Keep track of events with event aggregators

I do hope you’re constantly on the lookout for new or upcoming events for your clients…and for yourself. What better way to connect your client with potential customers? And, if you can wrangle a speaking opportunity for them, you’re on your way to building some genuine thought leadership. And, let’s not forget, they are a great place to meet new people to form connections with.

But I know your pain, really I do. There are so many bloody events out there — how can anyone keep track of them all? The answer is not so simple. For an event program to be successful you need to keep track of dozens, if not hundreds, of Web sites. Fortunately, a new breed of content aggregators are coming to our rescue. Sites such as GoingToMeet, Eventful, Confabb, and Upcoming are making it easy to find industry conventions/events. Although I’m only going to review Upcoming today, I’ll go into detail on the rest soon. Stay tuned.

Upcoming: For your Web 2.0 & Anti-establishment needs
However, I believe you should add Upcoming.org to that list. It’s free, has a clean interface, and I think has the potential to turn into the events aggregator of our dreams.

Upcoming is a social events (hah!) tracking/sharing site. After an event is added by a user, it gets its own page (check out the Web 2.0 Expo for an example) where readers who have created accounts on the site can state if they are planning to attend or simply “watch”, leave comments, and so on.

At the moment the majority of events tend to be smaller Web 2.0 and tech conferences, activist get-togethers, and even the odd wine tasting. So, for the moment, this isn’t the kind of resource you check every day. However, I believe that, with Yahoo!’s backing (they own the place), this site could turn into a winner.