The Global Hedge Fund Forum is place for hedge fund professionals to network and connect.  Hedge fund investors that meet the legal criteria for accessing the sensitive hedge fund information can join the community for free.  Hedge fund managers wishing to promote their funds to a qualified audience in a secure environment can do so by purchasing access to the community. Sponsorships for online branding within the community are available as well.  Both the managers and the sponsors will be showcased in virtual booths – marketing materials can be uploaded, video shown and profiles attached for an interactive presence.

The Forum is looking to facilitate networking in the hedge fund industry while helping hedge fund managers market their funds within the legal confines which they are allowed.

The Global Hedge Fund Forum is the first of several custom communities coming to Leebug this fall.  The functionality and customization of the platform has appealed to a number of member associations.  The Leebug platform is extremely flexible.  Please contact us if you would like to learn more about a custom community.

Our new splash page emphasizes the human connection of event networking.  The Leebug platform is here to enhance event networking – to make it easier for delegates to meet the right people in a more efficient manor.  And these people aren’t avatars, they are business people like you and I.  We are also displaying some our more recent clients.

We scrapped the whole site tour thing, and instead laid out the platform’s features in a clear, simple manor.  Anyone wanting a proper tour of the site can contact us and we’ll be happy to run through a demo.

Details on our mobile app, and on using the platform for virtual events, have been posted as well.

So that’s it, take a look, and we’re diving back in creating more features to enhance conference networking. By the way, did you see our new v-Booth widgets?

Our new Facebook integration includes posting status updates to your wall from Leebug web or mobile. The ability to Share the event community with your friends and Like a virtual booth.

And speaking of Facebook, come and join our Leebug Facebook page.

The aim of the event is to bring together the Asian Social Media community to debate the hot topics for 2010.  A fully packed agenda looking into how brands can use social media as a marketing tool, the latest tips and tricks, how brands are moderating and measuring their conversations and results, and how the major social networks are positioning themselves within the Asian market. The event will also look at how marketers can use apps and mobile social media to engage on the phone, we also have a day break out covering social TV, and the impact of social media on the TV industry, and the emergence of the TV app store.

Delegates of the SMWF will be able to network and connect online using Leebug’s powerful tools.  Custom filters will make connecting with right delegate easier than ever.  Virtual booths provide firms with an interactive advertising tool and additional exposure beyond the days of the event. The Hub provides a real-time stream of tweets, photos and videos.

We are extremely pleased to provide a mobile app for the event.  The app, which is hot off the press (more info coming soon), will be a crucial tool for the delegates on the days event by providing schedule details, speaker bios, venue information and much more. Users will be able to tap into the Leebug event community and share on Facebook and Twitter.

The powerful networking foundation that is the Leebug platform is being used by more and more conference companies to enhance their events. Features like auto-enrolling registrants, advanced attendee filtering, LinkedIn profile import, Meet Ups, and The Hub social media dashboard, have all been assisting delegates get more from their conference experience.

Now, what about applying these features to a virtual event?

I have seen virtual events defined by anything from a conference call to a 3D interactive world like Second Life. The Global Hedge Fund Forum had 20 video presentations, including a highlighted keynote, live chat between the viewers and the presenters, and a general chat Lounge. Over 300 people registered for the event, which is ongoing as the presentations play on-demand, and together with the sponsors and presenters, the event community is almost 400 strong.

Meet Ups on the virtual event turned out to be a popular as people promoted offline events.  They served to bring engagement from cyberspace to the real world. A new Tracks page in the virtual event community gives users more information on the presenters. Our mobile app gives users access to the virtual event community on their smart phones. All sponsors and presenters received virtual booths to further promote themselves with marketing materials, branding, company description etc.

The virtual event component of the Leebug platform is very flexible and we will be adding the ability to stream live video shortly.  Please contact us if you would like to learn more and let us make your webinars more social.

On the app you can view profiles, make status updates, view event participants and send messages.

Below are step-by-step instructions on getting started – reference the photos.  An iPhone was used in this example.

1. Go to http://m.leebug.com

2. Bookmark the page

3. The Leebug icon will be added, linking directly to the site

4. Profiles page – make Status updates and Send Messages.

5. Event Overview page.

6. The Event Community in your pocket!

For example, if the event has 60 v-Booths and there is comment discussion happening in one of them, this conversation will now be pulled into the Forum page giving it more exposure. Same with Meet Ups, if someone poses a question about the Meet Up, it will now also be displayed on the Forum page.

You will be able to reply to comments that originated elsewhere directly on the Forum page. Links are provided to the users making the comments and to their origin.

Comments, as always, continue to show up in your Activity Feeds on your Home page.

We hope you enjoy this new feature. Happy Commenting!

Sarasota, FL (PRWEB) February 17, 2010 — Leebug, a social networking website that provides free, custom event communities for conferences and professional events, has attracted a growing number of event producer partners to its platform.

Launched in September 2009, Leebug has focused recent development on integrating its platform with existing social media. Event communities are set up for free on the platform and event producers can take advantage of registration integration, a suite of customization tools and revenue sharing through sales of virtual booths. Leebug has added the ability for users to import their profile from LinkedIn, saving them the time of manually entering yet another online profile. Last week Leebug’s new social media dashboard called The Hub was released. Feeds from Twitter, Flickr and YouTube stream into The Hub and give event participants a real-time visualization of the event.

Leebug Founder, Rob Arthurs, is excited to offer these new features to event producers. “Twitter, along with other social media, has become an indispensable tool for conferences,” says Mr. Arthurs. “Smart phones equipped with a camera or video allow attendees to instantly share across sites like Flickr and YouTube. I’m thrilled to be bringing these feeds together within each Leebug event community.” Event producers are discovering the platform and forming their own communities which range from private financial forums to large technology and insurance conferences. Angela Cai, Regional Marketing Executive for Argus Media says, “By integrating with Leebug we will enhance the Argus event experience even further. Delegates of our upcoming Asian Petroleum Coke conference will benefit from the platform’s robust networking tools and virtual booths.”

About Leebug
Leebug (www.leebug.com) is a free, interactive social networking site for people attending conferences. It allows event participants to network before, during and after an event. The platform provides tools to make every connection a strategic one and empowers interactions that will enhance the users ability to build relationships.

How It Works

The host of the event community, usually the event producer, selects the keywords and tags to create the feeds from each of the social sites. Leebug will then fetch the tweets, photos and videos and display them on the page. YouTube videos will play directly in The Hub – you will not be redirected out of Leebug – same with with Flickr, the thumbnails will enlarge within a Leebug popup.  Delegates can participate in the Twitter stream by enabling their Twitter account and sending tweets directly from The Hub.

Display One, Two or All Three Feeds

If you don’t expect attendees to be taking photos or video during your event, you can simply skip the keyword entry for Flickr and YouTube and The Hub will adjust the columns to only show the Twitter feed.

Educate Attendees

Social media and conferences is still relatively new – though is Twitter is rapidly being adopted , just don’t display the live feed behind the speaker while they are presenting – and it will be up to the event producers to continue to push the adoption and to educate delegates. Smartphones such as the iPhone 3GS and the Nexus One place an incredible amount of promotional power into the hands of the delegates – so use it. Photos, videos and opinions can be instantly shared and propagated to the masses.

I am very excited about The Hub, our social media mashup. Along with registration integration, LinkedIn profile importing, v-Booths, and Meet ups, Leebug becomes one of the most powerful professional event networking websites on the internet.

Below is a screenshot of The Hub pulling Twitter and YouTube.

The Hub with feeds from Twitter, Flickr and You Tube.