24 The Social Trade S how You start seeing blog posts about the event popping up days and weeks after the event written by the media, attendees, and exhibitors. The organizers usually post session summaries and release them throughout the year. Video recordings of general sessions and educational sessions are made available online, and people post pictures on Facebook and Flickr to share them with colleagues who could not attend. LinkedIn invitations to connect are sent out. The Twitter hashtag is alive with thank-yous and reflections on the event. If you have content you've created at the event, you can be part of that sharing. You can keep the excitement of the show alive by slowly releasing session sum- maries, pictures, and videos to your community over the weeks after the show. And just about the time it starts winding down, you can begin building excitement up for the next event. You will no longer be starting over each year from scratch. You'll be building on an audience you've already established through your commu- nity. And that audience will be introducing you to all their new friends. Summary Attendees are no longer going onto the trade show floor to only be sold a product or service. They are there to network, find out industry trends, and get specific