Feeling a little inundated by technology? You’re not alone, but if you don’t embrace the new technology in the near future, you may very well find yourself alone.

“There’s a lot of fear thats out there and people are often overwhelmed by all the new technology,” says Corbin Ball, speaker, consultant, and meeting expert. “There are so many choices that it’s hard to make a choice. We’re in the middle of what I call technology adolescence; it’s the awkward point of time where we are clinging onto the old ways of doing things as we transition to the much more efficient digital ways. The challenge is that ‘digital Darwinism’ is alive and well and if you’re not using these technology tools you wont be as competitive.”

Balls advice: “Be patient, keep an open mind, and transition,” he says. “Things are getting easier the Web is much easier to use now than four or five years ago. Web 2.0 technology is taking off with blogs, podcasts, social software, and wikis (online collaborative Websites) for managing meetings.”

In fact, Ball believes that one wiki, www.itensil.com, could transform the events industry. It serves as a project management tool, document management tool, and team collaboration tool.

“The spreadsheet as a document management system alone is extremely helpful in the meetings industry,” Ball says. “For example, if you are dealing with out of town vendors or have planners who are on the road, they can use a computer to work together. You can build a spreadsheet and you can email people to join. If someone makes a change in the spreadsheet, everyone involved in the meeting will see it - there are no different versions being emailed around and everyone is on the same page electronically. It greatly simplifies that process of tracking things because there is only one document, it’s online and available 24/7.”

In addition to collaborative Websites, podcasts are now entering into the meeting industry in a big way. Ball thinks that podcasting is a great way for event marketers and associations to get messages out to new audiences, to build traffic to a Website, and to sell venues at a small fraction of the cost of printing and distributing CDs/DVDs. He says to think of podcasts as Internet radio or television programs - it’s on demand and you receive these programs through distributors such as Itunes.

This is a trend that professional speakers, as expert content creators, meeting planners, meeting facilitators, and meeting vendors should consider, says Ball, and provides the example of the Toronto Convention and Visitor Bureaus video podcast. The podcast shows viewers why Toronto is a great choice for their next conference or meeting.

“In 2006, there were more podcasts than radio stations in the world and by 2010, it is estimated that the number of podcast listeners in the U.S. alone will exceed 60 million users,” says Ball. “It’s a change in marketing moving from broadcast when you are casting a wide net hoping to catch a few fish to casting a narrow net where you are targeting your audience at a very low cost. Meeting planners or sales managers can use podcasts to ‘visit’ venues or have meeting attendees review items before they actually attend the meeting. It is a great way of promoting. Meetings are all about content and podcasts can extend the life of a meeting and expand their reach.”

To remain competitive, it’s important for people to start embracing Web 2.0 and all that it offers, but Ball says the fear of the unknown is holding people back.

“It’s not that people resist the change, it’s that we all have a lot on our plates and the risk aversion is high - especially for those planning meetings,” adds Ball. “No one wants to choose the wrong thing - their jobs are on the line. So naturally, they are a little cautious.”

With that in mind, Ball has developed a series of articles, blogs, and entries that explain new technology, which are available on his Website at www.corbinball.com