Poken expands partnership with Reed Exhibitions

Poken, the 360º event platform, today announces a new partnership with Reed Exhibitions, which sees an expansion of the services previously provided and an integration with Nova™, Reed’s global online event management platform.

This year, ibtm america 2016 will take place June 15-17 at The Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. This venue is best known as one of the largest hotel exhibition and meetings venue in the continental US, featuring 882 guest rooms, 6 ballrooms, more than 100 technologically advanced conference and breakout rooms, and some 600,000 sq. ft. of meeting, convention and exhibit space.

The Poken event technology platform will be employed throughout ibtm america 2016, a leading industry event that offers 100% mutually matched one-to-one meetings between top suppliers and pre-qualified meeting and event planners with proven business to place in the US and globally. Poken’s on-site registration and badge-printing software will be deployed on large touchscreen tablets wirelessly connected to printers, providing attendees with fast registration, badge retrieval, and a printed individual meeting schedule.

As measuring and tracking meeting attendance is integral to Reed Exhibitions’ objectives, Poken will also be used to track buyers’ attendance at their scheduled meetings. All attendees will receive a Smart Badge which they will use to check into their meetings by touching a small iBeacon & 3G-connected reader embedded in a coaster on each meeting table. These readers are unique to Poken, who had been deploying them to provide advanced lead-generation and digital content delivery solutions to large exhibition clients worldwide.

Poken will also provide the event’s mobile app, ensuring a rich digital experience for attendees, and reporting key engagement metrics to the organiser. Viewing their personal meeting schedule on their mobile device, attendees will be reminded about their meetings with automated alerts sent via the Poken platform, helping to drive efficient meeting etiquette.

At past events using its technologies, Poken has demonstrated a behavioral shift among participants, helping drive better results through enhanced engagement, better awareness, and increased networking.

Ron Speechley, who heads Poken’s Sales and Marketing in the US, says: “Reed Exhibitions has been one of our valued partners over the past few years and we are thrilled to continue to have the opportunity to innovate with this world class client. Creating more seamless ways for attendees to get results out of the shows they attend has been a priority for us.”

Jaime McAuley, ibtm america Event Director, comments: “Working with Poken for the past two years has been an absolute pleasure. Poken proved to us that beyond anything they understand an event organiser’s needs, and are committed to developing technologies that empower not only the attendees, but also the organiser. This year we are rolling out 100% mutually matched appointments, which means that exhibitors and Hosted Buyers can use the mutual match appointment system to create a diary of up to 30 valuable and relevant appointments with the business leads they identify. Poken’s technology will work to keep the thousands of pre-scheduled appointments taking place at ibtm america 2016 on schedule, which will in turn maximise opportunity for ROI.

“Technology is one of the fastest growing sectors within the meetings and events industry and this means that meeting professionals are always playing catch up. Reed Exhibitions is constantly redefining the marketplace through its vision, and through innovation which it sometimes sources from leading-edge suppliers such as Poken.”

eTN is a media partner for ibtm.