EVERY night, a swarm of party people spill out on to the streets of the North East, dolled up and lusting after fun, music and alcohol.

Somewhere out there, there’s a pub, bar or club that’s just made for them. But how do we get them together?

Del Greco, of NightOutGroup, doesn’t think Facebook quite works for this purpose. That’s why he’s been working on services such as the Nightlife Bible, a “social handbook” which enables iPhone, Blackberry and Android users to track events, offers and watering holes nearby using their GPS location.

The directory now works with over 400 North East venues including 151 venues in Newcastle alone, and Greco hopes to roll the product out across the UK in time.

He said: “Venues used to think the only way to promote events was to stand on the street and hand out flyers. Then Facebook came along, and they bombarded people with rubbish every day.

“Problem is, Facebook is great for contacting existing customers but not new ones. We allow venues to market to everyone who’s signed up to our system, and not just those who are aware of them.”

The seed of NightOutGroup emerged in 2003, when Greco had a sideline taking photos of clubgoers and putting them online. When he graduated, he got together with a couple of friends to try and create a “yellow pages for nightlife” while earning a crust as an NHS worker. Greco refined his business skills by taking all five modules in the Business Link series of finance workshops, and now runs the company from the Gateshead International Business Centre.

He said: “We think we’ve got nearly every single bar in Newcastle now. If you download the app, you can either view every venue or event on a map, or you can see the next 25 events happening in the area from that point in time. It’s based on the understanding that people may be used to going to a certain venue, but using the app they can discover a night that’s much more suitable to their tastes just around the corner.

“The next update in a few weeks’ time will also list offers such as happy hours, and will also allow you to see the photos taken in the venues, uploaded by the venues themselves directly onto the system. The turnaround time for that could be as little as an hour.”

NightOutGroup is also developing a range of similar apps, including a “Be Guestlist” app which allows users on a night out to put themselves on a range of guestlists for nights around the town. It’s also planning to release an app called Mappening to coincide with Freshers’ Week.

Mappening will allow smartphone users to build up a map of what’s happening, what the music and drinks prices are like and how many people are there.

Like any city, crowds shift around Newcastle depending on the fashion, making the study of crowds an intriguing prospect.

Greco said: “The area that draws the crowds changes frequently. It used to be that the Quayside was the busy place.

“Then the station area became more popular when Digital opened, and now the core is around The Gate, the Bigg Market and the Diamond Strip.

“We’re expecting another shift when the students come back as well.”