Sometimes I think working out the various aspects of a start-up is a bit like completing a crossword puzzle. I get a few clues right and then a whole quadrant falls into place. I think we have the right feature set designed for making meetings a better experience with smart phones. But that doesn’t solve the big problem — the key problem for start-ups — getting the business model right. The current economy is both terrible and helpful in finding the right business model. Terrible in that nobody has any money. Helpful in that if we can figure out a successful business model in this climate, we are likely to make it through to when things start to look up. I think we have a good start. Here is our current business model:
Opportunity: to create a platform that enables live event producers to rapidly deploy mobile applications with built in sponsorship opportunities.
Business Model: revenue sharing with event producers on sponsorships embedded inside the mobile event application.
We have worked to create sponsorship opportunities that are uniquely valuable for smart phones at events. They are:
Splash Screen for iPhone and Mobile Web
With the SWIFT Mobile platform we can deploy dedicated iPhone applications to the iPhone app store, as well as mobile web applications that are accessed through the browser of the smart phone. The best branding opportunity for sponsors lies in owning the splash screen as the application loads and the front page of the mobile web site. This key sponsorship also is placed on pages within the application (see rotating banners below).
Premium Mobile Exhibitor Presence
We offer a set of features for free to speakers and users that exhibitors can access for a fee. These features include a detailed profile page in our directory, user messaging, video publishing, and polling. With our polling feature, exhibitors can run contests and get user feedback from people in real time during the event. Video enables publishing of product demo’s and other video materials. These videos play inside the SWIFT Mobile application. User messaging allows people to send emails, SMS, and DM Tweets to people at the event. Users set privacy controls for how much access they want to enable.
Filtered Twitter and Rotating Banners
People are working on means to filter twitter so that it works better as a channel for conversation for live events. Stowe Boyd has proposed a microsyntax system – which we think is a good idea if it can be automated so that it does not require extra work on the part of tweeters:
We have some relatively mature conventions — like hashtags (‘#twitter’ or ‘#ruby’, for example) — that have spread into wide use but are not directly supported by Twitter itself, and where different applications may support them in very different ways.
At the other extreme, we have new conventions appearing — like CoTweet’s use of ‘^’ preceding initial of authors in group twitter accounts, my recent suggestion for ‘/’ as syntax to precede or enclose locations (as in ‘/Germany’ or ‘/156 South Park, San Francisco CA/’), or my proposal for subtags (like ‘#sxsw.kathysierra’ or ‘#w2e.PR’) — and these could lead to confusion or conflicts between contending approaches to the same purpose.
We plan to filter twitter with some kind of microsyntax so that tweets that are published from within SWIFT Mobile pages are automatically given an appendix that puts them in the right pages. SWIFT Mobile will auto generate these subtags as long as our users have entered their twitter credentials in their profile page and publish from the twitter client within SWIFT. So if you are using your smart phone during Kathy Sierra’s keynote, you can both track all of the tweets that are being published live as well as contribute — without having to add the hashtag.
How does this relate to sponsorship? We think our twitter filtering will keep people inside our application and will generate significantly more page views that other methods. These page views offer great opportunities for sponsors to get in front of prospects.
Geo location messaging
Next year we will be working on means of creating profiles that enable matching by the GPS devices in the phone. So if you are looking for great iPhone app developers and you wander by someone who has those skills to offer, you will get matching notifications. This can help exhibitors find the right prospects on the trade show floor.
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I consider myself a reasonably intelligent guy, but the growing complexity of Twitter just baffles me. Anything you can do to (a) simplify for the common person and (b) put tweets into a relevant context, especially the context of a live event (meeting, concert, etc.) would be hugely appreciated. With respect to the business model, SWIFT should be in a good position to build relationships with a platform approach during this downturn, and whether or not the conference market comes back strong is almost irrelevant. If it never comes back, the company helps save customers money and drive a little incremental revenue. If it does, the company will capture some of the upside through a sponsorship piece and then have data on the back end that will itself have value. A nice business.