Book4Today launches

Remember last week when I posted about a new idea Jeffrey Brown from TradeShowBlues had? Today we got the official press release about the project, called Book4Today. I think it sounds pretty interesting, and who knows, it might actually work! Here's the P.R.:

New campaign launched to highlight $1 billion in new, short-term bookings for event venues.





The Great Event Venues of America™ and Book4Today campaigns seek to involve industry participants from all sectors.





COSTA MESA, CA (June 28, 2005) – In a year that has been filled with controversy surrounding the issue of excess space available at large metropolitan convention centers, a novel effort has been launched to help stimulate the market for short-term bookings at all kinds of event venues across the country. It brings together two branded efforts simultaneously – a new amalgamation of diverse venues called The Great Event Venues of America™ – the other is a high profile marketing and public relations play called Book4Today.





The two efforts have been designed to draw on the interest, talents and resources of many “invited participants” from different sectors of the tradeshow and event business to create a unique awareness and a call to action that will be heard throughout the industry.





With its focus on highlighting $1 billion in new bookings for events that will take place in the next year, the Book4Today website (www.Book4Today.com) will feature a regularly updated, telethon-like tote board that will track progress toward the goal. The tote board will eventually serve as the focal point for measuring the ongoing success of the campaign.





In addition, the site will serve as a mini-portal for participants, who are categorized into three groups: Participating Venues, Participating Event Producers, and Participating Industry Colleagues. All participants in the campaign will be fully recognized on the site according to their level of involvement.





At a minimum level, Participating Venues and Event Producers will be asked to “report in” on their new event bookings that will take place during the next twelve months. The non-duplicated aggregate of these bookings will be posted on the tote board as they are reported. Book4Today will publish a Weekly Report summarizing the latest activity. Participating Industry Colleagues will be able to contribute to the campaign in many ways from simply offering up good ideas all the way to products and services. They can also help track down unreported, qualified bookings that can be added to the tote board.





Jeffrey D Brown, a 25-year veteran of the publishing, advertising and tradeshow business, conceived The Great Event Venues of America™ and Book4Today campaigns. Brown is probably best known in the industry as the founder, publisher and editor of TradeshowBlues.com, the 4-year old online human-interest news and entertainment magazine for “tradeshow and event enthusiasts.”





“When I first thought about these campaigns, I was reminded of the great Live Aid concert 20 years ago and other similar large scale awareness efforts over the years,” said Brown. “This is not quite the same thing, but there are parallels and we hope to utilize some of the best of those ideas.” Brown hopes to mobilize his diverse audience, which crosses nearly the entire span of the tradeshow and event industry, to “discover” the benefits associated with participation.





Brown and his company, AttendSource, Inc, the publisher of Tradeshow Blues, have started the campaign as Initiating Sponsors, but will be seeking other organizations and individuals to join them in what he believes will be “a great marketing adventure.”





No matter what happens, the whole effort will have some reality-like programming. Brown, who already writes 3 blogs, and much of Tradeshow Blues, has committed to a fourth blog, the Book4Today Official Blog & Chronicle that is already candidly following the entire project from launch to “wherever it’s going to go.”





Those interested in participating in the campaign are encouraged to visit the Book4Today website for more information. The site, which is partially complete, contains about 25 pages of information with more content being added daily.