Method and System for Conducting a Plurality of Cyber-Based Conventions

Abstract

A method and system for conducting Internet-based conventions-includes meeting planner clients, exhibitor/sponsor clients and attendee clients, all using web browser computers and a central website server on the Internet. The system receives and stores initial convention data, and control parameter rules from meeting planner clients. Then the system receives and stores exhibit booth display data and control parameter rules for said convention from exhibitor/sponsor clients. Based on search criteria provided by the participating attendee client, the central website server releases stored database convention information and provides a wide array of convention activity simulated with the program instructions and the databases. Thus, the system allows the creation of a “virtual convention venue” for conventions that exist only on the central website server and available using the Internet.

1 . A method for providing edited content information for presentation at a website associated with at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association by facilitating the exchange between at least one participant, attendee, and/or member, at least one editorial professional, and/or at least one user via the Internet, the method comprising:
 a. receiving, from the at least one editorial professional with at least one of a web browser computer and/or a web browser information appliance at a central website server, at least one choice to set up editorial activity of content information associated with the at least one participant, attendee, and/or member;   b. receiving, from the at least one participant, attendee, and/or member, with at least one of a web browser computer and/or a web browser information appliance, and electronically storing at a central website server, content information including at least one searchable keyword, interest, and/or geographic location;   c. providing, at the central website server, using program instructions, editorial review and/or editorial change activity of the content information, for the at least one editorial professional to accept and/or prepare content information for presentation for a website associated with the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association;   d. providing, at the central website server, program instructions to join, link, transfer, tie, cross-reference, cross-link, and/or relationally tie at least a portion of the content information for presentation at the website associated with the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association;   e. receiving, at the central website server, from the at least one user with at least one of a web browser computer and/or a web browser information appliance at the website associated with the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association, a query including at least one keyword, interest, and/or geographic location associated with the content information for presentation;   f. processing the query at the central website server by searching for the at least one keyword, interest, and/or geographic location within at least a portion of the content information for presentation; and   g. releasing, from the central website server to the at least one user, at least a portion of the content information for presentation.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the central website server is a global website system comprising a plurality of Internet servers. 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association is at least one of the following: a convention bureau, a visitors organization, a destination marketing organization, a housing bureau, a group meeting, a convention, an event, a special event, a conference, a trade show, a meeting of individuals, a group session, a group forum, a grouping of people, a college group, an education group, a society, a social group, a social network, and/or an analysis group. 
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the least one participant, attendee, and/or member is at least one of the following: a destination marketing organization user, a housing bureau member, a hotel employee, an accommodation employee, a travel provider, a rental car supplier, a transportation provider, a parking provider, a sponsor, an exhibitor, a host organization official, a convention and visitors bureau employee, an association employee, an association member, a social group member, and/or a group participant. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one editorial professional is at least one of the following: a person with editorial responsibilities, a person with website content review responsibilities, an editorial review professional, a meeting planner, a meeting professional, an administrator, an association professional, a special event organizer, an event planner, a meeting organizer, a sponsor, a business official, an organization official, a user with editorial responsibilities, and/or a convention and visitors bureau employee. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one editorial professional in step a. is different than the at least one editorial professional in step c. 
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one user is at least one of the following: an attendee, a member, a visitor, an audience participant, a website user, a media contact, a contact, a person, and/or an individual. 
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one choice to set up editorial activity of content information is at least one of: approval, addition, modification, deletion, an approval requirement, content policy, a technical paper review, a professional paper review, an authorization code, a requirements rule, a permissions rule, official proceedings rule, a website display rule, an editorial control rule, a text rule, a processing flow rule, and/or a submission rule. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the content information or the content information for presentation is at least one or more of: facility content, contact content, event content, special event content, convention content, convention venue content, convention and visitor bureau content, visitor content, conference content, forum content, session content, trade show content, exhibit content, marketing content, association content, group content, a technical paper, a professional paper, official proceedings, meeting content, meeting proceedings, destination content, hotel content, dining content, transportation content, statistical content, sales content, sales demonstration content, follow-up sales content, destination content, an electronic presentation, multimedia information, text, a video, video conference content, a movie, a photograph, and/or audio content. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one searchable keyword or the at least one keyword is at least one or more of: a product name, a service name, a brand name, a sponsor name, a personal name, in singular form, in plural form, a subject category, a theme, a subject, a keyword, an interest, a phrase, and/or a formatted phrase. 
     
     
         11 . A system for providing edited content information for presentation at a website associated with at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association by facilitating the exchange between at least one participant, attendee, and/or member, at least one editorial professional, and/or at least one user via the Internet, the method comprising:
 a. means for receiving, from the at least one editorial professional with at least one of a web browser computer and/or a web browser information appliance at a central website server, at least one choice to set up editorial activity of content information associated with the at least one participant, attendee, and/or member;   b. means for receiving, from the at least one participant, attendee, and/or member, with at least one of a web browser computer and/or a web browser information appliance, and electronically storing at a central website server, content information including at least one searchable keyword, interest, and/or geographic location;   c. means for providing, at the central website server, using program instructions, editorial review and/or editorial change activity of the content information, for the at least one editorial professional to accept and/or prepare content information for presentation for a website associated with the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association;   d. means for providing, at the central website server, program instructions to join, link, transfer, tie, cross-reference, cross-link, and/or relationally tie at least a portion of the content information for presentation at the website associated with the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association;   e. means for receiving, at the central website server, from the at least one user with at least one of a web browser computer and/or a web browser information appliance at the website associated with the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association, a query including at least one keyword, interest, and/or geographic location associated with the content information for presentation;   f. means for processing the query at the central website server by searching for the at least one keyword, interest, and/or geographic location within at least a portion of the content information for presentation; and   g. means for releasing, from the central website server, to the at least one user, at least a portion of the content information for presentation.   
     
     
         12 . A computer-implemented method for providing edited content information for presentation at a website associated with at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association by facilitating the exchange between at least one participant, attendee, and/or member, at least one editorial professional, and/or at least one user via the Internet, the method comprising:
 on at least one server computer having a computer readable medium with program instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor of the at least one server computer, cause the processor to:   a. receive, from the at least one editorial professional with at least one of a web browser computer and/or a web browser information appliance, at least one choice to set up editorial activity of content information associated with the at least one participant, attendee, and/or member;   b. receive, from the at least one participant, attendee, and/or member, with at least one of a web browser computer and/or a web browser information appliance, content information including at least one searchable keyword, interest, and/or geographic location;   c. execute program instructions to facilitate editorial review and/or editorial change activity of the content information for the at least one editorial professional to accept and/or prepare content information for presentation for a website associated with the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association;   d. execute program instructions to join, link, transfer, tie, cross-reference, cross-link, and/or relationally tie at least a portion of the content information for presentation at the website associated with the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association;   e. receive, from the at least one user with at least one of a web browser computer and/or a web browser information appliance at the website associated with the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association, a query including at least one keyword, interest, and/or geographic location associated with the content information for presentation;   f. process the query by searching for the at least one keyword, interest, and/or geographic location within at least a portion of the content information for presentation; and   g. release at least a portion of the content information for presentation to the at least one user.   
     
     
         13 . The computer-method according to  claim 12 , wherein the at least one convention and visitors bureau, meeting, and/or association is at least one of the following: a convention bureau, a visitors organization, a destination marketing organization, a housing bureau, a group meeting, a convention, an event, a special event, a conference, a trade show, a meeting of individuals, a group session, a group forum, a grouping of people, a college group, an education group, a society, a social group, a social network, and/or an analysis group. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 12 , wherein the least one participant, attendee, and/or member is at least one of the following: a destination marketing organization user, a housing bureau member, a hotel employee, an accommodation employee, a travel provider, a rental car supplier, a transportation provider, a parking provider, a sponsor, an exhibitor, a host organization official, a convention and visitors bureau employee, an association employee, an association member, a social group member, and/or a group participant. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-method according to  claim 12 , wherein the at least one editorial professional is at least one of the following: a person with editorial responsibilities, a person with website content review responsibilities, an editorial review professional, a meeting planner, a meeting professional, an administrator, an association professional, a special event organizer, an event planner, a meeting organizer, a sponsor, a business official, an organization official, a user with editorial responsibilities, and/or a convention and visitors bureau employee. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 12 , wherein the at least one editorial professional in step a. is different than the at least one editorial professional in step c. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 12 , wherein the at least one user is at least one of the following: an attendee, a member, a visitor, an audience participant, a website user, a media contact, a contact, a person, and/or an individual. 
     
     
         18 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 12 , wherein the at least one choice to set up editorial activity of content information is at least one of: approval, addition, modification, deletion, an approval requirement, content policy, a technical paper review, a professional paper review, an authorization code, a requirements rule, a permissions rule, official proceedings rule, a website display rule, an editorial control rule, a text rule, a processing flow rule, and/or a submission rule. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 12 , wherein the content information or the content information for presentation is at least one or more of: facility content, contact content, event content, special event content, convention content, convention venue content, convention and visitor bureau content, visitor content, conference content, forum content, session content, trade show content, exhibit content, marketing content, association content, group content, a technical paper, a professional paper, official proceedings, meeting content, meeting proceedings, destination content, hotel content, dining content, transportation content, statistical content, sales content, sales demonstration content, follow-up sales content, destination content, an electronic presentation, multimedia information, text, a video, video conference content, a movie, a photograph, and/or audio content. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 12 , wherein the at least one searchable keyword or the at least one keyword is at least one or more of: a product name, a service name, a brand name, a sponsor name, a personal name, in singular form, in plural form, a subject category, a theme, a subject, a keyword, an interest, a phrase, and/or a formatted phrase.