What people are saying about CrowdVine
Kimberly Murphy, Business for Social Responsibility
When looking for a way to improve the networking experience for the annual BSR Conference, we researched a number of social networking sites and found Crowdvine. We are very pleased with our decision to incorporate Crowdvine into our events. The site is easy to use without compromising functionality, Tony and team are a pleasure to work with, it easily integrates with our main website, and our Conference attendees absolutely love it. In our first year of activity, we had 7,223 connections among 874 users and participation continues to grow each year. We highly recommend Crowdvine to build your event community.
Steve Brantner, General Mills HR conference
We wanted a new way to connect prior to our global conference in July but until we found CrowdVine, we never thought that launching a private social media site would be this easy and this effective. After we finished our research and needs assessments and were told that an internal solution was months away, Tony and his team had us up in two weeks. In our first month of activity, we had over 3,800 connections among our 244 users. We also added the dimension of 28 learning groups who are participating in virtual learning together prior to the conference and with CrowdVine, those groups have been a success as well. We're thrilled with our first month of activity and thanks for CrowdVine we will find new ways to connect our global function and collaborate on a whole new level.
Barbara Gavin, Pearson's Voices That Matter conference series
I have been very pleased with the Voices That Matter partnership with Crowdvine. Tony and his team enable attendees to comment on sessions and well as interact with our speakers and each other. Nowadays, I don't think either the real world or the online world can exist in a vacuum. Each experience adds the sort of value we have all come to expect.
Chris Jarvis, National Conference on Volunteering and Service
Crowdvine is an easy way to build community in and around your conference and enables attendee’s to meet easily. The NCVS crowdvine page enabled people to see who else was attending that they might know (or want to know) as well as plan meetups or share other ideas. It was very easy to create your own attendee profile and check out who else was gong to be in NYC with you.
Seb Schmoller, ALT-C
Marvelling at the fluid utility of CrowdVine for Conferences.
Joe Wilson
Have to say once again very impressed with crowdvine as conferencing tool Well done all and looking forward to alt-c
Tracey Madden
Crowdvine, which I’d never encountered before, was particularly useful when attending a large conference for the first time and without colleagues. It gave me an idea of who would be there and the topics that were uppermost in peoples’ minds, so when I arrived at the conference itself I hit the ground running.
It also got me using Twitter, which at that time was little known and still finding its feet. I don’t know if any of us knew then what we were going to do with it but I’m glad I persisted.
This will be my third ALT-C and my first time with a presentation which makes it particularly special. Crowdvine has again be very useful for pre- conference planning and I aim to be using Twitter in my usual ‘meeting’ mode (a cross between note taking and broadcasting.)
Michael Kerres, Interaktive Kulturen 2010
crowdvine has a great calendar function [to] help people organize their conference schedule
Aaron Hanson, Net Impact
By the way, our conference just finished up. We have received such positive feedback from our members, mentioning the Crowdvine site as an essential collaboration tool for the conference. Thanks again for your support in the past few months.
Chris Hammond, Never Dive Alone
CrowdVine is a brilliant service, you are an excellent company and when I make my presentation at the conference, I shall be happily telling all there, what a wonderful company you are. I can't praise you enough. A huge huge thank to you and your team.
Regan Buker, @raygun
becoming friends and fans on http://iasummit09.crowdvine... is like giving everyone big virtual hello hugs.
Bill DeRouchey
"CrowdVine turned out to be an incredible tool for Interaction08. It served as a great pre-mingling before the conference to get the ball rolling, especially the want-to-meet feature."
Jack Moffett, DesignAday
"Manifest Digital provided a Microsoft Surface for us to fiddle around with. [...] One thing that made it a bit more engaging was that Manifest had developed some software expressly for our conference. They had it pulling in photos and tweets from the conference feeds, which was a nice tie in, but the icing on the cake was the interface with CrowdVine, the social networking site tied into the conference. Everyone who had registered with CrowdVine had a 3-D barcode on the back of their nametag. When I placed my nametag on the Surface, it recognized me and pulled in my photo from CrowdVine. The red "connect" swash could be dragged onto another person's photo, which would send them a message through CrowdVine saying that I connected with them on the Surface at Interaction 09."
@marylynne
Got busted for busting on CrowdVine on Twitter. They @ replied me to see what they could help me with... now that's customer service!
Chris Spiek
I had never heard of CrowdVine, but it was free, so I had nothing to lose. Creating an account took less than ten minutes. I entered my interests, professional information, links to profiles (LinkedIn, etc), and uploaded my photo. When I logged in I knew I was on the way to accomplishing my goal. I still didn't know anyone, but the discussions that were happening on the site led me to believe that other conference goers were hiring the site for the same reason that I was. Discussion topics included, "Who Is Arriving Early And Attending the Sunday Cocktail Party," and "Who Wants to Find a Good Manhattan Wine Bar on Monday Night?" I joined in on a few of the conversations, and accomplished my goal. Then CrowdVine took it a step further. I received an email a few hours later telling me that someone wanted to meet me while I was at the conference. I clicked the link, and it was another online marketing professional with similar interests. Until then I hadn't noticed the "+ Someone I Want to Meet." link under the photo on people's profiles. After scanning the profiles of a number of people on the site, I began clicking the link and letting people know that I'd like to meet them. This one tiny link was no great programming feat, but it's inclusion in the software enabled it to accomplish the job that I needed to have done. Help me meet someone.
Akshay Java
"One tool that really brought us together even before the conference actually started was CrowdVine. It is what I would like to describe as the "Facebook for conferences". I think ICWSM would surely have made a record of some sort for the "fewest business cards exchanged". Not that there was any less networking -- its just that people already had a connection established before they met. [...] I found CrowdVine to be a great tool and think that it should be used in every event."
James Clay, "Top Ten Web Tools of 2008"
"For me a conference is much more than the sum of its parts. It is much more than the keynotes, the presentations and the workshops. It's the discussion, the coffee breaks, the small group working, the conference dinner and following up afterwards. What I like about CrowdVine is that it allows you to supplement a conference in a similar way to the coffee but doing it online."
Andy Powell
I should also mention the ALT-C 2008 social network which was delivered using CrowdVine and which was, by all accounts, very successful. Having been involved with a few different approaches to this kind of thing, I think CrowdVine offers a range of functionality that is hard to beat. At the time of writing, over 440 of the conference's 500+ delegates had signed up to CrowdVine! This is a very big proportion, certainly in my experience. But it's not just about the number of sign-ups... it's the fact that CrowdVine was actively used to manage people's schedules, engage in debates (before, during and after the conference) and make contacts that is important.
Steve Wheeler
"CrowdVine is a very impressive tool. It is a social space for people to meet and share their resources, but it also acts as a conference/event schedule manager so you can connect face-to-face with others you are interested in meeting, or have similar interests with. It is one of the best aggregators I have seen yet"
Morriss Partee
CrowdVine lets you see who is coming to the event ahead of time, and lets you designate that you are a fan of someone, and also that you want to meet someone. Because of the personal items that you can import into CrowdVine (your blog, twitter stream, and flickr photos), you can really get a good sense of what a person is all about via that source. This is very different from a friend on Facebook, where you can't get any info on the person until AFTER you've agreed to be friends with him/her, and rightly so because it is of a personal rather than professional nature. CrowdVine is all about making connections that happen because of an event in common. And it's pretty good at what it does; it really is an icebreaker to have heard of, and/or seen a photo of, a person who is going to an event that you are attending.
Jen Pahlka, Conference Chair, Not on CrowdVine yet? You'll wish you were when you get here
This network plaftorm focuses less on who you already know, and more on whom you would like to meet when you are at the event. Your personal conference schedule is also there, and we'll be harassing you endlessly to evaluate every session you attend, and guess where the evaluation page is... in CrowdVine.
Sazbean, B2B Social Networks
CrowdVine's networks are centered on allowing network members to connect and communicate. Everything on the network exists to facilitate this communication - profiles, comments, blog posts, and profile questions, all of which are featured on the homepage.
via Twitter
Been meeting with ppl from crowdvine all day. Haven't made it to the expo hall or blogtropolus yet.
via Twitter
You should get on crowdvine, it's cool
via Twitter
Really impressed by how slick Tony and Jay have gotten the calendar integration with CrowdVine.
via Twitter
CrowdVine for Web 2.0 expo is great
Richard Dalton, Conference Chair, IA Summit 2008
I used the MX East CrowdVine site before, during and after the event to find people I wanted to meet and talk to. Afterward, I knew we had to use CrowdVine for our IA Summit also!
Matt Carlisle at Big Heart Design Blog
I was blown away at its simplicity. I really love simple applications that have robust tool sets.
K.G. Schneider, attendee at IA Summit in CrowdVine versus SWIFT
I've been at IA Summit 2008 since Friday, and here's the difference. The CrowdVine software actually works (and I could see how it worked BEFORE I signed in). It allows me to connect with other attendees, view sessions, and follow the zeitgeist. I didn't have to sign a crappy term of service. It wasn't broken the first time I logged in. The interface is pleasingly pulled together, the fonts are not squinchy-tiny, and yes, rumors to the contrary, it "interfaces" with Facebook--and with RSS, Flickr, and other social software.
Attendee via Twitter
CrowdVine is great! It's a wonderful tool to have before the conference
K.G. Schneider
"Deep down, I don't care about CrowdVine, but I care a lot about how well I can function as a conference attendee, and from that standpoint, it works."
Matt Carlisle, Big Heart Design
I recently attended the IA Summit in Miami and encountered CrowdVine for the first time. I was blown away at its simplicity. I really love simple applications that have robust tool sets.
Xavier Vespa
In this pool of colorful competition, CrowdVine stands as the simplest way to connect to each other. Actually, the simplicity starts at the creation of the social network. The creation process lasts 5-10 minutes max: Simply pick a name, description, logo and color theme, 3 introductory questions and invite people to join in by email. You can connect from CrowdVine directly to your Facebook profile and invite your friends from there. To lively up the group, write blog posts to attract attention and launch discussions. If time doesn't allow you to write blog posts, hook your CrowdVine network up to your external blog's feed. You can also connect it to your Twitter account for live regular updates.
Nick Gonzalez, TechCrunch
Setting your own network is dead simple. You just need to pick a name, pick some profile questions, and then send out invites with a personalized message. You network is hosted at name.crowdvine.com Profiles consist of a photo, location, personal link, description, blog posts, and the questions the creator of the network chooses. Members can also incorporate RSS feeds from another blog, photo stream, or social bookmarking site.
Killer Startups
There are many reasons to create a network and with CrowdVine.com creating a network is easy. The homepage takes you through three easy steps. First design your network, basically choose your color, there isn't a huge choice with designing your network at the moment. Then choose your profile questions, this is where you make your network unique, deciding what questions will be in your profile.
This service is pretty straight forward to set up [and] is much less complicated and cleaner [than other sites]. There are no annoying Google Ads placed on the interface, and the simple way people can set up and place their information in their profiles will be appealing to even the most non-tech savvy group out there.
Gareth Branwyn, Make magazine advisor on Make's MakerFaire
Within a few hours, over 100 people had signed on, started linking and commenting, piping in their blog feeds, Flickr pools, social bookmarks. It really was kind of extraordinary.
Brian Jepson at Providence Geeks
CrowdVine is totally crowd-centric: you answer a few questions, post a photo, maybe friend a few people in the group, and that's it. From there, CrowdVine turns into a back-channel for an event or association, and is great for matching names to faces, finding out more about someone, or informal followups before, after,
Jeff Haynie, Co-Chair of SoCon07
I think the tipping point was CrowdVine. I tracked the numbers during registration and like most events, there is an inflection point. In our case, that tipping point was when the CrowdVine social network came online.
Timothy Moenk, Conference Staff, his blog
CrowdVine enabled us to begin the conference early, and afterwords it is allowing us to continue the conversation. It is more then just a social network, it also aggregates everyone's blogs!
Attendee
It added so much to our conferences; a great auto meeting facilitator.
Grace Porter, JISC, The 'tremors' of conference amplification
It is definitely adding to the buzz around the conference and it certainly helps us lot in JISC towers tap into what delegates are discussing in the run up to the JISC Conference, what they are planning and who they are interested in hooking up with.
JISC Events Blog
Since the JISC Comms teams launched CrowdVine as the social networking site for the JISC Conference 2008 last Friday, interest amongst delegates has been slowing picking up and now beginning to gather pace. People are joining up, having a look around, putting up their blog and twitter feeds and making the odd comment or two. [...] I recently read on Lorcan Dempsey's (OCLC) blog about the "tremors" that conference amplification causes and how having something like CrowdVine for a conference allows you to keep track of what is going on if you are not there, without going to a huge amount of effort..."it happened in the background. it was like weather". this I think hits the spot with what CrowdVine is for, and what we hope to achieve with this first step into 'conference amplification' for the JISC Conference.
Rachna Singh, Attendee
I found CrowdVine to be a really cool and useful tool. I used it at the recent Web2.0 expo at SF. It made the conference extremely productive for me - in the sense that I could meet with relevant business partners/customers and in an organized manner, making effective use of my time. What they could do to add an additional layer of convenience is - provide a way to access my network/contacts/meeting data for that conference offline as wellÉ the wi-fi at many events sucks, and so if they have a tool that offers contacts data offline, that will be useful. They could also do with a mobile client.
via Twitter
One of the best features of our @uxweek social network is the ability for admins to see the "wallflowers". Thanks @crowdvine!
via Twitter
sitting behind someone looking at my profile on crowdvine.
Chris Keene, OR08: Live Blogging Experiment
This is an excellent tool, and I recommend it to anyone setting up a conference. It helped to put names to faces, but it also helped to get a feel for who are some of the more prominent people. For example: If Les Carr talks about Gnu Eprints, I know to listen as he manages the thing, and if Bill Hubbard talks about IRs I know to listen to what he says because he Manages Sherpa in the UK. However I couldn't tell you the same about the Dspace or US equivalents. I still can't tell you their names (I don't do names) but I certainly recognised faces of those who seemed to be very active in their area. I know this sounds a little elitist or hierarchical, but it really isn't meant to be.
via Twitter
Set up another CrowdVine social network for the IDEA Conference. My 4th in one year. It just keeps getting easier
via Twitter
Getting psyched for Business of Software conference...and geeking out on crowdvine.com
via Twitter
really great session with @paulhenderson crowdvine is so useful
via Twitter
networking on the @2gether08 back net ... crowdvine affair ... quite good ... like it, very clever ...