Vancouver Interactive Digital Week

by BRITTA RICKER PETERS on June 15, 2010 • game ipad iphone location: conference • COMMENT

Mapkist was fortunate enough to attend Vancouver Interactive Digital Week (VIDWeek) organized by Digi BC. (I am late blogging about it but this is definitely an event worth blogging about). I was the moderator for a panel in the Wireless Business & Innovation Track: You are Your Location – location and enhanced experience.

We had a stacked panel that led to a rich discussion covering topics related to location-based gaming and services.

Let’s meet the panel…

Jereon Mol, Co-Founder, buzzAR (Holland)

buzzAR is a Dutch company that has developed a new visual search platform and an augmented reality tool for smartphones. Jereon offered a unique perspective on “location-aware” search and devices because his apps use image recognition and are not bound by location. buzzAR is taking a context aware approach to Augmented Reality, not just location aware.

Dan Walton, Co-Founder, Retronyms

Retronyms – GeoSeek; games in the great outdoors. These guys make really cool apps for multiple platforms. They are specifically skilled in developing location-based games and music apps. Their coolest game is Seek ‘n Spell…think location based scrabble where you have to run to collect the pieces you need to form a word. Super fun. They also develop musical apps for the iPad. All of our lunch buddies got a kick out of these apps. Highly entertaining.

Ben Hesketh, Founder, Compass Engine

Compass Engine and Ben are currently working on an app called Catch the Canary. Ben invited me to come visit him at work in beautiful Gastown in Vancouver last week. It was really cool to get to preview his location-based game that will be launched soon… I will likely blog about it when it is ready.

Vladimir Savchenko, Founder,  Sound of Motion

Sound of Motion – creators of an app (VeloComputer) that transforms mobile devices into cycling computers that can track speed; lap and trip distance; acceleration and altitude.  It also records trip data on the phone in CSV files and can be uploaded to a spreadsheet for training analysis or Google Earth for tracking. This computer can be used for more than just biking too!

If you have any questions about this panel session and what was discussed… give us a shout or comment below… would love to keep the dialogue going!

Foursquare as a Marketing Tool

by KUMIKO YAMAZAKI on March 9, 2010 • apps foursquare location • 3 COMMENTS

By now, most of you have heard of Foursquare, the location-based app that lets you virtually check in to a location. You let the application know where you are and in return, you receive badges (bragging rights) and work your way to becoming the mayor of your favorite venue. You are also encouraged to leave “tips” for others letting them know what you loved or didn’t love about the particular venue.

Foursquare is very similar to visiting a website online except it’s real life. Many website owners will use analytics on their site to learn more about the behavior of its visitors for market research, so it comes as no surprise that business owners may want the same type of analytics for their venue.

This feature is now available for a few select businesses – Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses [via NYT].

It’s amazing the amount of data that is available through Foursquare and the advantages it can provide to businesses everywhere. The obvious error with these analytics is that only a small percentage of people use Foursquare. The children and elderly will most likely not appear in the data.

However, what they will receive are a core of young adults who may be social media gurus and can persuade their entire social network to visit (or not visit) your business. This new tool offers a direct personal relationship with your customers so the lesson here is to let them know they are valued customers and offer them incentives to keep coming back. Foursquare is just a location-based game for most people but is also becoming a valuable marketing tool for businesses.

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