Ben Hindman, former director of events for Thrillist, found that his day-to-day, repetitive event management work – like invitations, guest list management, and post-event recaps – was difficult enough without having to create a dedicated, online presence for his events.
To adapt a solution to his need, Hindman and Brett Boskoff cofounded Splash, a New York City-based online event management service that empowers users to create memorable event experiences.
Traditionally, creating a compelling event managment website requires a working knowledge of webpage development. Splash provides all the necessary tools, like designs, plans, and social media integration, for anybody to create a custom event site and manage every aspect of their event from start to finish.
“We are event planners creating tools for other event planners,” explains Hindman.
Hindman and Boskoff refused to let Splash grow stagnant and remain only an event page creation and management tool, though. Fresh off of beta testing, the team has introduced a new tool for event planners in the form of the Splash Live Feed.
Every Splash page created has this new, fully integrated tool that allows event planners to search for user-generated content during their actual event. Event planners can then take these images and add them to the gallery on their Splash page, which in turn activates the Splash Live Feed.
Any image from Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram can be added by searching hashtags, keywords, or usernames. And since Splash has detailed data collection for event goers, the owner of a specific Splash event page can email all attendees dedicated links to the photo gallery.
However, the main function of the Splash Live Stream seems to be the optimization of live content for projectors. As such, the live content generated during an event not only gets uploaded into the gallery on the Splash page, but it can be streamed on TVs and projector screens as well.
“Who doesn’t like seeing their picture or tweet showcased at an event?” asks Hindman. “In our beta testing, we found that events utilizing the Splash Live Feed saw close to a 300 percent increase in social reach.”
Hindman and Boskoff took the Splash Live Feed for a test drive and were able to power the L’Oreal Social Media Gallery at Sundance, the Dove Dad Care Social Stream, the Amstel Light Break Down the Burger event, the Espolon Tequila Social Scavenger Hunt, and the Lover.ly launch party. They also projected a Splash Live Feed onto seven jumbotrons at Sweetlife: a music + food festival. The team put together a video from Sweetlife to showcase the capability of the Splash Live Feed.
“The trend is shifting back towards big, live event experiences,” says Hindman. “We believe the live experience is the most powerful way to connect to others, and Splash is a wonderful medium to build online communities through live events.”
Splash was featured at Tech Cocktail’s New York Mixer & Startup Showcase on May 2nd.