Via TechCrunch (my favorite trend spotting site), I spent the afternoon playing with Eventful and Upcoming. They are event sites, featuring RSS and iCal feeds, groups and tagging. They work well in combination, with Eventful offering integration into Upcoming plus ping services for del.icio.us and technorati.
Both sites let you add venues, specify event type and invite others to attend. Since both sites are still fairly new, users should plan on using the web tools from Upcoming to popularize their events (see our shiny new badge below my flickr album) and gain new users. Both sites also offer the ability for users to add comments. This is a great feature since it allows you to collect feedback from your happy guests/customers/clients. Both sites are presently free and place no limits on the number of events you can add.
You can use tools like these to promote either your brick and mortar location (as we’re doing with Sydney’s) or upcoming lecture, podcast, seminar or festival. The clean and easy to follow interfaces make it a snap to distribute your information to a wide variety of audiences.
