Event management Web site amiando launches Facebook app

When Facebook Connect launched in July to allow Facebook users to connect to third-party websites using their Facebook identities, twenty-four partner companies were included in the launch. Among them is amiando, a Munich-based event management Web site.

"Events are the most important social happening," Felix Haas, CEO of amiando, told TicketNews. "Therefore we will use Facebook Connect to let event organizers and their guests enjoy, recommend and promote events within the social context of their real identity and friendships on Facebook."

A European leader in the field of online event organization, amiando gives organizers the ability to manage events online in an easy-to-use and on-demand format. Tools available to organizers include invitation management, online promotions, attendee registration, integrated billing, and entry management. Event organizers can also customize events pages with exportable widgets (you can put a ticket sales widget on your personal blog, for example). Founded in 2006, amiando's reach extends throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. More than 50,000 events have been organized using amiando's tools.

In joining Facebook Connect, amiando hopes to take advantage of Facebook's social distribution opportunities through one of its newest tools aimed at event promotion: ViralTickets. ViralTickets takes its cues from viral marketing, in which promotion and branding occurs and is replicated voluntarily, mostly through word of mouth and within social networks (such as online communities like Facebook). With ViralTickets, users can promote and market events online, via social networks like Facebook, and include built-in incentives like discounts and rebates to enhance the viral-like spread of tickets.

For example, a user buying a ViralTicket for an event on amiando will receive a referral code that can be passed on to friends, family, or colleagues. Those who receive this code also receive a discount on the tickets, and the original referrer receives a refund on the original ticket price.

Facebook users can log on to amiando through Facebook Connect and easily use ViralTickets to promote their own events or other's. When a user logs in through Facebook Connect, their actions will be published back on Facebook. It's another chance for users to market, promote, and share information.