Face time is always important. Especially when it comes to those who work primarily online (via email, instant messaging, conference calls, video chat, etc.). When you're corresponding with associates, clients, or affiliates... a sense of trust is built over time during that online time. However, when it comes time to meeting people in a face-2-face setting, it's like the icing on the cake. The two worlds of online and offline meet to create a solid relationship.

I once worked as an online affiliate marketing manager and when it came time to attend conventions/conferences, it was a pleasure to match a face with the person you were corresponding with consistently over time online.

So I went over to Evite.com to see if any ideas came to me about this online invitation business. The biggest thing that hit me was how well-rounded their offerings were, meaning they have a miriad of services and departments that offer a wide range of things.

For instance, I like the themed evite graphics selection idea (even though their design selection pretty much sucks). Although in my case, among my circle of friends who are television animation artists, you can imagine the lengths we go to outdo each other over Flash animations for Xmas and new years cards. Aesthetically pleasing or humorous visuals are in my opinion a big way of connecting with people. It’s like going the extra mile.

What I like is the overall feel that there’s a staff of people taking care of things, whether it be writing tips and articles for how to make your get together better, or a creative services department in charge of themes and branding. Advertisers are drawn to strong brand identity. I get no sense of professional support on Zoodango I’m sad to say. User-generated content only goes so far, and most of the time the site seems to be running on automatic.

Paul, thanks for the feedback. For our new launch, we will be offering an articles section on the homepage, where we have staff writers offerring tips on creative ideas on things to do. We will be a bit different from Evite, in that we are focused more on helping people meet up with one another versus party planning. Instead of party planning, we will be more about finding cool places and setting up face-to-face socials with friends.

For Evite, they focus on themes, party supplies, etc...insead, we will provide you with an actual decision engine that will help you figure out where and when to meet up with friends that is customized to your invitation of friends. Location information is very weak on Evite, and they certainly don't have any type of smart engine to help you make social decisions.

On the other hand, you are right in that Evite is strong on the selection of graphics for invitations, party supplies, and party ideas. As a company, it's a matter of focus, and we choose to focus on the missing element that actually helps you make decisions when you want to meet up with friends.

Ah, I see. More geared towards clubbing, music venues and dining activity, like an LA Weekly, only more focused on the Seattle area.

I assume the bulk of the revenue will be from dining and club establishments that want to participate and be included on this “decision engine”.

That would make sense for Zoodango’s demographic being twenty-somethings, that are more prone to group activity and finding cool places to go.

Paul, we are launching with over 1 million venues in all cities. These venues range from restaurants to bowling alleys to hotel conference centers. We allow people to define their favorite places based on 5 lifestyle categories. One of the categories is nightlife, but another one is professional....so we want to provide a complete picture of someone's venue or meetup types in their life.

I've been an Evite user forever. I noticed that they have "blogs," but they're really under utilized and are pretty burried when there is someone who posts.

One thing that Evite doesn't do well after all these years of people entering specs for venues is have a database of venue ammenities. Sure they have location, but what about parking sitch, seating for theatres like (Seattle) Capitol Hill's Hugo House... that sort of stuff.

Marilee, thanks for the venue amenities feedback. I agree with you 100%. We will make sure we offer some amenities type info that pertain to meeting up with people. We may not have all the info for all venues, but we'll at least allow users to add amenity info.

For one of my Meetup groups we have older folks and people w/mobility issues and these are important -- but after a while of entering in venues, you'd think Evite would've caught on.