Back to the Future: Announcing an XML Schema to Standardize Web Event Listings

We issued a press release today about EventSpan on Business Wire. The irony wasn't lost on us when we used an older, traditional newswire service to make an announcement about our future product - Eventspan.com - which will be a web platform to announce and promote webcasts and webinars using various search, web syndication, social media tools and marketing services features.

As we contacted the newswire service and submitted our press release it reinforced for us the opinion of newswires as antiquated systems, not to mention the sub-par design and lackluster usability on their websites. (Tip: If you're one of the 15% of internet users who use Firefox as a browser, don't waste twenty minutes trying to submit a press release on the Business Wire website while scratching your head in puzzlement - it doesn't work with Firebox and they don't even indicate this limitation on their site.) Indeed, we were partly inspired to develop Eventspan by seeing consistently broken links to web events on marketer's newswire-issued press releases and peering at the deadening haze of text that hides the essentials - including personas and brands - of an online event in a press release.

We asked ourselves some time ago, how can webcast and webinar events be searched more effectively on the web to increase registration, attendance and on-demand viewing of these web events? How can the people who speak at, produce, power, and promote these web events be appropriately surfaced? How can speakers, B2B publishing editors, sponsor brand managers, and service provider professionals connect with each other about virtual events? What social media tools and marketing service features can be added to a Web 2.0 platform to share and syndicate online events? How can marketers monitor the effectiveness of social media tools in promoting web events? How can the industry work together and get on the same page, as it were, in the promotion of online events to everyone's benefit?

To this last question, we issued our press release today (if only to show that by spending $700 we're committed and serious!) about seeking feedback to the proposed draft of a web event listing standard for webinars and webcasts. Please see this section to view and provide feedback on this draft proposal. We encourage interested parties to contact us to arrange for a preview presentation of EventSpan.com that's powered by this evolving and proposed standard. Trying to envision how this XML standard will "look" in the actual manifestation of a web event listing is not easy, and once you see how the EventSpan.com site does it, we think you'll be quite pleased.