Commonwealth Games - Glasgow 2014

With the closing ceremony and the opening one for that matter, still fresh in our minds, we would like to reflect on how successful the event has been.

From a games perspective it seems this has proved to be one of the best Commonwealth Games ever and especially for Scotland and more importantly the people of Glasgow. 

Glasgow and the rest of Scotland place their people right up there with Whiskey and Golf as their key exports and few would disagree

However over the years the whiskey and golf is sampled regularly however to sample the collective spirit of the Scottish only comes around every now and then! Normally the 'Scots' qualifying for a FIFA World Cup or European Championship.

These games provided the audience of the whole Commonwealth and beyond through all the usual communication channels, TV. Internet, Mobile etc… like they have never previously experienced. 

The scrutiny was even more enhanced due to London’s successful hosting of the recent Olympic Games in 2012.

We are sure most who attended or watched on TV saw a different type of games but certainly not an inferior one. 

Also well done to England who topped the leader board for their incredible medal haul, the first time for 24 years. Well done Team England!

From a skignz point of view, the games afforded our CMO the opportunity to go back up to Glasgow for the first time in over 20 years. 

With an full agenda for the Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Business Conference, Royal Reception and a number of client meetings and live demos of the skignz technology.

The route up took him back up on the same journey he tread as a wide eyed 16 year old, making his way in the world of Football... (Soccer to our friends in the USA).

Si Brown said: 
"Glasgow as a whole has changed significantly, even the drive up from the NE England, taking the same route as over two decades ago has been transformed, certainly North of the Border by the vast numbers of ‘Wind Turbines’ covering the horizon, from the hills/mountains to the east, across to the western seaboard, where more appear offshore.

 

Once in Glasgow the development and transformation has been immense, from a heavy industrialised city to one of culture, awesome modern and contemporary architecture mixed in with the heritage sites across the city, to the infrastructure projects in and around the key urban areas.

One thing that had hardly changed if at all was when I visited Fir Park, the home of the wonderful Motherwell F.C. 

It was like going back in time as I turned the corner to face the ground. Very little had changed in my mind although I’m sure a lot has.

The ground is still ‘a ground’ in the old school term and not either morphed or relocated in to a new shiny stadium. 

There was two nice a touches that meant a lot to me personally was remembrance of two former great MFC (Scotland Internationals) players (who sadly died very young in their mid to late 30’s) both left wingers as well, by naming two of the grounds main stands after them.  

The wizard that was Davy Cooper (Scottish Juninho) and the lovely guy that was Phil O’Donnell both of which were at the club back in the early 1990’s when I was there."




Back to the reason for skignz being in Scotland after that trip down memory lane. 

One of the ways skignz aims to become a market leader in providing real time information regardless of your location is by engaging with various sectors and prominent companies and market leaders in those specific sectors to work in partnership to help develop the skignz offering.

One of those partnerships that is currently being developed is in the global major sporting events sector. So FIFA World Cups, UEFA Championships, Champions League, Europa Cup, the Olympics/Paralympics, Formula E, Cricket, Tennis, Horse Racing Golf etc…and of course the Commonwealth Games.

Billions of people attend these live events all over the world from the annually and biannually run events to the global greats such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup coming every 4 years. 

skignz is working to become the ‘default’ way of helping people find their way around these global events, to access relevant real time information when and where they need it, through their mobile device.

As an armchair supporter the quality of information that you can access through your TV, website etc.. is phenomenal, however the real time live experience lacks ‘replays’, in game betting/gaming, fan/broadcaster commentary.

skignz provides the answer to this and as the skignz technology is more widely used the scope of information will increase. For those of you in the UK that can remember football on the terrestrial channels and how it changed when Sky Sports arrived! Now think 20 odd years ahead to Sky's offering now compared to those early days – it has transformed how we watch live sport with uber finite analysis, stats, replays, simulations, different camera angles, fan zones etc…

It’s been mooted that the reason for the decline in live attendances  (apart from the increase in price) has been the comparison with the experience you get by watching the same game in your own home, pub/bar or on the internet versus the live experience cost etc…

skignz will not only help the live audience access more information and data whilst being present but will help them in and around the area with additional content – help them find their way about new stadia, tracks, etc.. 
So it acts not only as a Way-Finder/Map but then becomes your source of relevant content about that specific event.

Bringing you back to the games in Glasgow, skignz ran a number of demo’s and tests in order to showcase to a number of audiences the capability of skignz, it was brand related to the current games, with a few extras showing the possibilities in taking skignz to different levels and also about how content can be audience specific – Adults, Children, Teenagers or even Staff, Security, VIP’s, Sponsors, Partners, Trainers, Coaches and even the Athletes themselves.

This content was broken up into various channels and placed at a number of the key locations the games were centred around. The audiences that got to experience skignz comments included:

-       “blown me away”

-       “does what it says on the tin”

-       “offers so many possibilities”

-       “fits perfectly with the branding”

-       “reaches and engages anyone and everyone who comes to the games”

-       “you can easily see how skignz can work, at any event anywhere in the world"

The extra work also seemed to ‘hit the spot’
show casing how skignz can be expanded on 
to not just be signs in the sky but using the 
official games mascot ‘Clyde’ the skignz team 
placed a few of this little guy in his different 
sports across the venues! This created a 
different way to interact with the skignz and 
for a different purpose.

All of this support and feedback has been very encouraging for the whole skignz team and the few bits that made it onto Social Media also seemed to be very well received.

So where are we now?

The skignz team are working on a number of fronts with interested parties to see how best to integrate skignz into the future global events, we anticipate that a number of slightly smaller and more annual events will get the ‘skignz treatment’ first with a view to developing a model ready to be rolled out for the next major events from 2016.

In the meantime, please keep an eye out for skignz coming to a sport near you, or even you near that sport! Using skignz to find your way around and access content in a whole new way!

All on a free app that you can not only use to access this content, but you can also help contribute towards by creating an account (also free!) and place your own content!

Happy Live Sports skignzing….

If you want to read more about the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Motherwell FC, FIFA, UEFA then please take a look at the following links:

• http://www.glasgow2014.com/
• http://www.rio2016.org/en
• http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/
• http://www.uefa.com/
• http://www.fifa.com/

or more about skignz then:

skignz website:

http://www.skignz.com

discover skignz website:

http://www.skignz.com/discover

skignz: Increased Functionality for Users...

skignz has been actively functioning now for over a year so we thought that we would give you a small insight as to how the functionality of the business has increased and how we are working now compared to how we were when we first developed skignz.

skignz has achieved a lot in the previous year and has got many more exciting opportunities to look forward to, so we thought we would share with you just how much we have progressed.

When skignz was first developed we were a start-up company, so everything was basic including the interface and technology behind skignz. A skign that you see now was just very plain, had no design, style or even much added to it. 

                       

The skignz came in a variety of colours, with just a simple box style and two spaces to insert your heading and write a small amount of text. There was not much to a skignz when we first began, so we saw an opportunity for progression to the next stage.
The next part we wanted to focus on was making more room for users to be able to insert more text into their skign. We also were working with Teesside University and other possible brands and needed to create a skignz design for all students on University campuses to use.

                                                                                                       


Since creating and developing the team skignz managed to come up with a wide variety of ideas and ways in which we could change the way that skignz appeared to all users. We wanted to create a simple and fun theme that we could demonstrate to users as ‘your signs in the sky’ – skignz.

Improving the interface of skignz and the way that it looked was a vast step for us, now we could appeal to more, increasing our user and businesses data. We then saw an opportunity to focus on ways to try and reach a wider audience as we wanted skignz to be globally; not just locally.   

Working on our social media to the highest extent we could, we decided to create a video blog post that we could upload to all our social media sites and see how much of a wider audience this would reach. Luckily for us this managed to go very globally reaching people in Las Vegas which lead us to doing business arrangements and now having the success of opening our very own office in Las Vegas and having Nick Vilardell run it from the US. That was one of skignz first MASSIVE step which were a great time for us.

We then gathered that we needed to add more to our skignz platform and create ways in which it would attract more business interest and users. For that we directed ourselves to the brainchild behind the technology of skignz - Gary Baker.

We first considered creating different accounts so that if anyone managed to become a premium user of skignz they could have unlimited amount of skignz to place around wherever they wished to. From this we thought that with having a premium account where any user can place as many skignz as they wished, they would then like the opportunity to be able to create their own skignz, so they wouldn’t just have to use the already pre placed ones and be able to personally design them however they wish, and that is exactly what we did.

Now any user can manage their own skignz on their account and upload whatever one they would like, whether that was to be an original design taken from the internet or creating and design their own. 

The team at skignz have had a lot of fun with creating their own skignz, from placing doughnuts above houses, roasted chickens in cars to even creating themselves as a skignz and casually chilling outside their own home. 

There is a lot of fun to be had with skignz which is what we are all about; we would like users to have a lot of fun whilst finding it practical and useful at the same time, skignz is not just for one practical use, it is practical for anything. Users can even also use skignz to leave greeting messages for someone if it was the birthday or a special occasion was upon arrival, - if two people are newlyweds then someone could leave a great big congratulations skign right outside their house or their wedding venue at the time; what a groovy wedding gift that would be!

skignz has increased its functionality a lot over the past year, from changing the way that skignz works and appears to future deals we have made and companies we have been in discussion with all ready for some great work in the future.

There is a lot more going on which currently is not available, however soon we do wish to be looking at being able to pull in your Facebook profile to your skignz and being able to run your social media that way whilst discovering new people. 

Also how great would it be to be able to have your 'dating profiles' above your head in a skign, so that you could see who is the perfect match for you and just whereabouts your lucky other half is located.

We are looking to take the initial development we have currently done to the next level, through launching a Kick-starter campaign later this September which you can read about here. http://skignzblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/kickstarter-pre-launch-campaign.html

Please keep in touch with skignz and have a read of our current blogs. If you would like to know more then please contact us through our website or through social media using the links below.

www.skignz.com

www.facebook.com/discoverskignz

www.twitter.com/discoverskignz

www.youtube.com/skignz 

skignzing your own holiday!

Everyone knows that at the top of your wish list each year is to be able to go away on holiday, whether it is with your partner, friends or family you would love that little break away. A week or two in the sunshine or away in the countryside is a nice little break for anyone.

But then when you go to a new place for a few weeks what do you instantly become?

Tourist

As a tourist you are excited to be in a new place, then there’s that word ‘new’. It’s a new place, you don’t know much about it, you don’t know where the best places are to go and you need to know your way around. It isn’t nice if you get lost on holiday and is much easier and time saving when you know where you want to visit on holiday and how to get there.

You will spend lots of time searching around, looking at maps, tourist guides and by no doubt looking to book maybe on a excursion to the place you want to visit and paying a lot more for the transport as you don’t know where you need to be, whereas if you probably made your own way there in a taxi it could maybe save you a bit of money.

The whole aim to try and make you understand across this blog post is – there is nothing easier and beneficial to do than skignzing up your own holiday, and this blog post will tell you why.

A member of staff from skignz recently went away on holiday to Ibiza. Before she went she wanted to know where to go and to also do something different while she was there. So she decided to skignz up her holiday. Previous to her going she placed skignz above places where she wanted to be, that way she knew where she wanted to go and also to have some fun around the pool while sunbathing.

skignzing up different places allowed her to know where she needed to be and it was also a fun way to do it rather than trying to figure out on a map where to be, it was already there on her phone. The good thing about skignz also is that recently it has been updated that now people can create their own skignz and personalise them. So previous to her going she knew that she was going to be heading to Ocean Beach, Ushuaia, Amnesia and Pacha.  Personally before she went she created her own skignz personally to Ushuaia, Amnesia and Pacha.

When she was there she said that it made her finding her way around Ibiza to all the main night clubs much easier as she could just see on her phone where the skignz was and also had some fun while relaxing around the pool she made her own personal skignz and took some screenshots of them while relaxing.

It shows that skignz isn’t just all about directing someone. It is helpful as well as fun and many other things such as very good for the environment. 

skignzing up  your own holiday is nowhere near as much of a task as it is trying to find your way around when you arrive at your destination. There is no hassle like trying to understand  a map abroad especially when sometimes the English may be very limited or hard to understand, you need your own fun way to find your way around your new destination.

skignz is free to download and extremely useful and fun for you to use abroad. We have showed you how much fun and easy it is to use from our member of staff having lots of fun abroad with it. Plus you can also now create and personalise your own skignz! What more could you possibly get? Well that will be coming very soon…

So you keep your eyes peeled, download skignz for free and start using it. Please do let us know and show us images/screenshots of how you decided to use it on your adventures or holidays this summer we would be very grateful of your pictures. You can contact us through our social media site and website if you have any queries.

Have a great summer!

www.skignz.com

www.facebook.com/discoverskignz

www.twitter.com/discoverskignz

www.youtube.com/skignz

Live Events Weekend

Last weekend was a pretty big weekend for skignz as we had not one, not two but three different locations all testing out skignz. Now most people would be happy with one live event, in one location to make sure all goes well!

Not skignz, at skignz we believe in raising the bar as high as possible, pushing boundaries! Thats how we came up with skignz originally, by looking at what people really need and then looking for the right way to help them! The result is skignz! The result this weekend was skignz working without a 'hitch' at three very diverse locations across the UK.

First of all we made our debut at Glastonbury... we know plenty of aspiring bands, singers and DJs who would like to be able to 'scream and tweet' those words to the world. At Glasto' we had a specific audience we wanted to showcase skignz too and we hope those guys stayed sober enough to benefit from the technology.

That said, the skignz team also knew quite a few friends and family who were going to the what most people call 'THE best festival on the planet' so we asked a few of them, to download the app before they went and with a few text prompts and a few that must have wondered if it actually works? tried skignz and were delighted with the results so were not only sending us texts, but one or two posted 'screen grabs of skignz' live in action and a few have confessed that 'skignz' was quite the topic of conversation as the weekend progressed and no doubt the alcohol and festival atmosphere flowed!

Many thanks to all of our Glasto 2014 Guinea pigs who not only took the time to use skignz but also to share with friends and family on social media! Your help and support is greatly appreciated! Even more impressive is that none of the skignz team were at Glasto but our technology was being used by people to help them find friends, find the stages, find the entrances and even one or two were testing out a 'special channel' with a well known global spirits brand ;-), looking at how it can help brands reach and interact with their audiences in a whole new way, provide links to download/scannable offers but more on this in the near future.

The second event was also in the UK but across the south coast at Goodwood, for the world famous, Festival of Speed, where for those of you who are not that interested in Cars or Motorsport, is hosted by Earl March on his beautiful estate near .

A few members of the skignz team were present at their first FOS, and to say they were impressed is an understatement. Although the festival runs from Thursday through till Sunday, our guys visited on Friday and as they were looking at not only checking out the skignz in place for the event, they also were looking for video footage and images that can be used to help demonstrate to people what skignz is and what it can do, if they have never seen or heard of it before!

The first problem was actually getting out of the car park, only because right next to it was the 'super car carpark', getting Paul our photographer actually into the main area for the event was a challenge in itself! 

It was every little boys dream, with some wonderful cars that people visiting the event had driven to Goodwood FOS in and paid a premium to park alongside all the other 'awesome cars'.

The skignz team spent the day filming photographing the action as well as the amazing displays not only buy the cars but also, the RAF's red arrows, typhoon and other air display teams.

Couple that with all the manufacturer stands, the race up the 'Goodwood Hill' which included Sir Stirling Moss, driving one of his period racing cars in his old racing garb!

 

In addition their was plenty of business to discuss with the various brands on their wonderful yet very immersive and interactive stands.

Sir Stirling Moss, Mercedes

Discussing how skignz can help them with their many motor-shows across the globe, how they could use skignz as a 'product info trigger' (if you are a brand or an agency who work with brands contact us to know more about this!), how skignz could be used at motor museums/themed parks, as a way finder and content activator at events like we saw at Goodwood through to how this can be tied right through the whole sales process to the sale of the cars to customers and beyond....

 




The final instalment of the weekend moved north up to Croft -on-Tees where this weekend the latest rounds of the BTCC (British Touring Car Championships) was held alongside racing from the Ginetta, Ginetta Junior, Renault Clio Cup, Single Seater and Porsche Cups.

Again we had some of the skignz team in attendance, both for testing skignz purposes and to also catch some footage and capture some images of this type of live sports event. 

We wanted to see how skignz could be used by the live audience, there for a weekend of motor racing. We asked the race goers, what were their frustrations about live Motorsport? 

How it could improve? We showed them how skignz worked and we will publish these findings in future blog posts. But as always with live market research after a few questions to different people and a theme develops.

These themes were also very similar if not the same as feedback we have had from other live crowds at varying types of events, with varying types of people attending!

The key responses were as follows:

1. Its difficult to find your way around and know where everything is, If you have not been before and even with a map (in the programme)!

2. Meeting up with people either when you arrive or if you have split up with them during the event! Trying to get you both back together seems to be a nightmare!

3. When watching the race its hard to know who is winning? who's in what positions and what lap they are actually on?

Although none of these answers surprised us, it actually gave us immense confidence that what we have developed with skignz, not only addresses one of these key problems, but actually could address all three! 

All with a free app on peoples smartphone!

Everybody we spoke to had a smart phone and with the exception of a handful, ALL could have downloaded skignz and used it that very weekend, if only at this point to find their friends! We were not sure the attendance for the weekend end but if everyone we spoke to asked their friends to download the app and so on! we could have helped a significant amount of people find each other! That alone we find very cool and very humbling.

So as the weekend comes to a close, we have seen some wonderful sights, the red arrows perform during our lunch, an RAF typhoon amaze us during afternoon tea...


...see Sir Stirling Moss gracefully race up the Goodwood Hill, whilst a racing driver in a Brand New Alpha Romeo 5C totally write it off into a wall of hay bails. 

 

We have seen BMW eBay driver Colin Turkington win two of the three BTCC rounds at Croft and the thrills and spills of the smashes, scrapes and crashes in all the races, but whilst all this was going on, people were enjoying one of the greatest shows on earth at Glasto' 2014, watching Calvin Harris play the skignz tune of this 'Summer' using skignz to find their way around, and even the exits to find their way home!

Thank you to those who answered our questions, tested our technology and to the skignz team for a wonderful weekend of activity! who knows maybe next year 'every live event' will be using skignz to help people find each other, find their way around and discover brands who want to speak to them in a whole new way!

So if anything the weekend of 26th-29th June 2014 could (we hope it will) turnout to be the 1st time skignz was discovered by the select few, lets hope they share it with their friends and family, so as the summer of 2014 progress, more people can download skignz and 'never get lost in a crowd again!'

If you would like to know more about the key events from the weekend then please use the following links:

Goodwood Festival of Speed: 
http://grrc.goodwood.com/section/festival-of-speed/#/0

Glastonbury Festival: http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

MSA British Touring Car Championships: http://www.btcc.net

If you would like to know more about how to download your own skignz app or how skignz could interact with your brands audiences in a whole new way, then please visit www.skignz.com or follow us on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn or take a look at our YouTUbe channel for some of our latest content showcasing skignz use in varying settings, sectors and places.