Showing posts with label discover skignz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discover skignz. Show all posts

Wednesday 25 November 2015

TECHSTARS North Final

The long trip from London to Manchester seemed to be longer than usual, with the weather affecting train services.  

Being greeted by the rain in Manchester is becoming commonplace, but skignz were there to attend the TECHSTARS Northern Finals Awards evening.
 
Si Brown (Co-Founder & CMO of skignz) was ‘pitching’ at the event.  

A 3 minute slot in which to deliver a presentation to a panel of judges isn’t a long time, but enough to showcase our technology.




As we have come to expect, Si was relaxed and articulate throughout his 3 minutes, giving a great account of the skignz technology and answering questions at the end from the panel of 4 Judges.


The evening was a great event, with time for networking and making some really positive contacts.  

In the end though, skignz were not chosen as one of the winners. 

“You can’t win them all, and the standard of participants this year was extremely high, so congratulations to each and every one of them” said an upbeat Si as the evening drew to a close.










The awards evening was held at the awesome and funky offices of UK Fast. Fantastic location hosted by a great group of people. Big thanks to them for hosting us.
For Further information on TechNorth, please visit: 
http://technorthhq.com

For Further information on UK Fast, please visit: 
http://www.ukfast.co.uk

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

Monday 16 November 2015

IGNITE - Nimbus Ninety @Vinopolis, London

A £5 note pulled from a puddle would serve as a good omen that the trip to the IGNITE Event in London would be both enjoyable and super successful. 
I was travelling with skignz Co-Founder & CMO, Si Brown to our second event within a fortnight.  

Another week another Capital City.... After returning from WebSummit in Dublin the week before, we were recharged and ready to take part in an event which has good memories for skignz.  

Only in March had we won 'UK's Most Disruptive Tech Start-up' at the Nimbus Ninety Awards.  

Good Omens all round! 

Excited and ready for the trip, we travelled to London with no delays or issues, checked into our Hotel and placed skignz at the event venue ready for the next day's showcase.

An early start meant that we could get set up at the very stylish and intriguing Vinopolis Event venue, and ensure that skignz were in a prominent position to be seen by the delegates. 



A multitude of professionals from various sectors were in attendance, meaning that no conversation was the same, and the value of skignz was showcased across retail, event production, telecommunications, engineering and safety. 

The niche to skignz is the ability to cut across an awful lot of niches! Providing data as and when the user needs it, looking through their mobile device as opposed to at it.

It never ceases to amaze me, as Head of DV Partnerships, that look on people's faces when we demonstrate skignz in real time, in front of them, and showing them content that is situated around them..... 

It's where the magic happens! 

A number of the delegates at the impressive Nimbus Ninety IGNITE event have already made contact with us as we head north back to HQ, showing the level of interest that is starting to be a recurring theme for us.


So as the omens said at the beginning.... A successful trip to a well organised, enjoyable event, was more than worth it.

A note should be made that the organising team made life extremely easy for us, making sure that we had everything we needed to showcase skignz in the its best light, in beautiful surroundings to a very engaging and interesting audience.


For Further information on Nimbus Ninety and their IGNITE events, then please visit: 


For Further information on Vinopolis Event Space in London, then please visit: http://vinopolis.co.uk

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com




WebSummit Dublin 2015 - A Reflection on our experience

It's been 10 days now since we returned home after WedSummit in Dublin, Ireland.

We certainly needed some of that time to recover, but we have used the last few days to reflect an our whole experience from both skignz being at a big exhibition/conference as an 'Alpha Company', through to what we felt was good & bad from an event point of view?

Let's get the bad out of the way and focus on the positives. These are only really nitty gritty things that we felt that we would like to change:

#1. We only had our 'Alpha Stand' for one day, we would have preferred at least two days. WebSummit is now that big with over 42k people attending that after we had the stand on the first day, we didn't really have a base or somewhere we can direct people to to come and talk to us.

#2. the opportunities to meet the investors was limited as they chose who they wanted to see and only one of the ones we saw was worth the meeting.

Most of the success we had meeting VC's was at other events and through introductions from our own bank and other contacts.

#3. Using the chat on the app was great prior to the event but once the event started, many people weren't replying in time, setting up meetings became difficult due to clashes and delays, "if only there was a way to identify them and would alert you when you were close, so at least you can say hello and put a face to a name (If only hey ;-))."




Like we said above the above are nitty gritty stuff, that can be taken on board by WebSummit as they progress, as all feedback is good even if it's a little bit uncomfortable at the time, but as a growing brand and organisation, listening to your customers is key to your future success.

Positives... for this we maybe have too many to mention but feel it was not only the opportunity that WebSummit presents, the types of people attending and the quality of your offering. for us though what was key was the dynamic of the team we took with us, the approach as in early mornings and late nights. 

Engaging people during the day, with either preset meetings, chatting to the next table over lunch or mixing with Many different people during the 'Night Summits and Pub Crawls'.


 



David Murphy (Head of Sports Partnerships at skignz) thought the Pub Crawl on the first night was excellent for him personally, as the four of us were broken up into different places, making us engage people and not just go to the opening event as a group. 

By the time we all met up afterwards, we already had a number of different people to speak to, interested parties for partnerships and an overwhelming positive response to skignz itself. 

He said after the second day that the night before was fantastic as it helped him find his feet with regards to explaining skignz and how it could work in a multitude of scenarios, so much so that on the Tuesday, he felt he went straight in, was quick and efficient with his explanation and demonstration of skignz to everyone who he spoke to, as well as finding ways to relate to each of them personally.




This continued for the next 3 days for all of us. We have met some wonderful people from all corners of the earth, some we may not do business with but will certainly stay in contact with as we are sure we can help each others companies going forward, even if we may not do business with each other.

The key for us was that we never spoke to anyone who did not see either a fit for skignz with them professionally or personally. Not many startups or tech companies can say that. This is actually the overall response we get from anyone who sees skignz for the first time.

From us placing skignz all over Dublin to help everyone at WebSummit find their hotels, the venues, even the toilets, refreshments and various stages; right through to the partner bars for the 'Pub Crawl's and Night Summits' to places of interest. 


 The corridor of sponsor skignz ran from the train and taxi ranks right to the main gate of the RDS. But only those who knew about skignz, had the app could see this information.

We spoke to a number of people who actually worked for WebSummit and fed back what we were constantly hearing - "Why isn't this part of the Web Summit offering? If we all had skignz it would be easier to find people after using chat".

Lets hope the connections we have made and discussions held throughout WebSummit and hopefully in the coming weeks, can make this a reality not only for next year's WebSummit in Lisbon, Portugal, but also for the other events they organise such as RISE, COLLISION & ONE.

We will obviously update you on our progress and also the other similar tech events across the globe who have approached us to work with them. 

Who knows, within the next 12-18 months every major tech/brand/mobile event like WebSummit you attend, will be 'skignzed up' for your convenience and even further enhance your overall experience.













In summary we had a very positive experience with WebSummit but it's like anything, you get out of it what you put into it. 

Plan, Plan and Plan some more, have a very clear idea of what you aim to achieve and what is required, and execute your plan....



For Further information on WebSummit and their other associated events across the globe, please visit: https://websummit.net


And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

Thursday 15 October 2015

Wired Retail Conference in London

skignz Co-Founder and CMO will be speaking at the upcoming WIRED Retail Conference in London.


Si was invited to speak after a number of the 'WIRED' events team saw him present and pitch at various events and the articles written about skignz in 'WIRED Magazine' throughout 2015 

Si will be focussing on the future of retail and how this will evolve, change and progress using Augmented Reality. 

skignz already has a few innovative and unique ways in which AR can be incorporated into retail, but instead of looking in store as many other brands have done with AR or activating content through brands publications. 

"What about GeoLocation?" 

"What about lead generation?" 

"How about relating hyperlocal information to drive and increase purchases?"

Some of the areas in which Si feels further exploration are:
 - AR driving sales 
 - AR helping with emotive purchases
 - AR increasing speed of purchases



http://www.wiredevent.co.uk/wired-retail-2015-speakers

'WIRED' Retail together with Valtech is on November 23rd at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, with a view to presenting the future of retail - with those who are building it.

For further information on 'WIRED' Retail 2015 please visit:

http://www.wiredevent.co.uk/wired-retail-2015-2

We will be updating you through our various social media channels as the event progresses and sharing others comments on Si's talk. If you would like to speak to Si about this event then please email us at info@skignz.com 

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Subverting the Subversive with skignz

This summer the widely acclaimed artist 'Banksy' opened the doors to his 'Dismaland' theme park.

The enigmatic graffiti artist takes over derelict seafront lido in Weston-super-Mare for six-week show featuring Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer and David Shrigley amongst others.

Although we didn't personally get chance to visit, we heard through some of the skignz users that one user had placed a number of 'art skignz' in and around the Dismaland:Bemusement Park.


This was the first attempt by the user to create his own skignz and place them somewhere of significance. He then informed a few of his own friends who he knew would be visiting the park to download skignz and take a look at what he had put there?

The skignz user in question had previously met Si Brown (skignz Co-Founder & CMO) at a Hackathon for BBC Music Live in Newcastle. Since then further conversations between the two around an idea that ANY artist ANYWHERE on the planet, could use skignz to 'place' their own work in locations, where using the power of social media they could encourage other people to view it. 

This quickly became 'ARt Above', Martin (skignz user, artist & musician) decided to test how he felt this could work. 

As you can see from the images his fiend (also a professional artist) sent through to him (using the in app skignz capture function)


As you can see Martin was very successful in 'out banksying banksy' if that's at all possible.

Although Martin had not visited the park or knew where anything specific was exhibited, its ironic how one of his images from the Alfred Hitchcock film 'The Birds', nicely floats above one of Banksy's own pieces 'Woman attacked by Seagulls'.


Even more ironic is the amount of people who visited the park and probably looked at this picture, will have had no idea that Martin's Picture was floating in the etha, just above!


Martin said: "skignz & 'ARt Above' can do for graphical art what spotify has done for music"

We wonder if Banksy himself might use the skignz technology and contribute to the special channel created specifically for Artists 'ARt Above'.

Not just Banksy but any artist who wants to use skignz to display their own work, then please go ahead, create a skignz account, download the skignz app on either iOS or Android. Then you can start to upload your artwork to the skignz platform and 'place it on a map' wherever you want to place them.


In 1999 the 'lads mag' FHM beamed a giant picture of the model Gail Porter on to the Houses of Parliament in London England. 

This could be done again, but only viewed through skignz!

Where in particular would you like to place your art or have you any ideas where artist could place their art?

Contact us here at skignz if you would like to know more about 'ARt Above'