Event Tech of the Week: @guesterly

Today we’re talking about: guesterly

Company/Tool Name: guesterly: easy directories for events and teams

Website: www.guesterly.com/events

Twitter: www.twitter.com/guesterly

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/guesterly

What is the “problem” that your tool seeks to solve?

We all know that valuable relationships don’t come from collecting business cards or connecting on LinkedIn—they come from having great conversations and truly connecting with someone. But there are some real pain points that keep us from getting to that point, especially at an event with new people! It’s definitely easier to go talk to the people we already know. But that means you miss out on meeting the guy who would have been a perfect CTO, or your new trail-running buddy.

Now, imagine that before walking into your next conference, retreat, or party, you got a who’s who guide (with pictures, names, and fun facts) that empowered you to discover people and, more importantly, discover what you can have a great conversation about? And after that meaningful connection guesterly helps you easily follow-up and stay in touch. guesterly who’s who guides—in print or digital formats—create this experience, and are the ultimate gift event hosts can give to attendees.

What is the best audience for this tool? Corporate events? Social? Other? Large? Small?

guesterly is perfect for groups from 25 to 300: about the number of people where you have the opportunity to connect with at least half the group. We started in weddings (especially destination weddings!) and soon everyone from P&G and Clear Channel were asking for guesterlys for their sales conferences, corporate retreats, and reunions.

What does your tool help event planners do better?

guesterly helps people meaningfully connect—so they leave thinking your event was more high-impact and fun! But it’s also a way to “gift” attendees: people receive a guesterly like a gift, and especially like seeing themselves in this book-like experience!

How is your tool different from/better than the competition?

While there’s no other place to create a directory experience like this (crowd-sourced and easy!), there are event apps that do part of the experience. guesterlys are so special because they’re a tangible representation of the most important thing at an event—the people! You’ll be amazed at how attendees carry theirs around all during the event, and then keep it afterwards. Best of all, a guesterly helps promote an intimate, inclusive, and high-end vibe and is great for events where that’s an important part of the experience.

What is the single coolest feature of your product?

How fast and easy it is to create such a meaningful event experience: something that will get guests talking both to each other and about your event. Simply choose a few questions for attendees to answer, then share your form (via either your own event link or unique links that attendees get directly in their inbox) and all of their answers automatically flow into your flipbook. You get to customize your cover, welcome letter, event schedule, and more too! Then you choose whether you want to share with tangible print booklets, digital flipbooks, or both share the finished product with everyone. Easy!

This weekly series spotlights a new tech tool that is designed to help make planning events much more seamless. Whether it’s using event software to track every detail from start to finish or mobile apps that deliver content to attendees’ fingertips, these technologies allow planners to divert their stress to more critical issues like deciding which napkin color looks best.