Religious meeting planners who are doubtful about the potential of Internet invitations probably have never had a POPgram in their in-box. POPgrams, the creation of Boston-based POPstick Corp., are among the new breed of personalized, interactive electronic invitations that can be tracked and monitored.
To get a feel for POPstick's gee-whiz factor, check out the POPgram samples on the company Web site (www.popstick.com). On the back end, POPgrams have a campaign-tracking database. If a recipient views, responds, or forwards the invitation, planners will know and can respond accordingly.
The recipient of a POPgram gets an e-mail message that says, for example, “Susan, here is your user group invitation.” It's a standard e-mail with a link on the bottom: “For your invitation, click here.” The link launches the recipient's Web browser, which automatically surfs to a POPgram.