Konduko and Crowd Connected agree strategic partnership

• Collaboration creates ‘one-stop shop’, making it easier for exhibition organisers to select market-leading attendee tracking and data-capture products for live events.

• Partnership formed in recognition that the global exhibition industry is under pressure to adopt the right digital tools, but is not well served by an increasingly fragmented vendor marketplace.

• Objective is to deliver what exhibition organisers require: reduced complexity and a better understanding of which solution is most appropriate for their individual ‘return to live’ strategies.

Industry-leading event technology companies Konduko and Crowd Connected today announced a strategic partnership, to assist exhibition and trade show organisers in their adoption of best-in-class event attendee tracking and data capture solutions.

As physical events return post-pandemic, there is pressure on organisers to adopt digital tools to enhance participants’ show experience, while delivering business-critical attendee behavioural and exhibitor engagement data.

The new partnership announced today will see Crowd Connected and Konduko working together – where appropriate – to advise and provide the best technology solution for new customers who want to bring back successful physical and hybrid events, and where insightful and meaningful data is needed to demonstrate ROI for organisers and exhibitors.

For some exhibition organisers – particularly those with portfolios of larger shows who are taking a holistic approach to improving their use of event data – a combination of Konduko’s active and Crowd Connected’s passive tracking technologies may be recommended. To that end, the two companies have also agreed to evaluate integration of their respective platforms so that data from one can be readily used by the other.

The agreement aims to help organisers make great event technology choices and to help secure the long-term viability of their events.

Matt Harris, founder and CEO of Konduko, said: “Organisers are becoming increasingly confused and overwhelmed by the technology available – a myriad of solutions, often unproven, that will supposedly help the experience use digital or go virtual. Konduko and Crowd Connected have taken a brave, but grown-up and principled approach to helping event organisers make the right decision about their event technology, by working together to make this happen.

“Sometimes Konduko will be the best fit, sometimes Crowd Connected. Hopefully both.”

James Cobb, founder and CEO of Crowd Connected, said: “We’ve always believed businesses should focus on the outcomes they are seeking, rather than the technology under the bonnet – which ultimately is just a means to an end.

“The pandemic has accelerated digital disruption across multiple sectors, no more so than in the exhibition industry. Successful operators will rise to the challenge, data-enabling their physical shows to optimise and personalise the attendee and exhibitor experience.

“By collaborating with Konduko, we hope we’re demonstrating that Crowd Connected is focused on putting the exhibition industry on the right side of digital disruption.”

Both Konduko and Crowd Connected deliver real-time and post-show insight from attendee tracking, but in different ways.

Switzerland-based Konduko provides a contactless attendee engagement via QR- or NFC-engaged ‘smart badges’ and mobile phones, deploying its Smart Readers around an event. These enable a ‘digital handshake’ – the seamless exchange of information, for example, between an attendee and exhibitor – while simultaneously capturing intent-based activity. This is often called ‘active tracking’.

The technology from UK-based Crowd Connected is embedded into mobile apps. This provides real-time intelligence that optimises and personalises the attendee experience (for example through indoor ‘blue dot’ navigation), while also delivering the data points and tools needed by event organisers for footfall analytics. Because Crowd Connected’s software gathers data in the background, it is frequently referred to as ‘passive tracking’.

Konduko’s and Crowd Connected’s best-in-class solutions therefore complement each other. The respective technologies can be used in isolation to address specific challenges that organisers face, including enhancing attendee ROT, maximising exhibitor ROI and closing the often-cited ‘data gap’ that physical events have endured when compared with their digital counterparts.

More about Konduko:

• Established in 2013, Konduko is a global provider of ‘Kontactless’ Smart Event technologies that allow for a simple, comprehensive attendee engagement platform. For the past seven years, Konduko’s mission has been to enable the digital exchange of information at large-scale events, entirely without contact.
• Considered the most effective lead-capture solution on the market, Konduko’s excellence as a smart event platform is best evidenced by their consistent 82% attendee engagement rate, 99% exhibitor satisfaction rate and independently awarded Net Promoter Score of 72.
• Website: Konduko.com