Sea Otter Classic premieres smartphone nav app from Northern Ireland

Never get lost at a show again: that’s the promise of a smartphone app from Showguider, a start-up created by bike industry veteran Tom Kavanagh of Northern Ireland. The first show to run with the app is the Sea Otter Classic of Californa, which finishes later today (Sunday).

Kavanagh’s KB Media produces the daily show newspapers for the Taipei and Eurobike trade shows, and – with tech boffins from Irish academia – has been working on the app for three years. The smartphone app does not require wifi so can be used by international show visitors with roaming turned off.

The app was offered free to show visitors and provides a 3D scrolling map, and also includes news and views fed from hashtag linking via social media mentions of the show.

The Showguider app was designed for indoor trade shows and can work on multiple floors. The location finding is made possible – even indoors – via pre-event mapping of the expo area with locator beacons.

As well as a user’s location being available it’s also possible to pinpoint a desired booth and to be navigated there.

Not available at Sea Otter but which could be offered at other shows in the future is a feature to beam exhibitor info to user’s phones as they walk around the show, perhaps with vouchers or other incentives.