When I attend conferences, I look for the WOW in the Exhibitor (vendor) booths, as well as the conference rooms. Xobni was one who provided WOW at Inman News’ Connect NYC 2009.
Xobni (Inbox spelled backward) is an Outlook plugin that displays a communication and social profile of the person contacting you. It’s like getting a dossier on the sender.
When you open an email, you’ll see the following in the sidebar:
- the sender’s communication history with you, including past conversations and attachments
- their social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn
- their contact details, such as phone number
- your conversations threaded (like Gmail does)
- Skype button link to contact the sender
- a scheduler link (see below)– Clicking the link opens a new email message pre-composed with your availability. You can change the suggestions or add your own, but it saves you the time of checking your calendar when you need to schedule a meeting.
- learn more about Xobni here
Everyone who stopped at the Xobni booth to check it out, stood with mouths agape. It turns out we’re Big Brother. WOW indeed.
