/en/udrp/udrp.htm

There are other entities approved by ICANN which provide UDRP services: World Intellectual Property Organization, National Arbitration Forum, Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre and the Czech Arbitration Court Arbitration Center for Internet Disputes.

All their sites detail the procedures, timelines and prices.

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TED – Ideas Worth Spreading

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One of the great things the internet has to offer is the ability to facilitate sharing of knowledge and ideas. The different Wiki’s (Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikileaks) are proof positive that people want to share what they know for the benefit of all.

Another great thing the internet has spawned is TED – Ideas Worth Spreading.

It all started in 1984 in a conference of experts from three fields: Technology, Entertainment and Design. They gathered to share ideas, delivered in short speeches, at a conference. It was so innovative and successful that it continues strongly today with two Annual TED conferences. One in Long Beach/Palm springs in the spring and TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh, UK in the summer.

The goal of TED, which is owned by a private nonprofit foundation and curated by Chris Anderson, is to foster the spread of great ideas. It aims to enable the great thinkers, the greatest visionaries and most inspiring teachers of the world, spread their ideas by providing them with a platform.

In the desire to create a better future, today’s TED invites the most interesting speakers, no matter what their field, to present the “Talk of Their Life” in 18 minutes or less. Those talks are photographed and released free online so millions of people around the world would be able to gain a better understanding of the issues facing the world.

Whether it is a talk by Sir Ken Robinson, who spoke about education in 2006 and said that schools are killing creativity,  (and 300 million people viewed it online), or Shai Agassi, the driving force behind a bold plan for an electric car, or Randy Pausch’s last speech at Carnegie Mellon University, when he knew he has only 3-6 months to live. The speakers are always fascinating. TEDTalks proved so popular that a new website had to be constructed in 2007 to accommodate all the traffic.

Over the years, speakers have included Jane Goodall, Al Gore, Billy Graham, Frank Gehry, Bill Gates, Bono, Annie Lennox, Quincy Jones and many more interesting people. All that information is available on their website for free viewing.

TED has also established TEDPrize which grants the winner $100,000 and “One Wish to Change the World” using TED’s powerful network. Past winner include Bill Clinton, Bono and Jamie Oliver.

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LinkedIn IPO: LinkedIn Hits the Stock Market

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As I mentioned in a previous post on the social networking site LinkedIn, this business based site allows users to connect to past, present, or future business contacts in effort to exchange ideas, knowledge, or perhaps even new opportunities. It also helps users to build a working portfolio that is supported by the very companies, or the leaders of the companies, that are listed on your LinkedIn profile.

One of the best available sites for career recruiting and networking, increasingly more and more often, it has become less unusual for prospective employers to ask for a link to a LinkedIn account than ever before.

Stock Market Stalled

At an initial public offering of LinkedIn stock, shares were priced at $45 on Wednesday night, by the time the stock market opened this morning, the stocks had risen to $83 per share. Within just a few hours, LinkedIn (LNKD) stocks had risen by 131% to be $104.02. This brings the current value of LinkedIn to over $9 billion dollars.

This offering of 7.84 million shares is hands-down, the biggest net IPO since GOOG, or Google, went public in the summer of 2004. This goes to further show that somewhere lurks an immense group of investors who believe that smart money rest in social networking. One firm reports that LinkedIn may now be the most expensive stock in the country. With a current price that is around 275 times more than its earnings in the last four quarters, this certainly indicates that those groups of investors may, in fact, be right on target.

Sign of the Social Media/Networking Times?

As the LinkedIn IPO is being gauged for effectiveness by other social networking giants such as Facebook, Groupon and other similar social networking sites, others believe the IPO has also been controversial as many on Wall Street as well as those in Silicon Valley believe that some investors have been taken in by an Internet bubble.

Some investors are simply just confused about how we should value any companies that are debuting online. Although others, like IPO analyst like Scott Sweet, say that LinkedIn’s spectacular market debut was a great sign for other social networking companies.

Who Uses LinkedIn?

Alexa gives LinkedIn an impressive global ranking of 17 with around 14% of their referrals coming from search engines. Most users are females between the ages of 25 and 64 who are highly educated and more often than not are browsing from home. The site is listed under the Social Networking category.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTZ8Hpg1Zgc]

 

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Meetup: Social Networking On & Off the Web

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Meetup is a social gathering site that helps to organize groups for local events, interest, and shared educational opportunities. Meetup’s major goal is to encourage people to understand that they can change their world, indeed our whole world, by organizing into groups that can be powerful enough to make great differences.

Who Uses Meetup?

Ranked #462 globally, the cities of San Diego and Denver show particularly high viewer numbers. Although it is used in countries like the UK and Canada, 70% of Meetup’s site visitors are located in the U.S. where its traffic rank is #129. Most common users are women from ages 35 to 64 with some college education. Most of these average users tend to browse from work.

People from all walks, niches, communities, and can and do use Meetup. Meetup can help:

  • To find others in your local area who share similar interest
  • To provide forums where users can learn, teach, and share
  • To encourage users to make friends and have fun
  • To teach that groups can be a powerful aspect for the common person to rise up, stand up, unite and help to make a difference on a local or global level

Meetup has 4.6 million monthly visitors with 3.9 million registered users. It helps to organize 80,000 meetings per month involving 37,000 local groups. Meetup provides coverage for over 3,500 topics and interests, in 4,000 cities, in 100 countries.

What is a Meetup Group?

Users can register with Meetup and begin to set up their own groups meetings. Users most commonly will initiate a Meetup group by posting a set date and time for a Meetup. Popular Meetup group topics are interest are:

  • Hiking
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Knitting
  • Moms
  • Poker
  • Travel
  • Writers

The topics are virtually endless and only restricted to the imagination of its creator. Meetup’s goal is to make sure that although users can benefit greatly from communication, education and integration provided by the internet on a regular basis, face-to-face interaction can provide many benefits that online communications cannot.

Major Meetups

This week a major Meetup group will be sponsored by the International Game Developer’s Association in Chicago. This group will help to get to help participate in problem-solving and chapter run events that are available in the United States as well as Internationally. Group members will also have access to literally thousands of highly talented members of various elements of the game development industry.

There are many small businesses that use Meetup for brainstorming better ideas for their businesses, and just as many Meetup groups involved in being active, health conscious or other aspects of the many non-profit agencies that use Meetup for real time group events.

Average Meetup Groups

Average metropolitan areas such as Richmond, Virginia commonly have around 2,000 Meetup groups functioning on site at any given time. However, larger major cities such as New York and Los Angeles have a significantly higher tally of between 6 and 9 thousand functioning groups.

It is notable too that many Meetup groups get their start on Meetup’s site itself. It is not uncommon for groups to originate, build and expand on Meetup for anywhere between six and eleven months before taking to a face-to-face setting.

 

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