Bobbie Out and About in Boston

Back in March when we started Mass Innovation Nights, the MIN uber-intern, Jennie, must have spent countless hours pushing out our Mass Innovation Nights Listings to dozens of them: Gary's Guide, Boston. com, Events.com and more. (Even now, months later, I stumble across listings on sites I didn't know existed.) Family events, technology events, industry events, social media events, there are all kinds of sites devoted to them. (I'm even working with Accounting Management Solutions of Waltham to create a calendar in their online Resource Center for Finance professionals. But the thing is, they all require the hosting organization to submit the details, something that can take quite a bit of time if you try to do it in any kind of comprehensive manner.

Just this week I attended a Concept Clinic at MIT to learn more about a real-time search service, currently under construction,that will power a dynamic event calendar. This service will pull from Twitter streams and other social media, in order to create a Web site with a complete view of the events available. What a boon this will be for the event planners! The question is, will it draw in the viewers/visitors/event attendees or will they continue to go elsewhere for their info. The competitive advantage might not be as obvious to the casual viewer. It will be interesting to see what happens with this idea.

But until that option is available, how do we find out what's happening? And what event will make best use of our time? My own time for networking and "education" is somewhat limited as I have kids at home and a spouse who frequently works evenings. (He's a bassoonist with a couple different bands and orchestras, and practices and concerts happen in the evenings.)

I am on dozens of mailing lists from dozens of organizations. I input the options on my calendar. I watch where like-minded individuals (like Jeff) are going to be via their tweets and Facebook accounts. I review various calendars, including @Bostontweetup's. I also get forwarded various events from my clients, friends and co-workers. But the best options are always when I get a personal invite from one of the presenters and that presenter is someone I know (and obviously, someone who knows me.) When I find a good event, I usually tweet about it -- either as "me," @Bobbiec, or, if it is an event that I know the Mass Innovation Nights community would like, I tweet about it as @MassInno. (Lots of innovation-oriented groups send me their group information so I can share it with the MIN community.) From now on, I'll add them here too!