#PdF2008 and Confabb - Everything is New Again at Hello, My Name Is…

NEWS from the show!

5^th ANNUAL PERSONAL DEMOCRACY FORUM BREAKS NEW GROUND WITH NOTESHARE FROM CONFABB

Conference Organizers, Attendees and Speakers Share Notes and Presentations; OpenID, SlideShare and Twitter also Supported

NEW YORK, June 23, 2008 – Confabb.com the web’s largest, networking-enhanced database for the meetings and conferences industry, today announced the launch of new features in conjunction with the first day of the expanded Personal Democracy Forum 2008 “Rebooting the System” (PdF2008) in New York. Among the new services coming online is a first of its kind collaboration tool called NoteShare, which lets attendees download agendas, take notes during sessions in real time (even offline), share them with participants and access that information at any time on the Confabb website.

This is Confabb’s second year powering the Personal Democracy Forum’s flagship conference site, which is itself an example of how technology is quickly democratizing the political process through participatory technologies and access to information. PdF2008 will examine how technology influences the political process and has become “the seminal gathering place for the growing community of people who understand the effects underway, and want to make sure they stay on top of what’s coming next.”

As was the case last year, Confabb is introducing a number of new features to enhance the conference experience for attendees, organizers, speakers and anyone else who wishes to follow the action online as it unfolds. Notable speakers include a virtual who’s who of the technology, political, academic, government, journalism, and blogging and activism worlds. New features being introduced include:

NoteShare - Confabb’s NoteShare tool, based on the popular TiddlyWiki, is a document which sits on the desktop and runs in a browser. When downloaded and opened for the first time, it’ll import a local copy of the conference agenda, as well as notes already shared by other people at the event. Attendees can write notes on their local document and these will be instantly shared with fellow attendees. Everything is automatically saved and synced. It even works offline, so bad wifi connections won’t keep the highlights (and lowlights) from making it into the history of the event.

SlideShare – We call this feature “YouTube for Powerpoint.” Speakers can now share their presentations with the entire conference community. SlideShare is easy to use and completely free. Speakers can create a free account here. Then, upload your presentation and tag it pdf2008, Confabb does the rest. Once the presentation is up on the site it’s archived and available for anyone to view even long after the end of the event.

Support for OpenID – We’ve integrated support for OpenId, the great universal login which eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different web sites.

Twitter integration – A Twitter feed chronicling the event will run on the page, eliminating the need for having to poll third-party services to catch the full Twitter conversation around pdf2008.

Travel – Confabb’s new travel function. Event attendees can now book their travel and accommodation reservations straight through the Confabb site.

Resources – A listings service for trade show and conference vendors so they can get in front of Confabb’s more than 20,000 conference organizers listed within the site.

“We’re excited to be launching some of the conference industry’s most cutting edge online tools at the Personal Democracy Forum,” said Jon Mandell, COO and co-founder, Confabb. “This is our second year partnering with PdF, and it’s fitting that a conference exploring the effect technology is having on the political process in our country should be the first to demonstrate the new collaboration and information sharing services we’re rolling out today. We couldn’t think of another show at which we’d rather demonstrate the power these tools bring to the conference experience, and we’re excited to see the directions in which attendees take them.”