Winter is melting away, spring is starting to bloom, and 2017 already seems to be flying by fast as we enter Q2!
Let’s take a look at the latest news from the meetings and events industry.
The start of March saw two notable acquisitions of event engagement technology providers. First announced on March 2nd was cloud-based event management software provider, etouches’ acquisition of Loopd, an Saas enterprise startup that provides data-driven technology to improve attendee engagement. Event planners will recall that Loopd was the breakout winner of the 2016 #IMEXPitch startup competition. Loopd will be integrated into etouches’ existing platform over the coming months.
The second notable announcement came shortly after on March 17th. Event services and production platform, GES has acquired Poken, a wearable tech engagement platform. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, the announcement stated that the near field communication product name will remain Poken 360° and become part of the N200|GES event-intelligence team. “This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to being the preferred global live-events partner, offering the most comprehensive breadth of technology and services,” said GES president Steve Moster. “We know our clients want engagement and concrete metrics from their events. They will benefit from the technology and insight capabilities that Poken and our existing Visit solution offer together.” You can read more about the announcement at Meetings & Conventions.
This month also saw the ever-popular film, interactive media, and music festival, SXSW hosted in Austin, Texas. The event featured an interesting piece of new event tech, which provided “automated concierge assistance on demand” or in other words, a chatbot. The event’s new chatbot named “Abby” answered more than 56,000 questions from attendees during the first 7 days of the event. Mitra Sorrells covered the bot’s success in a story from BizBash.
And finally, an always welcome treat from Julius Solaris of Event Manager Blog, an updated Event App Bible is out this month. The Event App Bible 2017: Reboot will not only help event organizers compare 145 event apps and chatbots currently on the market, but it also contains “Templates, checklists, project management timeline, flow chart, strategy planning and guidance to ensure that you choose the right event app for your event.”
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Kaylynne Hatch
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