IBTM World announces winners of 2018 Tech Watch Awards

IBTM World today announced Zenus and Fielddrive as joint winners of its prestigious Tech Watch Award and Kubify as the new ‘Tech Watch People’s Choice Award’ winner during the event at Fira Barcelona.

A panel of well-known industry experts judged Zenus and Fielddrive as the overall IBTM World Tech Watch Award winners from a shortlist of nine finalists, for their pioneering and impactful work in bringing facial recognition software to the events industry. The new ‘Tech Watch People’s Choice Award’ has been introduced to recognize the finalist with the highest number of online votes from members of the MICE industry in the run up to the event.

Corbin Ball, Chair of the IBTM World Tech Watch Award, said: “This year’s award certainly points out significant event technology trends for our industry. Zenus and Fielddrive are among the first companies to bring this technology to events. Zenus is the creator of the software, and Fielddrive has been a significant implementor of the product by exploring and measuring the onsite best cases for use.” Corbin continues: “Together, they make a strong team, developing facial recognition for the events industry. They exemplify the goal of the IBTM World Tech Watch Award – to showcase important innovation to advance this industry.”

Danny Stevens, Founder and CEO of Fielddrive said, “We’re thrilled that Fielddrive are joint winners of the IBTM World Tech Watch Award. Our efforts with Zenus on full integration of facial recognition technology, together with Fielddrive’s kiosks, full colour badge-printing and global deployment, has set a new standard in the meetings industry.

“Fielddrive has gone to great lengths to innovate onsite attendee management, and this latest international accolade is a great reward to our team and our clients. At Fielddrive we’re convinced that the latest great experience is the next expectation. We’re proud to be leading the way.”

Zenus and Fielddrive were separate entries, however because of the interlinked nature of the two companies they were judged as one entry.

Zenus offers high-end security facial recognition for event registrations, enabling a fast and easy check-in and Fielddrive provides on-site technology services for conferences, tradeshows and events.

The very first Tech Watch ‘People’s Choice’ award went to Kubify, an interactive e-poster system that offers a simple and creative way to improve the standard poster session. Attendees use an app to search posters by subject/keyword, interact with the poster, post comments, ask questions and rate/cast a vote for the best poster. Kubify offers a fresh, interactive way to manage this important segment of many scientific meetings.

Tamsin Treasure-Jones, Co-Founder, Kubify, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have won the Tech Watch People’s Choice award. We’d like to thank the users of our platform and IBTM attendees for voting for us, and IBTM for giving us the opportunity to exhibit. It’s been an incredible experience, we’ve made lots of fantastic contacts and had some valuable discussions. We are looking forward to coming back next year.”

Shane Hannam, Portfolio Director said: “The IBTM World Tech Watch Award is an essential accolade in our dedication to showcasing the latest technology and innovations. It’s what our customers want to see and is a core reason they attend IBTM World. Congratulations to our fantastic winners, Zenus, Fielddrive, and Kubify.”

The panel of judges was formed of high-profile professionals from the events and technology industries including Michelle Bruno, President of Bruno Group Signature Events; Dahlia El Gazzar, Founder of DAHLIA+ Inc; Ruud Janssen, Founder of TNOC.org and co-founder EMG; Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner at SoolNua; Paul Hussey, Director of The Conference Doctor and Julius Solaris, Founder and Editor of Event MB.

www.ibtmworld.com/techwatch