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 To promote its new smoothie flavor, the McCafé Mango Pineapple Real Fruit Smoothie, McDonald’s on July 14 staged a flash mob-esque beach party in Chicago’s Riverside Park during lunch. It all began with a bikini. An attractive young woman strolled through the park in a bikini as the business people of Chicago gathered in the park for lunch. She set up a beach chair right in the center of the park and asked a passing male “consumer” to help put some sunscreen on her back.

Whether you’re planning an event for 500 employees or a concert for 5,000, the right event registration system can help the process go more smoothly. But checking people in is just one of the many cool tools and capabilities found in today’s registration platforms. From streamlining ticket sales via mobile devices and tracking behavioral data, to facilitating networking and social media engagement among attendees, event reg is no longer just an offshoot of a boring backend database. Here’s a look at five registration technologies that are breaking new ground.

EM brings you tips and tricks from pros and experts who’ve been eating social media marketing for breakfast. So eat up, and check us out on Twitter @eventmarketer and facebook.com/eventmarketer for more.

Today, New Balance opens its first North American Experience store in the Flatiron district of New York City and to get the buzz building and peeps through the doors, for the next four weeks the brand is challenging runners throughout the five boroughs to race for the chance to win free shoes, gift cards and, for the grand prize winner, a solid gold New Balance Baton worth $20,000.

B-to-B events, like everything else, are changing fast. Hybrid events, no doubt, are the hottest thing on the event marketing planet, but other trends are taking hold in the world of internal meetings and corporate conferences. Buckle up, dear readers, for a spin past five signposts in the current b-to-b landscape. And see if you can find the common thread connecting them all.