10 Event Startups To Try This Month

Innovation is in details. This article offers an overview of . They take care of small details that can have a BIG impact. Check them out.

Here at meetings.skift.com, we love innovation. Startups are the propellers of innovation for most industries. This is no different when it gets to the events industry.

You have demonstrated true interest towards the companies that we feature every month in our roundups. That's why I think you'll love the next 10.

How Do We Collect Startups?

We collect startups in a variety of ways:

- We actively search for them on several sites
- We screen the submissions we receive through our dedicated Event Startup Submission Form (the best way to submit your startup for review)
- We collect them on our Pinterest Board for the interest of 1,500 subscribers
- We review who follows us on Twitter

How Do You Review Startups?

Not all startups are included in our roundups.

- We do not include ticketing and event mobile apps (unless something extremely different is added to the service). In fact we've dedicated our popular Good Event Registration Guide and Event App Bible to help you discover more reg and mobile companies.

- We search for twists. We look for freshly brewed services that solve new problems or look at existing problems differently.

- We look for clarity. We include only those who clearly state what they do on their website. We don't want to refer you to vanilla websites that say nothing. It will be a waste of time.

- We want commitment. We choose only those with a ready product. We tend to avoid alpha stage companies or those with a pre-launch splash page.

- We respect our taste. We choose only what we feel you will like. Opinion drives our choices, therefore not everyone will be included in the roundups. Our Pinterest board collects all those we find along the way, even those we don't include in roundups.

Enough said, let me introduce you to these guys.

Clear Notes

Clear Notes is a smart idea. They looked at the flaws of traditional sticky notes, trying to understand what were the flaws of a product that was born almost by accident.

Essentially, they are transparent sticky notes. That in itself is quite a winner as in may occasions you want to see what is behind a sticky note. The twist is that they come with their special pens. The ink comes off easily so you can reuse them multiple times.

That eliminates unnecessary waste produced by massive amounts of sticky notes thrown after the session, meeting or team building exercise is over.

Some trivia, they participated in the UK edition of Dragon's Den, but failed to secure any investment. What a poor choice they made!

Panel Feedback

Panel Feedback came up with a great idea to offer new revenue streams for event professionals by looking at an existing feature of most conferences: panels.

The service offers a platform to submit requests for feedback to panelists. Attendees can pay for feedback and contact the panelist directly.

The event planner selects which requests to forward, together with the price of the consultation. Panel Feedback takes a 15% cut on the transaction.

It looks like a very new service, so ask many questions before trying. Yet the idea is very exciting.

EventDawn

I said it last week, I don't understand why event professionals carry massive paper binders.

EventDawn is an alternative to that. It gives you all the tools you need to run the event in, what they call, an online binder.

You can upload all the docs you need, spreadsheets, contracts, contacts, etc. They also give you the chance to print it off, if you really can't do without it.

You know I will chase you for that though!

Cincebop

There is nothing cheesier than event invites. I am not talking about those who can afford super cool designers and complex delivery software. I am talking about the sad Comic Sans invite that makes you relieve the '90s and the obnoxious WordArt.

CineBop realised that. They created a service to turn your invite into an animated video that resembles a movie trailer.

They also collect RSVPs and attendee details via email.

There is no pricing disclosed on the site, making me feel the service will not be on the cheap side. If you have the budget, go for it.

BeatSwitch

The aim of BeatSwitch is to bring order to a chaotic sector of events: entertainment. A land where word of mouth and gut feeling dominate.

The platform offers to manage the relationship between DJs/Artists, Booking Agencies and Promoters. With features such as artist planning, hospitality and accommodation arrangements and transport management it is a great solution if you work with artists and are looking at rationalising often very demanding schedules.

Give it a go!

Every Ticket Gives

As I mentioned in the preface, I don't talk about registration services. Every Ticket Gives is an exception. It belongs to a strong trend more event professionals should adopt this year, Do Something Good.

The concept is simple, you get a ticketing and registration service that devolves a cut of their $0.50 fee to your chosen charity.

With online registration becoming commoditised this is a great differentiator that catches mine and I hope your attention.

Rotten Wifi

Rotten Wifi aims to become the Rotten Tomatoes of Wifi. By offering a speed testing tool it helps to rank and comment on wifi available in public and private venues.

This is a great way to really see how the wifi of your chosen venue performs under stress, by means of reviews by previous attendees.

The platform has a mission

"to encourage people to fight back against poor WiFi and 3G connections, giving them the opportunity to express their emotions with nifty phrases and sarcastic caricatures as well as providing a forum to share recommendations for spots with higher performing internet so that crappy connection becomes a thing of the past."

I wholeheartedly love that.

Urban Gaming

One of last year's trends was City as Playgrounds. Urban Gaming smartly uses tablets to deliver urban gaming experiences.

These are great for team building events but also art events and venues looking to beef up their core offering.

Some of the games available are scavenger hunts, quizzes, hotel gaming, wine tasting gaming. What makes Urban Gaming special is the presence of a content component together with the technology. Effectively they are giving you ideas to make your event concepts more interactive and engaging.

Das Terminal

I have to thank Paul at Ex-Ordo for pointing me in their direction. If you work with pharma or academic congresses, you know how important posters are.

Yet this is a way of showing someone's work that is pretty much unchanged since the early 1900s. Das Terminal is a cool looking digital poster system that displays posters directly from an iPad.

It is an amazing work of design. The presenter can talk about their poster facing the audience as the iPad swivels sideways, always allowing eye contact.

It can also be upgraded with its own audio system. Way too cool.

PresentR

I haven't tested PresentR yet. It is the one service on the list I cannot wait to try.

If you are a good presenter you are always looking for feedback. The problem is that it is very difficult to get real time feedback about your session without actually having an audience.

The guys at t3interactive, created a platform that by looking at you via the Microsoft Kinect gives you feedback about your presenting style. The Kinect will give you feedback for your posture, gesture, eye contact and voice.

You can analyse how many times you repeated the same words, if you paused too much or if you used 'actually' or 'so' way over acceptable levels.

This is the Wii for presenters. I love it.

In Conclusion

I hope you loved this roundup as much as I enjoyed discovering such innovative services.

All companies offer effective solutions for existing and new problems we face as event professionals.

As always I ask you to share this article with your colleagues as it will make these guys happy and fuel more innovation for our industry.