Rackspace Leverages atEvent Apps to Maximize Engagement and Create Fully Integrated Mobile Experience for Attendees at Open Cloud Experience Event at South by Southwest 2013

SAN RAMON, Calif., March 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading mobile event app solutions company atEvent, today announced the successful integration of its app for Rackspace, the open cloud company, at its 2013 Open Cloud Experience event at South by Southwest. The event took place at the Convention Center at South by Southwest in Austin, Tex., from March 8-11, 2013.

The weekend-long event featured dozens of interactive sessions, customer activities, expert interviews, and content sharing all geared toward raising awareness for Rackspace's newly launched Open Cloud branding campaign, which focuses on evangelizing open-sourced cloud computing to avoid vendor lock-in.

When Rackspace first approached atEvent they sought a mobile solution that would drive awareness and engagement at their Open Cloud Experience event. The primary goals of the engagement were to introduce customers and prospects to the Open Cloud Experience, a showcase of all Rackspace's live customer events and activities that were taking place throughout the weekend, and to get users engaged with Rackspace at the event via interactive content and social media integration. 

"atEvent gave Rackspace a wide breadth of tools to make the Open Cloud Experience available beyond the 20,000+ SXSW Interactive attendees," Becky Doyle, events marketing manager at Rackspace, said. "With a single platform, we were able to leverage activities ranging from running contests to tracking leads."

Among the many highlights and innovative ways in which Rackspace leveraged the atEvent app for their Open Cloud Experience event at South by Southwest included:

• Social Media Integration: As part of the event, Rackspace was able to fully integrate social media capabilities into their event app courtesy of atEvent, providing attendees with the ability to interact and share content in real-time via targeted social media channels on their smartphones. Among the social media channels that were integrated into the event were Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+, which allowed Rackspace's events team to take pictures that were updated in real-time on the official Rackspace Open Cloud Experience event Instagram feed. 
• VIP Passes: Leveraging the atEvent app, Rackspace offered VIP passes via smartphones to customers and prospects who were attending the event all weekend long. Using the app, attendees were able to opt-in and receive special access to Rackspace events and activities that were part of the Open Cloud Experience.  
• One-on-One Interactive User Connections: To enhance the user experience, Rackspace leveraged the atEvent app to provide attendees with the ability to connect one-on-one with Rackspace event personnel to share feedback, ask questions and interact in real-time. 
• Live Studio Module: Rackspace leveraged the atEvent app to create a live studio module that showcased all of the featured guest sessions and interviews that Rackspace was conducting throughout the weekend in real-time. The app connected to Rackspace's Justin.TV channel so attendees and everyone with access to the app were able to tune in live whether they were on-site at South by Southwest or somewhere else.  Interviews were conducted by Rackers, as Rackspace employees are known, and well-known industry personalities such as Robert Scoble.
• Access to Event Info and Collateral: Using the atEvent app, Rackspace provided attendees with access to relevant information and collateral relating to the activities that happened throughout the weekend-long event via their smartphones. Event agendas, information on activities and guest panelists, and cloud hosting resources content were among the collateral that Rackspace was able to share with attendees in real-time on the event app to make their experience as engaging and informative as possible.

"We were honored to have had the opportunity to team up with Rackspace for their Open Cloud Experience event at South by Southwest and were extremely pleased with the outcome," said Uzair Dada, CEO of atEvent. "The collaboration was a textbook example of how corporate marketers can leverage our fully-integrated mobile solution to drive meaningful interactions with targeted content and capture real-time leads and prospect feedback at their events."

This announcement builds on the momentum that atEvent has gained since its launch earlier this year. The company has quickly been recognized as the industry's most integrated event marketing solution, enabling end-to-end event visibility for corporate marketers.

atEvent provides corporate marketers with event-specific solutions that have real-time lead retrieval and nurturing functionality, and is fully integrated with their preferred CRM, event registration, and marketing automation systems of choice. In order to maximize the impact of events, atEvent boasts a wide range of interactive features and functionality, including social media integration, real-time polling and feedback, rich prospect intelligence, multimedia integration, and more. 

For more information on atEvent, including feature descriptions, customer listings, and product demo requests, please visit www.at-event.com. 

About atEvent
atEvent creates tailored apps designed to maximize the impact of your next event. atEvent apps are the industry's most integrated event marketing solution, enabling end-to-end event visibility for corporate marketers. With integration into the most widely used technology, CRM and marketing automation systems, atEvent apps provide corporate marketers with event-specific solutions that have real-time lead retrieval and nurturing functionality. They empower event marketers to optimize attendee experiences with relevant, real-time information, connections and interactive features.

SOURCE atEvent