Thursday, July 17, 2008 -- 6:58 p.m. -- at my desk

Sometimes, after a few minutes shopping in the App Store, you feel inspired and amazed.

Take Shazam for example. Like magic, you hold up an audio source to it and it recognizes the song that's playing.

That's amazing.

Speaking of amazing -- Eventful would be near the top of the amazingly useful section if there was one.

This is from the company's press release:

Users can search for events, see what’s happening at their favorite venues, find tour schedules for their favorite performers, buy tickets for events and see what their friends are interested in doing. With the touch of a button, they can also participate in Eventful Demand, a free service that enables fans to influence the tour schedules of their favorite performers.

That Demand part, to me, is the sweetest part. While there's more to the app, it's the part that makes me want to go back to it again and again. Basically, you "demand" that a particular performer perform in your area. The information is then sent to the performers directly. So the performer may be tracking the numbers, or someone affiliated with their tour. Basically, you are able to influence where a band plays.

Who knew you could have so much power?

Brian Dear did ... he's the founder and chairman of Eventful Inc., and he spent a little time with me on the phone today explaining why he thinks his application is unique.

Brian's quick to point out that Eventful isn't about event planning. He wrote it very eloquently in his blog ... that it's the best way on the Internet to discover, share, track, create, and demand events. Since day one, Eventful's mission has been, in three words, to "maximize event discovery", something that I felt the Internet had done a poor job doing in the years prior to a service like Eventful being available. "Event discovery" is the act of discovering events that are interesting and meaningful to you such that you want to go to them and hopefully do wind up going to them.

Brian tells me that musicians everywhere are and have been using Eventful ... they provide a way for them to keep track of the demands. And you can tell when you talk to Brian that he's passionate about this.

I tried it out ... I found out where my favorite performers will be near Chicago ... I demanded that an act come to my city. I then saw that there's a direct link to purchase tickets (a nice touch).

And, as is the case with many apps for the iPhone 3G, it's location aware. Bonus for when you are traveling and just want to know what's happening where you are.

A little more info from the Eventful Web site:

At your fingertips you'll have…
-- Millions of events to choose from
-- Schedules for all venues near you
-- Tour dates for over 130,000 performers

You can also…
-- Get email event alerts tailored to your interests
-- Demand your favorite performers to come to your town
-- Participate in our community of 6 million event-aholics
-- Use iPhone's GPS to locate events near you

The reviews over at the App Store are mixed, but as I told Brian, I can see Eventful as being something that I'd actually use again. Brian tells me that the company is working on updates and hopes to continue to expand the functionality available for the mobile space.

Check it out under the social networking section at the store and let me know what you think. One thing that Brian said is that he and his staff are dedicated to improving upon the app, so if you have suggestions or concerns, send them to the company via the links on the app store page.

Thanks for calling.

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