Every conversation in the event marketing industry eventually comes around to technology. You want to know what tools are out there to make your jobs easier, make your programs more successful and most crucially, make your target consumers love you the most. We have heard your clarion calls for help and now, with this monthly series, EM’s own Ken Briodagh will collect and codify the hottest, newest, most interesting, best (and sometimes worst) technological doohickeys available to you.

Event staffers today come in every stripe and skill set and it’s up to you to pick the right one for the job. Do you need them to tweet, post and Instagram from the fair, festival or trade show floor? And if so, how big should their personal social networks be? Do they need to talk product features and benefits like an expert, or do you actually need a real expert to talk to your attendees?

For the beverage category, a bottle of water is always more than just a bottle of water.

It’s a promise of refreshment. A vessel filled with good health and hydration. Sometimes it’s a momentary escape to a mountain spring or an exotic island. Or a reflection of a lifestyle you live, or aspire to, in your everyday life.

For cable and network television channels, April showers bring just one thing: upfront season. It's the time of year when the execs and sales people show off their new and continuing shows to advertisers, and try to get the bulk of the year's sales on the books. On April 11, IFC threw an Upfront party like these advertisers have never seen. It was dubbed the IFC Unexpectaganza, and boy, was it.

Verizon has reinvented its mobile FiOS SoCal Experience this year with a larger fleet and a more locally relevant, integrated campaign that incorporates cause marketing and rewards creativity. And with early results showing a sales increase of 27 percent in areas where it has focused, the strategy seems to be working.