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Jan 19 2014

DoubleDutch Paves the Way for Contextual Computing with iOS7 Redesign

Event mobile app provider, DoubleDutch, announced a total redesign of its application to leverage the new features and functionality of the iOS7 operating system. In addition to a completely new user interface, enhanced offline performance and more speed, the app “gets to the promise of contextual computing—delivering the right experience at the right time,” says Lawrence Coburn, DoubleDutch CEO and the company’s co-founder.

The update has immediate implications for attendees. For example, now, if an attendee visits the in-app conference schedule before a session begins, he will be able to add the session to his personal agenda. If he looks at the agenda while the presentation is being delivered, he is advised that it is in progress. If he visits the schedule after the session has concluded, he can access an evaluation to complete.

In the near future, Coburn says, “a lot more is possible.” The company is experimenting with Amazon-style recommendations for attendees—what Coburn refers to as an “event concierge” scenario—based on user behaviors within the app. They’ve also begun work on building applications for the iBeacon, Apple’s micro-location technology, including the ability to serve up personalized content to visitors based on their physical locations.

While the update is based on iOS7 capabilities, the enhancements are also built into the app’s Android and HTML5 apps as well. It’s clear that the company’s origin and Coburn’s background in social networks are guiding the strategy at the company. “Engagement rules all. Social rules all. These events are mini social networks,” Coburn says.

Read the full media release here.

Jan 19 2014

Active Network’s MarketView 3.0 Helps Venues Cope with eRFP Volume

Technology can be both the bright spot and the bane of event-industry planners and suppliers. One woman’s efficiency tool can be another woman’s nightmare scenario. Such is the conversation around using electronic RFPs. Planners love the efficiency of the tools, but some hotels struggle with the volume of inquiries. Active Network Business Solutions aims to correct that imbalance with the unveiling of Active MarketView 3.0.

Active MarketView is the supplier portal into the company’s solution set. The redesign enhances suppliers’ abilities to manage and respond to eRFPS, as well as update information about their specific properties. The last major upgrade of the platform, a holdover from Active’s acquisition of Starcite, was three years ago. The new release offers sellers a number of enhancements:

•    Intuitive, contemporary user interface with visually friendly summary of the request for proposal
•    Callout of the planner’s special instructions for quicker qualification and response from the seller
•    Responses consolidated on one page (vs. seven pages in the previous version)
•    Response tool linked to room specifications (data is pulled directly into the response)
•    Memory of planner’s previous inquiries (system pre-populates response with the known preferences of specific planners)

The end result—an average time savings of 60 to 70% for sellers—goes a long way toward mitigating the problems sellers experience from the barrage of electronic requests. “Sellers can allocate less resources and respond more quickly,” says Rick Binford, vice president, strategic marketplace development, at Active Network Business Solutions.

Active’s work on the volume issue will continue with next release of MarketView, scheduled for Q2 of 2014, Binford explains. “We want to enable the system to be intelligent based on the past behavior of the buyer. We will begin to provide more information to the seller around who the buyer is and how they behave in an online channel.”

Read the full media release here.

Dec 10 2012

EIBTM’s Technology Watch Award Winners One Year Later

As EIBTM, the Global Meetings & Events Exhibition, celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary two weeks ago in Barcelona, it honored the winners—an overall winner and several finalists—of the EIBTM Technology Watch Competition. As a judge for the past two years, I have been a fly on the wall during the judging, listening in and commenting on the “new and innovative technology solutions that can make a significant difference to the industry.” I thought I might take a peek at the 2011 winners to see whether the companies survived and how their solutions have evolved in a highly competitive and fast-moving environment.

ITN International continues to ride the NFC wave

The top honor in 2011 was awarded to ITN International for its Citywide Credentialing System utilizing NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. The system allowed users in Amsterdam to use their badges from the trade show to access mass transit and area tourist attractions throughout the city. The badge also enabled attendee tracking, access control and exhibitor lead retrieval.

In 2012, ITN is on the cusp of a transformation in the events industry with the arrival of NFC-enabled Smartphones to the U.S. and ITN’s development of an NFC ecosystem around the event. In the past year, ITN has launched three new products:

BCARD Reader Browser—a “universal” Android browser that supports lead capture with any Web-based lead management system at any event.
NFC Paper—the event industry’s first paper NFC attendee badge.
MobileAccess—an access control app that lets attendees change the sessions they have registered for “on the fly.”

Active Network powers forward in the event management space

Active Network was a finalist in 2011 for its ActiveEvents Insight platform, a suite of mobile applications that provides event organizers with a real-time “bird’s eye view” of the event including registration data, leads, social networking, exhibitors, sessions schedules, mobile app usage, room block activity, financial statements, speaker resources and event content on a tablet or Smartphone.

In 2012, Active Network continued its focus on event management solutions with a major acquisition and some key product launches. Early in the year, the firm announced the purchase of StarCite, a Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) and event registration platform. The company launched a mobile suite complete with personal event scheduling, local-attraction search, surveys, attendee-to-attendee messaging, gamification and QR-code contact exchange. It also rolled out ACTIVE Event’s Conference solution covering the corporate event lifecycle including logistics, engagement, metrics and business intelligence.

GenieMobile moves from DIY to Data

GenieMobile was recognized as one of four finalists in 2011 for its high-quality, easy-to-use, “do-it-yourself” (DIY) mobile app development tool delivering native apps for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, WindowsPhone and content to the Mobile Web. The DIY model enabled event organizers to obtain an app at a lower price point than similar offerings while maintaining control of the app content through a built-in content management system.

In the past 24 months, however, GenieMobile has changed its value proposition. Rather than focus on the DIY usability, the company has concentrated its efforts on “world-beating analytics,” says Michael Douglas, marketing director. In the current iteration of the GenieMobile platform, Douglas explains, “everything can be queried, analyzed and reported on—not just the usage stats, but all the event data. This brings to life the ‘LinkedIn for events’ analogy where you are learning everything about your audience, not through questionnaires, but through their natural behavior.”

Triqle Event Intelligence morphs into How Can I Be Social (HCIBS)

Triqle Event Intelligence was a finalist last year for its “What’s On?” application that displays the current and “next up” educational sessions on large monitors throughout an event. While the application is still alive and well, Triqle’s founder, Gerrit Heijkoop, launched a new venture in 2012 with partner Donald Roos called HCIBS (How Can I Be Social) to bring “What’s On?” and social media to the trade show floor. The objective of the new company is “to bridge the gap between the offline activity on the show floor and the online buzz on Twitter and other social media,” Heijkoop says. His social media “team” roams the floor reporting on event activities (via social media) and answering questions on social media while the “What’s On?” app displays program information and a Twitter feed.

Wifarer refines its ability to monetize digital space

Wifarer, an indoor positioning system, intrigued the judging committee in 2011 with technology to pinpoint a smartphone’s location to an accuracy of 1.3 meters within a venue. The system provides very precise wayfinding for attendees though a meeting venue or exhibit hall, while providing location-aware content delivery and aggregated attendee movement analytics. In 2012, the company “expanded its solution to the following verticals: shopping centers, museums, airports, hospitals, and universities. [Wifarer] continues to provide indoor “GPS” and high accuracy, location-based content to users on their smartphones and we now provide venues with the ability to completely control the content and monetization of their digital space.” says Lise Murphy, vice-president marketing.

The Takeaway: It’s a scramble to stay ahead of the technology curve even in an industry (meetings) that tends to be slightly behind the curve at times. EIBTM’s Technology Watch appears to be doing a good job targeting the companies and technologies that will move the face-to-face business forward and have some degree of “staying” power.

Nov 27 2012

DoubleDutch Jumps from Games to Mobile Lead Retrieval, Sales and CRM

Recently, DoubleDutch, a mobile applications developer that was one of the first to introduce game strategy into the (primarily) corporate event environment, announced that it received venture capital funding in the amount of $4 million. The cash will help the company expand the marketing and development of their mobile platform, which now includes on-site lead retrieval, post-event sales tracking and ongoing customer relationship management. The new DoubleDutch mobile platform takes advantage of four key technology trends impacting face-to-face events in its quest to go where no lead retrieval app has gone before.

Mobilization

The mobilization of everything from wayfinding to conference agendas to matchmaking has been the “shock and awe” story at events for almost two years. What DoubleDutch has developed is new in the field of mobile, lead-retrieval apps. For one thing, the platform is no longer event-centric. It leverages the event to initiate the sales cycle—nothing new there—but remains functional through the sales conversion phase and into the post-event CRM phase. And, did I mention it’s all mobile?

Gamification

DoubleDutch hasn’t abandoned the gaming elements that made the event industry take notice of its platform in the first place. In fact, the game layer is crucial for collecting data about attendee interests and stimulating post-event enterprise engagement. “We are doubling down on gamification and social engagement. The behaviors that are gamified are thirteen times more likely to be performed than behaviors that are not gamified,” says Lawrence Coburn, founder and CEO of DoubleDutch.

Software deconstruction

Coburn envisions a mobile platform nimble enough to take on bigger tasks. “We think there is a larger trend called the ‘deconstruction of software.’ In the past, software has had hundreds of features that didn’t play well in the mobile world. We will see these monolithic CRM systems becoming smaller pieces,” he says. Hence, the introduction of DoubleDutch’s three-part “mobile CRM suite” that reduces the gargantuan lead retrieval/sales conversion/CRM process into bite-sized chunks.

Datafication

The game layer and social engagement functionality of DoubleDutch’s suite serve a higher purpose. “The social and gamification elements cause a lot of engagement. Every touch is a clue about where [attendees] want to spend their money. How can we turn that engagement into actionable data?” Coburn asks. The DoubleDutch platform converts game play during the event into data points that enable sales conversions.

The Takeaway: DoubleDutch has managed to do what none of the other event lead-retrieval apps has done yet—provide an end-to-end solution that begins at the event and ends with the customer. Corporate event strategists should be (and are) interested in this new iteration of mobile event applications, but third-party trade show and conference organizers should also take notice. DoubleDutch has added exhibitor ROI to the list of justifications for deploying a mobile event solution and for that reason it differentiates itself in a crowded field of competitors.

Aug 27 2012

Crowdfunding Your Conference

The trade show and conference business used to be far more entrepreneurial than it is today. Back in the day, almost anyone with a great idea and a few friends could launch an event. Today, most of the new launches come from corporations, media companies and trade associations. The number of entrepreneurs in the b-to-b event industry has dwindled not because there are no more great ideas, but because the cash is harder to come by or the risk is too great for just one or a handful of friends to give it a go. That could change if the crowdfunding tactics being pioneered by artists and techies catch on in the conference world.

Crowdfunding is a system of investment that pools the financial resources of friends and strangers together to finance specific projects. Most of the online crowdfunding platforms employ an all or nothing approach—projects don’t receive the funding unless the financial goals are met within a specific time frame. In exchange for their pledges, supporters receive rewards (designed by those asking for funds) when the projects are funded. The leading platform is Kickstarter.

XOXO gets crowdfunding love

Earlier this year, Andy Baio (Kickstarter’s former CTO) and Andy McMillan used Kickstarter to raise $175,911 (the original goal was $125,000) to launch their XOXO Festival—a combination conference, exhibition (Market) and citywide funfest (Fringe) taking place September 14-16 in Portland. The festival is designed to bring together artists and technologists. After the 400 tickets to attend the festival ($400 each) sold out in 50 hours, they raked in another $15,000 selling “goodies” from local merchants, T-shirts and access to digital content. It’s not surprising that Baio and McMillan, who both have insight into using the Kickstarter platform, were successful. But, what about mere mortals?

Tiny Kitchen raises too tiny a sum

Not all projects are ripe for crowdfunding. Just because the idea gets traction on social media channels or the event organizer has existing über-successful events doesn’t mean the followers and friends of said organizer will actually pony up for something new. That’s what Denise Medved of The Tiny Kitchen discovered. The Houston and Washington, DC installments of her Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show are successful with a huge following. But, when she turned to Kickstarter to launch a new event in Dallas, the crowd went cold.

Medved set a goal of $15,000, but only raised $1,000. She estimates that it took at least 20 man-hours just to create the pitch video—an essential component of the Kickstarter regimen—plus the time it took to fill out the forms and pour through the rules. She attributes the failure to two factors. Her existing crowd was formed around events in other cities. “Most attendees were from Houston or DC. I’m not sure they cared about launching a show in Dallas,” she says. Another reason is that Kickstarter does very little to help. “The [Kickstarter] project requirements didn’t tell the whole story. I thought they would reach into their database to help market,” she adds.

Chicago writers write (and video) their own future

Mare Swallow selected Kickstarter to launch the Chicago Writers Conference—an opportunity to place writers in the same room with publishers and literary agents. “It was a process much like starting a business. We put together a plan, did a lot of planning and talked to people that had a lot of experience on Kickstarter or had supported other Kickstarter campaigns,” she says. Her idea worked. The event will take place September 14-16 at the Tribune Tower in Chicago. The project was fully funded in 30 days by backers who pledged $7,725 (103% of their original goal).

Swallow used Kickstarter as a crowdfunding tool, but also as a community platform. “It was a constantly ongoing process that included networking every day. We were constantly adding rewards and I keep it updated for Kickstarter supporters,” she explains. Although her investment in time and effort paid off, Swallow admits it was hard work. “You need to be present with it every single day. You are doing just as much work in person [as online]. It’s not for the faint of heart,” she says.

Even Denise Medved agrees that crowdfunding could be a viable fundraising mechanism for events. Those who have been successful no doubt support that optimism. Wired magazine summed it up nicely when referring to Baio and McMillan’s efforts on Kickstarter. “They also believe that there’s a real underutilized potential for launching more events on Kickstarter. Baio, who helped build Kickstarter and who launched the event-coordinating startup Upcoming.com (acquired by Yahoo), points out that many event organizers have to lose money fronting venue deposits and planning for unknown attendee numbers. Kickstarter secures that audience ahead of time.” Who knew rewards like tickets, cupcakes, books and T-shirts could fuel an event-funding revolution?

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