Showcase® launches event app platform for trade show and exhibition organisers
London, UK (PRWEB UK) 4 July 2013 -- Showcase® https://showca.se today launched its event app platform for organisers of trade shows and exhibitions to create an engaging mobile app presence and networking tool. The free to use self-service platform offers a compelling alternative to the existing expensive, content only, disposable event app model. With organisers under pressure to achieve targets with limited time and resources it also provides additional revenue and marketing channels for each event.
With Showcase®, organisers create their app and online solution in just minutes. Step-by-step guides and an easy web interface means that no technical expertise is required. Exhibitor listings are easily imported and exhibitors can be invited to manage their own content. Updates are published in real-time and do not require App Store approval, particularly useful when there are last minute changes to speakers, schedules and exhibitors.
Showcase®’s pricing model https://showca.se/organisers offers a lucrative opportunity for organisers large and small to profit financially from their event app. Optional add-ons such as sponsorship banners, promotional messages and featured exhibitors give exposure on the web and app. Organisers sell these at their own prices. Live and historical event activity metrics are provided to motivate organiser business partners.
In a crowded event marketplace, organisers use Showcase® to drive registrations and engage with their audience before, during and after events. The launch kit tools allow event marketers to invite delegates, send real-time messages, integrate social media and build a community around their event. Delegates and exhibitors, who use Showcase® for free, are able to see which of their LinkedIn connections are attending each event and share their own planned attendance using social channels.
Delegates use the Showcase® app to view the latest event information, exchange contact details, scan business cards, make notes and collect exhibitor brochures at the event. Exhibitors also capture lead opportunities and assign them to colleagues for follow-up. With connectivity at events often unreliable the app is built so content can be viewed without an Internet connection and actions recorded to be seamlessly synced up later.
Lance Stewart, CEO and co-founder commented: “Our model is unique and we are turning traditional event app pricing on its head. By letting organisers choose the add-ons they need, they don’t have to pay for a full suite of features. We are delighted to see organisers using Showcase as not just an event app, but also a tool to drive registrations and revenues.”
The team at Showcase® believes the trade show and exhibition industry is on the cusp of widespread app adoption. Wi-Fi infrastructure is improving at venues and delegates now prefer to use their smartphone or tablet to heavy and cumbersome paper guides. While some events are managing to put event guides on apps, delegates have the unenviable task of finding and downloading a different app for each event and then familiarising themselves with a new interface.
With Showcase®, delegates only need to download the app once to use for all events, with all the necessary tools in one place. In a large and fragmented market where 80% of contacts made at events do not get followed up (Source: Center for Exhibition Industry Research) it’s an industry in need of a single app platform that works for all events.
Showcase® has been piloted in beta over the last six months, with over 20 event organisers using Showcase® for their events, including Informa’s Digital Home World Summit 2013. Every one of those organisers has signed up to use Showcase® for future events worldwide, including in the UK, Europe and North America.
“Our biggest challenge to date has been convincing event organisers that this is not ‘too good to be true’. They are familiar with paying heavy fees for apps and are therefore naturally initially sceptical about a product that is not only free, but also earns them extra revenues” concluded Stewart.
About Showcase®
Showcase® was founded in London by Lance Stewart, Pieter Raubenheimer and Ian Kershaw. It is a seed funded business that spun out of the mobile applications agency Wavana, which the team co-founded in 2009. Wavana is the agency behind existing ‘genuinely useful’ themed apps including Tube Exits, PayByPhone, Huddle and many others, all built in house. The collective vision of the team has always been to make people’s lives easier by solving key problems with the power of apps and Showcase® aims to do this for an entire industry. After receiving lots of enquiries from event organisers and understanding their challenges it became clear to the team that there was a genuine market need for a single platform for this sector. Showcase® is available on web https://showca.se, iPad app, iPhone app and all other platforms via HTML5 mobile web, with a native Android app in the works.
Press room: http://press.showca.se (includes press kit, screenshots and photos)
Website: https://showca.se/
App: https://showca.se/app
Twitter: @TeamShowcase
Telephone UK: +44 208 123 8430
Telephone US: +1 718 312 8430
Lance Stewart, http://press.showca.se, +447963580089, [email protected]
Share this article