Last week The Parallel 6 team attended the Top Tech Exec Awards as a gold sponsor. We had a great time at the event, showing off some of our mobile technology and digital marketing services, as well as holding a contest. Check out these shots of our great team and photos of the fun event.
Studies report that one in three American citizens who access a federal government’s website did so using a mobile phone or tablet. These studies and others like it show a growing opportunity for the federal government to provide fast access to information and services through the use of mobile applications as well as through mobile websites. Mobile applications and the amount of smartphone users continue to grow worldwide. But, even with these studies and statistics government apps are found far and few in-between.
In addition, an overwhelming 80% show that federal government apps that are created by the public sector are the buggiest and least appealing to citizens. Whereas, local and state government applications that are created by private sector software show a higher degree of efficiency in performance as well as satisfaction.
The potential for mobile apps specifically for different branches of the government can really enhance how citizens receive and consume information. There are also special uses that government apps can provide. Creating government apps in conjunction with private sector companies such as Parallel 6′s Captive Reach technology can allow these applications to do things such as send important push notifications to citizens in emergency situations. Enabling geo-location or geo-targeting Captive Reach technology to promote state and city activities, or even gamifying government apps to engage and increase citizen interaction.
In this day and age it continues to become gradually harder for the government to to engage with citizens. Gone are the days that people read newspapers regularly or watch the news every night. We are living in the age of mobile and digital consumption, trends continue to move to mobile technology. Different government agencies from the DMV to city tourism divisions can utilize this mobile technology to their advantage.
For example, a study showed that the City of Salem, Massachusetts developed an iOS app that promoted tourism; the app itself included a mobile brochure and tour guide, as well as listing events and providing coupons/tickets to different attractions around Salem. The app became a success, leading the city to look into the development of a residents application that would be centered around the city constituent, allowing residents to report problems in their neighborhoods such as potholes. We see trends within local and state government popping up throughout the nation (i.e. The New York State Senate app, updating citizens on the latest news pertaining to state legislation, meeting agendas, votes, and blog posts) slowly and the applications that do emerge are being received with much success.
The hope is that once local and state government grow their mobile presence and become more prominent within the mobile app space the federal government will do the same; we, as citizens desire this shift in technology and in the way we consume information.
Written By: Liz Rogers
The Parallel 6 team will be attending the Top Tech Exec Awards tomorrow, May 9, as a gold sponsor. At our booth, we’ll be showing off some of our mobile technology and digital marketing services, as well as holding a contest. For each attendee that comes to our booth and connects with one of our team members via the Top Tech Exec Awards app, they will be entered into a drawing to win a $50 Apple Store gift card.
In addition to the contest held at our booth, the Top Tech Exec Awards app is available for networking with other attendees, participating in a scavenger hunt, voting and live-tweeting. If you plan to tweet about the event, or post event photos on Instagram, be sure to use the unique hashtag, #TopTech2013. All of those posts will appear on a live-tweet board at the event.
We look forward to seeing everyone at the Top Tech Exec Awards 2013. If you still haven’t downloaded the Top Tech Exec Awards app, you can download it here:
For iPhone Users: http://bit.ly/ZqI8vQ
For Android Users: http://bit.ly/15cXEDp
Don’t forget to stop by the Parallel 6 booth to connect and win!
Contact:
Landis White
EVP Operations
lwhite@parallel6.com
619-269-1063
San Diego Top Tech Exec Awards Leverage Parallel 6 Captive Reach App to Engage Audience with Scavenger Hunts and Networking
SAN DIEGO (April 29, 2013) — In order to engage and connect its anticipated 1,000+ participants, San Diego Magazine’s Top Tech Exec Awards continues to utilize a branded Top Tech Exec Awards Mobile App powered by Parallel 6′s Captive Reach. The event’s mobile app supplements the awards event to not only recognize the most outstanding information technology executives who work in San Diego, but to also encourage networking through a social scavenger hunt.
The Top Tech Exec Awards mobile app gamification feature launches an interactive scavenger hunt for event participants. With the incentive of winning a prize, participants are encouraged to download the app and visit all areas of the venue to find and scan a special QR code. The more QR codes a participant scans, the more points he/she accumulates toward the prize.
“Having an interactive, event-specific mobile app adds a whole new level of entertainment and engagement with our participants,” says Sara Brown, Top Tech Exec Corporate Event Consultant. “We have San Diego’s brightest technology leaders under one roof, so we use technology to stay connected with them and connected to each other as they purposefully navigate through our whole event space.”
“Sometimes at large events, it’s easy to get caught up in one area of the venue and chat with the same people around you,” says David Turner, President of Parallel 6. “But we’ve seen that an enticing and engaging activity such as a mobile app scavenger hunt really helps participants move around and network with even more people, adding additional value to the whole experience.”
The mobile app is in its second year of use with the Top Tech Exec Awards. More than 47% of last year’s attendees downloaded the app and scanned more than 1,600 QR codes around The Paddock at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. This year’s event on May 9, 2013 is expected to draw more than 1,000 guests.
Cox Business is the title sponsor of the event and Parallel 6 is a gold sponsor. For more information about the event or to purchase tickets, please visit http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/toptech/.
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Parallel 6, a creative enterprise mobile technology company, is the creator of Captive Reach, an all-encompassing enterprise mobile platform. Captive Reach influences consumer behavior, enhances brand recognition and builds strong client-customer relationships. With mcommerce, geo-located content management, pocket insights, gamification, image recognition, and augmented reality, Captive Reach is the mobile strategy that allows brands to engage and activate their best consumers through the palm of their hand. Parallel 6 serves a wide array of B2B and B2C companies including retailers, daily deal companies, hotels, e-commerce, publishers and professional service firms around the globe. The firm is based in San Diego with development offices in Mexico, Ukraine, and China. For more information, visit http://www.parallel6.com.
Contact:
Landis White
EVP Operations
lwhite@parallel6.com
619-269-1063
Mobile Coupons Guaranteed Better Redeem Rate with Parallel 6 Captive Reach Mobile Technology for Grocery and Retail
To address the need for redeeming mobile coupons, Parallel 6 has created Captive Reach Enterprise Mobile Technology Platform 10.3.0 for Grocery and Retail. The platform is complete with features such as geolocation, push notifications, and customized grocery lists which offers grocery and retail businesses a mobile strategy to increase mobile coupon redemption, increase customer retention and increase customer loyalty.
SAN DIEGO (April 24, 2013) — US mobile coupon users will increase to over 50 million by 2014 because more and more people are utilizing smartphones. To anticipate the vantage of redeeming mobile coupons, Parallel 6, an enterprise mobile technology company, has created Captive Reach Enterprise Mobile Technology Platform 10.3.0 for Grocery and Retail. The platform prepares grocery and retail businesses with a mobile strategy to increase mobile coupon redemption and capture the attention of its users to turn them into loyal customers.
Captive Reach’s geolocation feature alerts customers when they walk on-site, sharing special offers and promotions specific to their brand. Imagine five of those coupon items aren’t already on the customer’s grocery list, but the mobile coupons have enticed them enough to purchase. Customers find those five items that they originally thought they didn’t want to buy, but actually do want to buy. They put those items into their basket for checkout. And instead of fumbling through paper-clipped coupons, the platform’s ability to integrate into the brand’s customer loyalty program allows the customer to easily scan their mobile phone at checkout or click on “redeem now” before they even get to the line.
“A lot of households don’t even bother sorting through their stacks of grocery store coupons stuffed into their mailboxes. But how easy and efficient would it be to see, shop, and redeem those coupons through a mobile device?” asks David Turner, CEO and President of Parallel 6. “We’ve designed Captive Reach with both the customer and the brand in mind. Customers get a much better shopping experience, knowing their grocery deals are easily accessible through the mobile app. In turn, powerful Market Basket and Loyalty Based insights track the effectiveness of a brand’s coupons so they truly understand the ratio between viewed and redeemed coupons to ultimately increase and optimize revenue for the store.”
Grocery and retail businesses that utilize the mobile technology of Captive Reach have the ability to reach their loyal customers and create new ones through the power of their mobile device. User-friendly features such as customized grocery lists created directly through the app helps increase profitability store-by-store. In addition, leveraging push alerts can influence consumers when they are on or near-site, thus transitioning a cherry picker (a customer who chooses a grocery store based upon enticing deals) into a consistent loyal customer, all the while increasing the market basket size at checkout.
Mobile apps backed by Captive Reach for Grocery and Retail can also be easily programed with the brand’s backend system to integrate into loyalty, pricing, promotion, markdown and coupon systems as well as sync with customer reward programs and other incentive options.
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Parallel 6, a creative enterprise mobile technology company, is the creator of Captive Reach, an all-encompassing enterprise mobile platform. Captive Reach influences consumer behavior, enhances brand recognition and builds strong client-customer relationships. With mcommerce, geo-located content management, pocket insights, gamification, image recognition, and augmented reality, Captive Reach is the mobile strategy that allows brands to engage and activate their best consumers through the palm of their hand. Parallel 6 serves a wide array of B2B and B2C companies including retailers, daily deal companies, hotels, e-commerce, publishers and professional service firms around the globe. The firm is based in San Diego with development offices in Mexico, Ukraine, and China. For more information, visit http://www.parallel6.com.
