Event Tech of the Week: @Launch_it

Today, we’re talking about Launch.it

Company/Tool Name: The Launch.it Event News and Social Engagement Platform
Website: http://www.launch.it
Twitter: https://twitter.com/launch_it
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/launchitnews

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

We focus on news! The reason why exhibitors are at the show, and why attendees, media and professionals attend, is to find out about new products/services. Launch.it’s goal is to generate more leads for exhibitors by not just listing them in a directory, but highlighting their company news to help facilitate relationships in an engaging, visual publication that anyone can read and easily scroll through and search. For some reason, shows make it very difficult to find out why an exhibitor is there, and what they are they exhibiting.

Newsrooms have always been underutilized and regarded as just a place for press releases, however, Launch.it wants to put them front and center and turn the shows/associations into their own publisher of industry news.

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

Launch.it will make exhibitor PR initiatives much easier at large shows by creating a central place for ALL their content and rich media – a place to direct all customers and media to the most current and accurate news stories. It is Launch.it’s primary responsibility, through this unique, customer-facing publication, to ensure that everyone is able to easily find, discover, share and even buy an exhibitor’s products and/or services.

For shows, they can now crowd source ALL the news from exhibitors in a visually appealing publication that is displayed at the show and not just as another tab on their site. With more content for them to socialize, they can now support more exhibitors and increase their monetization opportunities with significantly less effort.

For exhibitors, they can publish their press releases, brochures, announcements and company overviews for a nominal fee.

What does your tool help event planners do better?

Many of the industry B2B publications have gone out of business, which hurts the overall industry because they are limited as to what news can be covered. Launch.it is trying to turn the shows/associations into the industry publisher and thought leaders of tomorrow with their exhibitor/member news to help support, engage and grow the industry.

Launch.it generally launches its platform in partnership with the show three-to-six months before it begins to start building buzz with exhibitor news. During the show, it becomes the only central news location for exhibitor news, and after the show is a great follow-up for attendees/media to reach out to companies whom they spoke with at the show to ask additional questions and/or may have an expressed interest. For those who could not attend, they can still read the exhibitor’s news from the show, as Launch.it’s news never gets taken down.

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

We have no direct competition as we focus solely on exhibitor and show news to create the Digital Media Centers or Official Publication for the show. Almost all the other companies in the space either focus on the mobile app experience or website and exhibitor management.

As the only company in the industry to focus on exhibitor content, we have unique information that no other company can get. This makes us very synergistic with the other industry tools and platforms as we can deliver them content with no extra effort and enhance their offerings.

What is the single coolest feature of your product?

Our analytics.

It can be really annoying when you go to a conference and cant track your online social engagement of your news. From a PR perspective, if I give someone a press kit (folder/flash drive) or a flyer, I have no idea if they read it, searched it, or clicked on anything. With our platform, all you have to do is send someone a link and you can know all that information and more as we have Google Analytics and Bitly short URLS baked right in.

Creating all of these documents and information can take a lot of time, so we want to make sure your efforts are measureable and based on their performance, improvable. Conferences and shows can be overwhelming so the more you know the better you can execute.

Anything else we need to know?

We are a father and son team (Brian/Trace Cohen) who love working together. Brian built and sold one of the largest PR agencies in the world, TSI Communications, while Trace built and exited his first company Brandyourself.com as a student in college.

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.

Liz King Caruso

Liz King Caruso is an Event Strategist, Consultant and Speaker. As CEO of Liz King Events and techsytalk, she has helped countless thought leaders grow their audience and sell their products through in-person, virtual & hybrid events. Liz is a big-picture person – passionate about tying events into an overall sales and marketing strategy and being efficient at every point of the process. Technology is her niche and she’s obsessed with helping organizations of every size leverage technology to produce more engaging and seamless event experiences. In addition to her client work, Liz connects & educates her industry colleagues through platforms she has built – techsytalk GLOBAL, the techsytalk community & IGNITE Consulting program. Liz has been featured as Eventex’s 50 Most Innovative Virtual Meeting Planners, Successful Meetings list of 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry, Top 5 Women in Event Tech, amongst other awards.