Destination Services San Diego will soon launch a new Web-based DMC service for meeting and event planners, it announced last week. The free service, called e-DMC, will debut later this quarter and will directly connect planners with suppliers, as well as with tools for automating the meeting planning process. Destination Services San Diego has partnered with E-DestinACCESS (EDA), an Orange County, Calif.-based company that specializes in software for destination management companies

e-destinACCESS, Inc. (E-DA), a small Orange County, Calif.-based technology company debuts e-dmc.com on July 1, 2009, a fee-free web-based software offered to individual FIT or corporate meeting and event planners.

e-dmc.com is modeled after a full-service DMC (destination management company), to help reconcile the struggle among production support within the meeting industry,  spending responsibility, and business policy transparency.

With the current struggling economic conditions, e-dmc.com is an example of a small company determined to provide a tremendous solution.

e-dmc.com's patent pending technology will directly connect planners and suppliers, with no hidden fees or markups, thereby removing middle-men costs.

e-destinACCESS (E-DA), an Orange County, Calif.-based company that specializes in software for destination management companies, has officially launched e-dmc.com, its new Web-based DMC service for meeting and event planners, it announced this week.

The free service, which is modeled after a full-service DMC, directly connects meeting planners with meeting suppliers, as well as tools for automating the meeting planning process. Because it has no hidden fees or markups, E-DA says e-dmc.com allows planners to remove "middle-men costs" and save up to 50 percent of their budget, not to mention up to 75 percent of their manpower hours.

i-Meet.com, the professional and social network for people who plan meetings and events, announced today the launch of its e-RFI tool. Aptly named "Ask The World," the engine is the industry's first effort to formalize Requests For Information (RFIs), and it connects its planner members directly to over 40,000 suppliers around the world.

"Planners seldom start the process of placing an event with a formal Request For Proposal (RFP)," said John Pino, i-Meet's Founder and CEO. "More likely, they initially do the research and evaluate destinations and venues by requesting information (RFI) and general pricing guidelines. When they have enough to connect the dots, they move to an RFP. This RFI to RFP Continuum is exactly what we're targeting. The objective is to get planners and suppliers engaged early and easily, with an honest evaluation of where the request sits in the Continuum."

i-Meet (www.i-Meet.com), the professional and social network for people who plan meetings and events, announced today that its membership base passed the 5,000 member milestone. With members now in 80 countries around the world, i-Meet helpspeople in the hospitality industry connect, communicate and collaborate.

With the success of social networking at sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, there are predictions that the next big phenomenon will be business communities focusing on specific industries. i-Meet is one of the first such industry-specific efforts, with a model that features a business overlay for its members -- including a system for rating suppliers specifically on meeting and event performance, an engine that enables e-RFIs (Requests for Information), a group collaboration capability, and a focus on community features for the worldwide meeting and event industry. i-Meet also features business functions for suppliers allow organizations to manage activities there through administrative and communication tools. Membership is free at www.i-meet.com.

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- (Marketwire) -- 07/28/09 -- i-Meet.com, the professional and social network for people who plan meetings and events, announced today that it has passed the 10,000-member mark, another important milestone in its short history.

"We're encouraged, and grateful, that so many people around the world have joined i-Meet," said John Pino, i-Meet's Founder and CEO. "Our growth trajectory has actually accelerated since our launch in November, and we have now passed our initial first year membership projection. It gives us the confidence and validation that we're on the right track to provide a relevant online community for our industry."

PHILADELPHIA, PA--(Marketwire - July 15, 2009) - i-Meet.com, the professional and social network for people who plan meetings and events, announced today its partnership with PlannerNet, enabling organizations to find, qualify and contract for experienced project-based labor. This service-based offering identifies professional meeting and event skills that are available worldwide, matching planner experience and projects with a turn-key process for event organizers.

"In this challenging, economic environment, companies are becoming more inclined to staff their events on a project by project basis," said John Pino, i-Meet's Founder and CEO. "By connecting our worldwide social network to PlannerNet, we're accessing PMPN's unique and effective process of delivering qualified talent. i-Meet is enabling this trend to scale up, and become a more vital component of our industry's future."

John Pino, founder of i-Meet.com, interviewed by Technically Philly, a site on tech and innovation news in Philadelphia

In November, Pino founded and self-funded i-Meet.com, which utilizes social-networking features to connect like-minded people in their efforts to organize, plan and promote events. The South Philadelphia-native, who grew up near 17th and Oregon Avenue in St. Monica’s Parish, didn’t want his tech startup based anywhere else but Center City, which he says is on its way to being the next great corridor of innovation.

His “strong launch team” all learned the tech-business game in Philly.

“The impetus,” for the launch Pino says, was a “screaming need for a worldwide network in the meeting and event industry, and we decided we would make it happen. Especially when we figured out how to put a business overlay over the social aspects of the community.”

Orange County, CA, January 22, 2009 --(PR.com)-- E-DestinAccess (EDA) provides a solution to the growing economical and technological needs of meeting professionals and suppliers by launching in the first quarter of 2009, e-DMC, a Free Web-based DMC Service for Meeting and Event Planners. E-DMC is a SaaS (Software as a service) that directly connects planners and suppliers while providing the tools, resources, & automating power to facilitate and boost the meeting and event planning business. By saving money & resources on the administrative side, more spending power can be shifted towards other economically-enhancing activities such as entertainment, spa services, food & beverages.

The Meeting Planning industry’s needs could be best described in the MPI article “2009 Brings Unique Business Opportunities for the Global Meeting Industry” featured on FutureWatch, surveying Planners & Meeting Professionals: