IBTM World Virtual has today announced the five finalists for this year’s renowned Tech Watch Live Award. One company will be crowned the overall winner by the high-profile judging panel live at IBTM World Virtual 2020, on the 10th December at 19:35.
The finalists are all technology companies with new products or services set to inspire and revolutionise the meetings and events industry. Finalists will have the chance to showcase their products to thousands of high-profile global buyers, influencers and media, on-demand on the IBTM Accelerate Stream on the 9th December. The overall winner will be interviewed live on IBTM TV on day three of the event and will potentially gain future financial and/or mentorship at the discretion of a judging panel.
This year’s finalists are Pubsphere Exhibits, which is developing small wearable devices with built-in light detection and ranging technology to discretely inform people nearby to respect and maintain their physical distances; Troop, a company which uses Big Data analysis to help planners compare different event locations based on various factors including Covid-19 incidence, to help re-start safe in-person meetings; Socio, an event management platform and end-to-end solution for virtual, hybrid and in-person events; ConsenseIQ, a polling tool which allows for deeper dialogue and more effective exploration of dilemmas, problems and challenges between groups; and CLIPr, a viewing platform for the events industry which empowers organisers to get more mileage out of their content.
Dahlia El Gazzar, Tech Evangelist, and chief collaborator for IBTM World TechWatch Live 2020, comments: “This year was different when it came to the TechWatch entries and what the highly esteemed judges were looking for. We were looking for solutions to help the MICE industry and event professionals create more engaging communities and events in the next decade, not only in 2021. Eventprofs need to look at technology differently and see how it can help them become more resilient, no matter what comes their way next, and continue to deliver to all stakeholders.”
David Thompson, Event Director, IBTM World Virtual, commented: “We had an amazing response to TechWatch Live this year, and an outstanding calibre of entries with really inventive solutions to help the meetings and events industry, particularly when it comes to navigating the current pandemic. Thank you to our judges and to everyone who entered, and congratulations to our five finalists. We look forward to discovering who our ultimate TechWatch Live winner will be during IBTM World Virtual.”
The finalists were selected based on a wide range of criteria, including their level of innovation, how different the product is in the market, concept and business model, how far along the product is in development, and how much value it brings to the MICE industry.
The five finalists were selected by a panel of well-known experts from The Technology Advisory Group. Judges from the group include founder and CEO of EventFX, Dave Lorenzini; CEO of Liz King events and Techsytalk and Founder of IGNITE consulting programme, Liz King Caruso; Keith Johnston, managing partner of i3 Events and publisher of event industry blog Plannerwire; and award-winning entrepreneur, podcaster and bestselling author Jason Allan Scott.
For more information and to register to attend IBTM World Virtual, visit:
https://www.ibtmworld.com/visit/register/
