Part of being a professional in the events industry is staying up-to-date on the latest trends, innovations, technologies and best practices. Thankfully for all of us, many event management pros and publications give liberally of their time and advice and make it easy for the rest of us by sharing this information on a daily basis.

Here are 31 event industry influencers and event bloggers who we follow regularly and who we recommend you follow, too.

Note: The event planners, event professionals and event publications below are put in order based on number of Twitter followers as of May 1, 2014.

Dina Manzo
Twitter followers – 379K
Blog | @dinamanzo
Highly sought after interior designer and now event planner offers all sorts of great tips and advice (plus you can catch her HGTV show “Dina’s Party”). Excellent eye for style.

David Tutera
Twitter followers – 124K
Blog | @DavidTutera
David is practically an industry in and of himself, with a TV show, books, product lines (including his own wedding dress collection) and, yes, even an event planning/production business. He guides where the industry goes, so his words carry considerable of weight, especially in the wedding industry. A must follow.

Mindy Weiss
Twitter followers – 87.8K
Blog | @mindyweiss
A true renaissance woman, Mindy does it all – plan amazing parties, write books on event planning and design, even create great event decor products. Lots of great design ideas every week on her blog.

Leila Lewis
Twitter followers – 47.2K
Blog | @weddingPR
One of the few PR professionals who specializes in promoting event and wedding planning firms. Totally worth checking out if you are looking for a great person to help you build your business … or if you’re simply looking for great tips and ideas for promoting your business.

Colin Cowie
Twitter followers – 44.9K
Blog | @colincowie
A superstar event and wedding designer and a man with exquisite taste. Worth following just to see his designs alone, and he is always on the leading edge of event design.

Preston Bailey
Twitter followers – 40K
Blog | @prestonrbailey
If you have been in the events industry for any length of time, this man needs no introduction. Exquisite event designer, and he provides very down-to-earth, practical advice.

Event Industry News
Twitter followers – 25.3K
Blog | @EventNewsBlog
Based in the UK, this online magazine give you the latest news on the events industry on both sides of the pond and covers a wide variety of issues. If you want the latest or want a different take on pressing issues, you need to check them out.

Jordan Ferney
Twitter followers – 25K
Blog | @ohhappyday
You won’t find a brighter, happier, spunkier, more DIY event and party blog on the Web. Jordan has so many crafty, fun ideas for decor, gifts, table accouterments, etc. that it’s amazing to think she has at least one great post a day.

Marley Majcher
Twitter followers – 19.7K
Blog | @ThePartyGoddess
Marley has a great business head about her, and her blog and social media posts offer a wealth of excellent insights and ideas about running a small business (and especially an events business).

Plan Your Meetings
Twitter followers – 16K
Blog | @PlanYrMeetings
From industry news and best practices to advice from planners, this online magazine keeps the ideas flowing on a daily basis. Great takes on what’s happening in the industry and also a nice directory for finding vendors. Always a helpful resource.

Camille Styles
Twitter followers – 15.7K
Blog | @camillestyles
From deep in the heart of Texas, Camille offers up great ideas on entertaining, parties and much more, and she and her staff are always coming up with tasty tidbits on food, decor, style and much more. Great ideas here for all you event design pros.

Kristin Banta
Twitter followers – 15.3K
Blog | @KristinBanta
Kristin is tireless, or at least she seems to be, with all her TV appearances, gorgeous weddings and film industry fetes. But the driving force behind this is her creative vision, and you can take it all in via her Twitter feed.

Saundra Hadley
Twitter followers – 13.7K
Blog | @planningforever
Hello, Midwest. I like Saundra’s style (Chuck Taylors and all) and her blog is so down to earth and practical when it comes to event planning, decor and life. When you want a calm, collected voice of reason who offers great insights into the business, tune into Saundra.

Endless Entertainment
Twitter followers – 13.4K
Blog | @helloendless
… has endless guidance, tips and insights into the nuts and bolts of pulling off great events. They are an event production company, but the breadth of their posts span everything from do’s and dont’s of event tech to how to build an itinerary. And their marketing manager Kaitlin Colston is their social media guru who always has interesting information to share.

David Adler
Twitter followers – 13.1K
Blog | @davidadler
As founder and CEO of BizBash, David is always on top of the events industry and always has something interesting and creative to say. I’ve got BizBash on my Digg reader and it is always reliable for great updates on the latest in event design and industry news.

Jeff Hurt
Twitter followers – 12.3K
Blog | @JeffHurt
Conferences and meetings are Jeff’s forte, and his breadth of knowledge in this area is amazing. If you want to know the latest conference and meeting planning trends as well as best practices, look to Jeff first (cause everyone else follows him).

Liz King
Twitter followers – 11.2K
Blog | @lizkingevents
Liz is the queen of event social media and the person to talk to about all thing regarding event technology. She’s based in the big apple, and her Twitter feed offers a plethora of great links and tips on how to best use technology for your events and event business.

Nikki Finnie-Slater
Twitter followers – 10.7K
Blog | @NikkiRecherche1
Sharp, classy event planner from the UK, Nikki provides a great running summary of what’s hot and interesting with weddings and corporate events in both her tweets and her blog. Check in on her frequently.

Julius Solaris
Twitter followers – 9.5K
Blog | @EventMB
Julius is the mastermind behind the Event Manager Blog and responsible for some of the best, most focused content on the Web regarding event management and planning. You should bookmark his blog and read it every week … because all your peers are doing the same.

Kasey Skobel-Conyers
Twitter followers – 8.9K
Blog | @blissevents
Another planner from the heartland, Kasey shows you how all the details matter in her posts. Great sense of style as well as a good balance of insights for both wedding and event planning.

Special Events
Twitter followers – 7.9K
Blog | @special_events
Full of the latest events industry news as well as features on best practices and trends, this magazine is another source you should consult regularly to see what’s happening and what your peers are up to.

Jill La Fleur
Twitter followers – 7.8K
Blog | @lafleurweddings
When it comes to destination weddings and events, this is the person to follow. Jill offers up lots of tasty morsels of information regarding managing, planning and designing events all over the world.

Smart Meetings
Twitter followers – 7.2K
Blog | @SmartMeetings
Not just a source of industry news, the Smart Meetings blog also has great posts from industry insiders who offer up ideas and opinions on everything related to meetings and conferences. A great source to consult for anything related to corporate meetings and events.

Meetings + Events Media
Twitter followers – 6.8K
Blog | @meetingsmags
The tweets and posts coming from M+E are excellent and go far beyond the comprehensive resource directories the company provides in terms of industry news and event planning tips. And whoever posts for them on Twitter is excellent at finding nuggets of wisdom on the Web.

Meetings and Conventions Magazine
Twitter followers – 6.8K
Blog | @mcmagtweet
An industry mag that is always on top of the meetings scene, providing timely news, guidance and insights. Add to that an active Twitter account and a number of great bloggers, and this is a source of information you can’t ignore.

Keith Johnston
Twitter followers – 6.6K
Blog | @PlannerWire
An avowed coffee and event tech junkie, Keith is an event industry veteran who has pretty much seen and done it all. His posts give you a good sense of what is truly worth reading in the industry, and he approaches his craft with a great sense of humility and joy. Fun to follow.

David Stark
Twitter followers – 6.5K
Blog | @davidstarkinc
… is crazy creative. Just one visit to his Web site and you will see what I mean. And that creative passion flows through his posts and blog. Excellent ideas and tips for both social and corporate events.

Adrian Segar
Twitter followers – 5.3K
Blog | @ASegar
A true innovator in the conferences space, Adrian is at the forefront of attendee-driven conferences and meetings. His blog posts are extremely insightful and incorporate ideas and tactics from other disciplines (like physics and psychology) to shed light on how to better plan and manage meetings. His blog is required reading for this industry.

Jerri Woolworth
Twitter followers – 4.4K
Blog | @JerriWoolworth
VEGAS, baby! Jerri is a bona fide luxury planner putting together stunning events in Las Vegas and beyond. Her honest, direct advice is backed by many years planning intricate, complex events, and when it comes to high-end bashes, she has ideas galore.

Nicole Jensen
Twitter followers – 4.3K
Blog | @NicoleJensen
A social media maven with a love of events (and soccer, to boot), Nicole shows what it’s all about when it comes to social media marketing. Follow her lead and learn how to use social media to both market your events as well as your event management business.

PCMA Convene
Twitter followers – 4.2K
Blog | @pcmaconvene
From the experts who bring you Convene magazine are these tasty morsels the offer via Twitter and their Web site. Perfect for the meeting planner, their posts and articles provide interesting insights into both the industry as well as on planning meetings and running a meeting planning business.
________________
Follow the lead of 1000s of your professional event peers … try Planning Pod free for 14 days and discover why more event pros run their events and venues with our 20+ easy-to-use online tools.