Comments on: UTR – Zvents http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/ Jeff Nolan's take on investment, innovation, entrepreneurship and the technology industry Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:50:28 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Involvement, Inclusion, Collaboration « MaisonBisson.com http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/comment-page-1/#comment-704 Involvement, Inclusion, Collaboration « MaisonBisson.com Fri, 24 Mar 2006 03:21:13 +0000 http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/#comment-704 [...] Peter Caputa dropped a comment on Jeff Nolan’s post about Zvents. The discussion was about how online event/calendar aggregators did business in a world where everything is rather thinly distributed. Part of the problem is answering how do you get people to contribute content — post their events — to a site that has little traffic, and how do you build traffic without content? The suggestion is that you have editorial staff scouring for content to build the database until reader contributions can catch up, and that’s where Peter comes in, suggesting that content and traffic aren’t where the value and excitement are: At the end of the day, though, we need to bring the people that plan events together with the people that attend them, so that the planning happens together. Pulling massive amounts of data together and getting eyeballs doesn’t help event planners. What event planners need are tools that help them engage the attendees in the decision making process, promotion process and the documentation process of events. That’s what we aim to do. [...] [...] Peter Caputa dropped a comment on Jeff Nolan’s post about Zvents. The discussion was about how online event/calendar aggregators did business in a world where everything is rather thinly distributed. Part of the problem is answering how do you get people to contribute content — post their events — to a site that has little traffic, and how do you build traffic without content? The suggestion is that you have editorial staff scouring for content to build the database until reader contributions can catch up, and that’s where Peter comes in, suggesting that content and traffic aren’t where the value and excitement are: At the end of the day, though, we need to bring the people that plan events together with the people that attend them, so that the planning happens together. Pulling massive amounts of data together and getting eyeballs doesn’t help event planners. What event planners need are tools that help them engage the attendees in the decision making process, promotion process and the documentation process of events. That’s what we aim to do. [...]

]]> By: peter caputa http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/comment-page-1/#comment-496 peter caputa Thu, 16 Mar 2006 03:29:32 +0000 http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/#comment-496 Hey Jeff. Lovin the round corners on this comment box, btw. :) I am a bit behind on my blog reading. I was talking to Torsten Jacobi today and he brought you up in regards to an event, coincidentally. So, I am glad I logged in to see your last 70 posts. Yeah. I am that behind. Anyways... I totally want to land Home Depot. I should put that on my prospect list. They could totally benefit from the tools we've developed at WhizSpark. As I've been saying all along, the real problem with events is that noone knows how to cost effectively advertise events. An event is like a business in that there are costs upfront that are usually risked with fingers crossed. If the event goes well, ticket sales, sponsorship sales and vendor sales can be great. But, very few people know how to do that. The ones that are successful use barter to get there. They don't spend money up front. So, the only way people planning events can cost effectively advertse them is through the web on a CPA basis. That's what we do. As far as I know, we are the only one doing it. Brian and Ethan are well aware of what we've been doing. Fortunately for them, they've landed enough funding so they can start learning the event business. Eventful's new "DEMAND IT" functionality is quite cool and is a step in the right direction in helping event planners determine what the crowd wants. If Brian can aggregate enough "DEMANDS", he might have something there. Both of these guys have a chicken and egg issue, though. If they don't have a lot of events, they won't have a lot of people searching for events there. If they don't have a lot of people searching for events, there's no reason to enter them. So, both of these guys have gone down the path of aggregating events from different sources. At the end of the day, though, we need to bring the people that plan events together with the people that attend them, so that the planning happens together. Pulling massive amounts of data together and getting eyeballs doesn't help event planners. What event planners need are tools that help them engage the attendees in the decision making process, promotion process and the documentation process of events. That's what we aim to do. All these other plays just seem like data management, search or widget plays. We'll see if they can actually add any value to a single event, as I think that is the real test. Hey Jeff. Lovin the round corners on this comment box, btw. :)

I am a bit behind on my blog reading. I was talking to Torsten Jacobi today and he brought you up in regards to an event, coincidentally. So, I am glad I logged in to see your last 70 posts. Yeah. I am that behind.

Anyways… I totally want to land Home Depot. I should put that on my prospect list. They could totally benefit from the tools we’ve developed at WhizSpark. As I’ve been saying all along, the real problem with events is that noone knows how to cost effectively advertise events. An event is like a business in that there are costs upfront that are usually risked with fingers crossed. If the event goes well, ticket sales, sponsorship sales and vendor sales can be great. But, very few people know how to do that. The ones that are successful use barter to get there. They don’t spend money up front. So, the only way people planning events can cost effectively advertse them is through the web on a CPA basis. That’s what we do. As far as I know, we are the only one doing it.

Brian and Ethan are well aware of what we’ve been doing. Fortunately for them, they’ve landed enough funding so they can start learning the event business. Eventful’s new “DEMAND IT” functionality is quite cool and is a step in the right direction in helping event planners determine what the crowd wants. If Brian can aggregate enough “DEMANDS”, he might have something there.

Both of these guys have a chicken and egg issue, though. If they don’t have a lot of events, they won’t have a lot of people searching for events there. If they don’t have a lot of people searching for events, there’s no reason to enter them. So, both of these guys have gone down the path of aggregating events from different sources.

At the end of the day, though, we need to bring the people that plan events together with the people that attend them, so that the planning happens together. Pulling massive amounts of data together and getting eyeballs doesn’t help event planners. What event planners need are tools that help them engage the attendees in the decision making process, promotion process and the documentation process of events. That’s what we aim to do.

All these other plays just seem like data management, search or widget plays. We’ll see if they can actually add any value to a single event, as I think that is the real test.

]]> By: ethan http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/comment-page-1/#comment-260 ethan Fri, 03 Mar 2006 20:45:05 +0000 http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/#comment-260 Actually, it was just one judge (Rael) who later told me that he was partially misunderstood. Here's a more complete transcript: http://kalsey.com/2006/03/under_the_radar_when_20_notes/ BTW, I think Skobee is *gorgeous*. Actually, it was just one judge (Rael) who later told me that he was partially misunderstood. Here’s a more complete transcript:

http://kalsey.com/2006/03/undertheradarwhen20_notes/

BTW, I think Skobee is gorgeous.

]]> By: Jeff http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/comment-page-1/#comment-251 Jeff Thu, 02 Mar 2006 23:55:42 +0000 http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/#comment-251 nope, there was a lot of rounded corners and pastel colors... real web 2.0 like. nope, there was a lot of rounded corners and pastel colors… real web 2.0 like.

]]> By: Zoli Erdos http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/comment-page-1/#comment-250 Zoli Erdos Thu, 02 Mar 2006 23:12:33 +0000 http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/#comment-250 That's interesting, I've been an early adopter (http://blog.zvents.com/articles/2005/10/09/wow-press-deluge-from-zvents-launch) of Zvents and what attracted me initially, when their data scrapping was a lot weaker was exactly the ease of use, vs. sites like evdb (which since then got a facelift as eventful). Was the panel missing the mandatory round boxes and pastel colors, or something more substantial? :-) That’s interesting, I’ve been an early adopter (http://blog.zvents.com/articles/2005/10/09/wow-press-deluge-from-zvents-launch) of Zvents and what attracted me initially, when their data scrapping was a lot weaker was exactly the ease of use, vs. sites like evdb (which since then got a facelift as eventful).

Was the panel missing the mandatory round boxes and pastel colors, or something more substantial? :-)

]]>