John A. • Interesting, I will have to look into marketing with Pinterest.

Rosemary V. • I think Pinterest is a fantastic marketing tool. The possibilities are endless...just needs a little creativity! :-)

Ben L. • Looks snazzy, great idea!

Kari R. • I've been considering Pinterest for a conference client, but I'm curious about whether it's actually effective for driving traffic to the website. Even if you do have a lot of great photos and images on your conference website, will Pinterest actually make people visit (and even register)? Or are we still in the experimental stages here?

Marvin M. • I love Pinterest. It's makes things so beautiful. My one concern with all new tech for events is whether or not I'll get an outsized ROI for the time/effort/money I'll spend using this? That ROI could come in increased buzz, registrations, engagement, etc. but I need to understand why I'm actually using something and what I can expect out of using it. Otherwise, it's a waste of time.

Also, Pinterest is still invite only/waiting list to use. I signed up a few weeks ago and got an invitation after three or four days. For cushion, organizers should probably pad in a few weeks to get their account "approved" to actually use it for their events.

Like I said before, I love it but I'd still probably wait a year before I use it for my events to see if it continues it's stunning growth in popularity and for them to add more specific features tailored to the event organizing/business community.

Kari R. • I agree, Marvin. One of the reasons I'm opting not to use Pinterest for an event right now is because it's still invite-only. Not enough people are on it yet.

I'd love to see Pinterest allow board owners to open up boards for anyone to pin to, or the ability to create a group around a board that people can actively join (the don't have to be invited individually to pin on a board). Big opportunity for interactivity there.

Rosemary V. • I believe that Pinterest will soon drop the 'invite only' restriction of the site. It was a brilliant marketing initiative on their behalf. Here are a couple of articles about Pinterest (and other 'push button' content curating sites).

http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/12/how-pinterest-will-transform-web-in.htmlhttp://gigaom.com/2012/01/04/you-are-what-you-curate-why-pinterest-is-hawt/

Jumping on the bandwagon of new technologies in itself can be a marketing strategy for your conference. Looking at Pinterest a little outside of the box can produce all sorts of potential for your conference. Folks can share their boards on other social networks without viewers needing to have a Pinterest account. It's a little bit of hype for sure, but as the articles show is definitely the 'next big thing' that we shouldn't ignore :-)