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Dec 10 2012

EIBTM’s Technology Watch Award Winners One Year Later

EIBTM Tech Watch winners one year laterAs 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.

 

 

Written by Michelle · Categorized: Archives, Tools · Tagged: event management platforms, Featured, Indoor Positoning Systems, mobile apps, NFC, social media strategy

Nov 27 2012

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

DoubleDutch Lead Retrieval CRMRecently, 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.

 

 

 

 

Written by Michelle · Categorized: Archives, Tools · Tagged: corporate events, Featured, mobile apps

Dec 30 2010

2010 was the Year of Mobile Apps for Trade Shows

If IAEE’s annual meeting and trade show (Expo! Expo!) were any indication, 2010 was the year that the industry “woke up” to the possibilities of mobile. A full house session on mobile apps, a printed and online guide for buyers, and a show floor chock full of developers were the tip offs.

I moderated the session on mobile apps. Panelists Stephen Nold of Tarsus Advon and the MTO Summit and Annie Rotberg of the American Pet Products Association and the Global Pet Expo (read about Annie’s experience with mobile at TSNN.com) addressed a number of topics such as the strategies they used when choosing a mobile app for their events, why they chose a Web-optimized app or a native app, pricing models, and factors for choosing one developer over another. I noted some key takeaways from the session:

  • User adoption rates in the first year will be low—attendees are not yet used to having mobile apps in the trade show setting.
  • The potential for revenue from sponsorships is not (yet) a prime motivator for buyers—the promise of cost reduction (printing less directories) is a more compelling reason to go mobile.
  • The main reason for providing an app is convenience for the attendee—although being seen as a progressive and forward-thinking organization is a close second.
  • Apps are available at all price-levels—a simple app built on an existing template can be purchased for as little at $1,500 to $2,500.
  • A potential growth area is the aggregation of show service providers onto a single mobile platform.

MeetingTechOnline distributed the Buyer’s Guide to Mobile Apps during the presentation on mobile apps and posted a digital version of the guide on their Website. The Guide covers strategy, best practices, and choosing a provider. It also lists some of the leading app developers in the event space.

And, there were no less than (by my count) 30 third-party mobile app developers, mobile consultants, and suppliers exhibiting their own solutions deployed on mobile platforms exhibiting at the trade show:

A.C.T./EXPOCAD

A2Z

Alliance Tech

American Tradeshow Services

Bartizan Lead Retrieval

CompuSystems

Conference & Logistics Consultants

ConnectMedia Ventures

Convention Data Services

Core-Apps

Crick Information Technologies

CrossTech Partners

Epic

Event Ready

EventKaddy

Experient

ListeNation

MarketArt

Map Your Show

Movitas

Passkey

Registration Control Systems

Sherpa Solutions

SmartShow

Synqware

Taptopia

Ungerboeck Systems International

Vertical Nerve

Xnip

Zerista

The Takeaway: Mobile applications could be the single most useful innovation for the trade show community with their potential to aggregate show services, offerings, programming, and networking opportunities on multiple portable devices. 

Written by Michelle · Categorized: Archives, Tools · Tagged: Featured, Michelle Bruno, mobile apps, trade shows

Oct 20 2010

Buyer’s Guide to Mobile Apps Released

The MeetingTechOnline Buyer’s Guide to Mobile Apps for professional event organizers and corporate meeting planners has just been released and will be available (in print) at the MTO Summit in November. I wanted to give you a preview of the guide which I had the pleasure of writing and pass along some of the insight I received in the process. This and other guides to follow are designed to give buyers all of the information they need to make an informed purchase. Plus, it lists all the providers that helped me with the guide and others that are leading the field of mobile app development.

The Table of Contents of the 35-page Buyer’s Guide includes:

  • Introduction
  • Why mobile?
  • Developing a mobile app strategy
  • Mobile possibilities—what can you do with a mobile solution?
  • Native apps or mobile Web sites—pros and cons
  • Pricing models
  • Revenue opportunities
  • Time frame
  • Best practices
  • Choosing a provider
  • What to include in a Request For Proposal (RFP)
  • Case Studies
  • About the author
  • Acknowledgements
  • Provider Directory
The guide is a neutral, non-commercial (except for the advertising) overview of third party mobile apps for events. When I was putting together the publication, I learned a couple of things:

  1. Most event organizers do NOT approach vendor selection from an informed perspective and very few actually put together an RFP when entering into the selection process. One reason is that there is so much information to sift through. Another reason is that there are so many apps to choose from (and many more on the way). What do you put in an RFP if you don’t know what you don’t know?
  2. The two camps (native apps vs. Web sites) are equally vibrant and can argue either way for their solution. Some providers offer both options and that is definitely an alternative that buyers should consider (depending on their audience and the connectivity of the venue).
  3. Selecting an app is only half the battle.  Adoption is the other half. Event organizers have to do a better job of promoting the app and training users. Although one of the goals of developers is ease-of-use, organizers can play a substantial role in reducing the learning curve that still exists.

The Takeaway: Read the guide. Get in the game.

Written by Michelle · Categorized: Archives, Tools · Tagged: Events, Featured, Michelle Bruno, mobile apps, MTO Summit

Mar 22 2010

Mobile Ning on Steroids? The Latest on Mobile Apps and Social Networking Platforms for Events

This Thursday, March 25 at 9:30 a.m. CDT, I will be moderating a panel at the MTO Summit in Chicago on mobile apps for events. I was initially thinking that the discussion might center primarily around applications that bring the traditional attendee “needs” to life on a Smartphone but recent product releases pairing social networking and other capabilities with mobile phone access might bust this discussion wide open.

The first wave of mobile apps for events focused on bringing the event directory, agenda and floor plan onto the mobile screen and answering the primary questions of the attendee such as: Where am I going? Which exhibitors should I visit? What time is lunch?

In the current round of mobile innovation, social networking platform providers have introduced mobile iterations of their community-building tools. These extensions allow mobile phone users to access private networking platforms and perform other tasks such as agenda-setting, wireless information exchange, schedule sharing, etc.

Today, Zerista rolled out what they call the “World’s First Mobile Community Platform” at the Demo 2010 Conference in Palm Springs. Zerista’s new platform is mobile Ning on steroids as event organizers and other groups can create their own instant communities (like Ning) and incorporate features like Twitter, Foursquare and Eventbrite into one tool. It allows you to:

  • Build your own communities optimized for mobile use with any desktop computer or Smartphone
  • Utilize social networking features and communications through a private community channel, as well as external channels like Twitter
  • Allow users to “check in” from wherever they are, providing instant access to community-specific locations
  • Manage event invitations and issue tickets

Although Zerista is still in beta testing with this product, I can see the advantages for small or informal groups as well as large organizations hoping to appeal to the needs of their various customer segments (with customized communities for each group). Plus, since no one wants to carry his/her laptop around to use the platform, mobile phone access is a huge positive for keeping everyone on the same page especially during an event.

The Takeaway: Mobile accessibility and functionality is the newest and perhaps most exciting extension of social media platforms for events. As event organizers map their event objectives to the apps that are available, they need to look beyond satisfying the attendee’s basic needs and put community management on the list of goals. With the latest round of innovation, event organizers have a wide range of options to consider. How are these new mobile apps meeting your event objectives?

Written by Michelle · Categorized: Archives, Tools · Tagged: Featured, Michelle Bruno, mobile apps, MTO Summit, Private Event Social Networking Platforms, social networking platforms, Zerista

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