Access All AreasGES has announced the acquisition of cloud-based event management platform, Poken for an undisclosed sum.
Poken joins the N200|GES event intelligence team, and the company will retain the product name Poken 360°.
Poken founder and CEO Stéphane Doutriaux and the global Poken team will join the global full-service provider for live events, with offices in New York City, London, and Lausanne, Switzerland.
“This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to being the preferred global live events partner offering the most comprehensive breadth of technology and services,“ said GES president Steve Moster. “We know our clients want engagement and concrete metrics from their events. They will benefit from the technology and insight capabilities that Poken and our existing Visit solution offer together.”
Poken brings together digital and physical event spaces to drive engagement and gain better insight through real data. The Poken 360° platform offers an ecosystem of technology tools that enhance event engagement through smart badges, and digital document collection through its patented ‘Touch and Glow’ technology, visitor-to-visitor engagement, gamification, and full metrics reporting.
“The addition of Poken is a game-changer in providing a truly intelligent event for organisers, exhibitors, brands, and attendees,” added GES EVP of International, Jason Popp. “The extensive features and services offered by Poken create and drive engagement and are a natural complement to GES’ core live event services and robust technologies. Poken has an extremely talented and enthusiastic work force and we are happy to welcome them to our team.“
GES and Poken already work closely through a strategic partnership, providing clients with measurable technology solutions for event registration and visitor engagement. N200|GES and Poken are currently integrated with plans to develop deeper integration with even greater customer benefits.
“We have always enjoyed working with the N200|GES team,” said Doutriaux. “This acquisition demonstrates their commitment to being the world leader in event technology, and especially to the importance of measurement and data intelligence. Together, we intend to pursue an aggressive strategy to bring about a truly measurable and connected event. ”
The Poken suite of products and services can still be purchased on a stand-alone basis or as an integrated suite with GES’ other registration products and services.