The Luxemburgish company Boothted offers a multimedia and multi-functional stand to companies looking for visibility during conferences, trade shows and online concerts.
Many virtual event platforms have emerged and developed at high speed during the pandemic. Following the example of Zoom, Teams, and Webex, Boothted is certainly the least known amongst them.
The concept was born last February. At the time, Peter Poehle and Gilles Poulles have been running a marketplace site dedicated to event sponsorship since 2014: SponsorMyEvent. The application connects event organizers – concerts, trade shows, conferences… – with companies that wish to participate as sponsors.
Better known in the United States than in Europe, the company already claims more than 60,000 event organizers and sponsors who have used its services. “It is to the event industry what booking.com is to the hotel-industry,” shared Peter Poehle, CEO of the startup.
With the health crisis and the end of physical events temporarily looming, its two creators are looking for niches and solutions adapted to the new needs of companies.
Hence the idea of virtual sponsorship, which would give small companies in particular the opportunity to integrate virtual sponsorship stands at webinars and online events- a feature other platforms do not provide.
“The stand does not always belong to the event organizer. Sponsors can keep it and reuse it for other virtual events.”
A booth of your own
In the meantime, the initial idea evolved into a booth concept, which offers companies the opportunity to create their own virtual booth, for each of the events they wish to sponsor.
The goal is to give visibility to these companies, offering them functionalities to promote their brands, products and services during these virtual and hybrid sessions.
“Unfortunately, many events simply don’t provide such solutions,” said Peter Poehle. “Boothted is modular and scalable: virtual booths can host and organize webinars, conferences, tradeshows, workshops and include live streams, encrypted chats, downloadable resources such as videos, flyers, playlists… Sponsors can also integrate their marketing material.”
The architecture of the infrastructure is open and can host other applications, video conferencing platforms, social media, as well as statistics or translation modules. The system is interactive: during the event, visitors can “walk around” in the virtual booths, attend conferences, meet and network with the actors present…
“The stand does not always belong to the event organizer,” Poehle continues. “Also, sponsors can keep it and reuse it for other virtual events. Organizers can also add new booths and interconnect them as the event unfolds”.
Boothed recently organized a press conference for a Luxembourg consulting firm, filming the speakers on site and broadcasting it as a livestream for journalists.
For international meetings and conferences, the startup also offers a meeting livestreaming, which includes simultaneous translation by interpreters.
The stand should soon include an additional video chat function, say its designers.
Peter Poehle (CEO) and Gilles Poulles (CTO) have been working together since 2006. In 2014, the two serial entrepreneurs launched SponsorMyEvent.com, a virtual marketplace for event organizers and sponsors.
