Event Wallet the smarter way to collect content at events

‘I’ve got an idea for an app.’ How many times a day do you hear that?

Well just over a year ago, I said the very same thing and as part of Earnest Labs, the innovation arm of award winning B2B marketing agency Earnest, decided to make it a reality. Here’s how it happened.

I stood in the middle of the exhibition centre. I looked around at the wandering eyes of the sales people on the stands. I popped another glossy brochure I would never read into my free, yet heavily branded tote bag.

Something didn’t feel right.

Here was the rub. While I spent my days preaching about the importance of creating interesting, engaging, thought provoking content and singing from the rooftops about the ‘digital content’ revolution – I had somehow ended up the wilderness. Here I was surrounded by businesses, spending one fifth of their budget on face to face events, giving out printed brochures and limp one page product sheets.

It simply didn’t make sense and the facts were backing me up.

Attendees to the event were there to learn new insights, gather information and make new contacts, not get the hard sell at every stand they attended but despite 1 in 3 business buyers attending live events, just 8% of event marketers say their company has cracked developing relationships, closing deals and acquiring customer insights.Not so good.

Surely there was a better way? A way to make events better, more productive and engaging for everyone. And there in lay the ‘I’ve got an idea for an app’ moment. Event Wallet.

Event Wallet is all about giving event attendees an easy and convenient way to discover, collect and share content from exhibitors at events using their mobile device. Bringing together mobile, social and content into physical, face to face events.

We got to work on Event Wallet just over 6 months ago with our developer partners We Are Apps – chosen for their expertise in iBeacon technology that sits at the heart of the platform. iBeacons transmit a low energy Bluetooth signal that can trigger a notification or action in an app when the user is close by. It’s what has now been termed ‘proximity marketing’ and is largely used in the retail space, but was perfect for what we wanted the app to do.

The platform is simple.

Event attendees download the app and register their details. When they arrive at an exhibition they are notified they have event wallet capability and are alerted to the content available to them. The attendee can then choose which pieces of content (from videos, to links, to PDFs) they would like to collect in their wallet which is automatically synced to their online account to view on any other device they use – desktop or mobile – at a later date.

For exhibitors this means that not only can they can share better, richer content – but also gain an insight into who has collected which pieces of content, enabling the sales team to shape a follow up conversation around their interests.

Most importantly it tackles one of the biggest problems marketers face at events today – 82% of event delegates don’t fully engage with event content. We want Event Wallet to bridge the content chasm between how marketers use content to attract audiences online and in a face to face environment.

Event Wallet is up in the app store ready to download and we are currently offer beta tests for event organisations who want to give it a ride.

If you would like to know more email james.wood@event-wallet.com.