During my morning procrastination that involves wandering aimlessly around the internet while sipping tea or snacking, I ended up at Upcoming (formerly Upcoming.org). I have an account there but hadn’t used it in well over a year. It’s part social networking, part promotional vehicle and part community “for discovering and sharing events”.

When last I was there it was a little project run by one person… I even got my first name as my username! They’ve since been bought by Yahoo and considerably jazzed up.

It works in a couple of different ways… you can select places, e.g., NYC, to have all events for that place on your upcoming home page. Anyone can list an event and you can indicate that you are either attending that event or watching it (meaning that you’re interested but perhaps not going). You can watch friend’s events as well. One of the newest features is that you can join and create groups and publish events to groups.

My first search was “horse racing”, natch… and I found listings for the 2008 Breeders’ Cup, Preakness & Belmont! They were listed by Dave, who clearly saw the potential for promotion. Naturally I marked the events accordingly and then started a Thoroughbred Racing Group (and made Dave co-moderator!).

I’ve already listed the NYRA Women in Racing Luncheon for tomorrow (while it’s a bit late, maybe someone will notice it and be on the look out for the next one) and Dave added the TV giveaway at Golden Gate Fields tomorrow. Side note: TV Giveaway?! Now that’s promotion!

So, go join Upcoming, join the Thoroughbred Racing Group and add your local events & races! See you there…