Over the years I have done more than my fair share of industry events. As an organizer one of the hardest things you’ll do is get the attendees to engage and take part in competitions. A top tip for you, always enter the competitions on stands. Most of the time exhibitors get so few entries that the odds of winning are pretty good. I won a signed F1 shirt competing against 2 other people in a business card draw. There are always exceptions of course but always worth a shot.

One of the challenges organisers face is how to get delegates to visit all the exhibition booths at an event. It’s your job as an organiser to ensure that everyone gets traffic or they won’t sponsor again. If the event is large and takes place over several buildings you have a bit of work to do to get delegate traffic flowing.

I have tried various things over the years, collect limited edition badges, collect stamps from each booth to win a phone and such like. The problem is you get a few dedicated people that do it but a lot of people abandon it thinking it’s either to much effort or they are not going to win anyway so why bother.  I think however Metaio and Porter Novelli at SXSW 2010 have nailed it.

At SXSW Metaio have actually made travelling around and taking part in an activity fun, there a $1k prize but who cares when the competition is enjoyable.

So what was this cool competition and what does it have to do with augmented reality? The new Junaio browser has the ability to recognise markers, so at SXSW delegates had the opportunity to take part in a scavenger hunt at the show. This involved installing Junaio and then hunting down people in the special tee-shirts that have markers or finding carefully hidden markers around the event.

Once you find a marker and take the picture using the Junaio application you’ll see a special 3D animation and get points. The more points the better the chance of winning the $1k.

The concept was not only a great example of augmented reality; it’s also a great example of building engaging content.

For more info on the ScavengerAR app, take a look here: www.scavengar.com

Of course SXSW is over now but there is still plenty to do with the Junaio browser. Take a look here for more info.

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3. Augmented Reality Property Search With Junaio
4. Junaio 2.0 Now An Augmented Reality Browser
5. Metaio change the game with junaio glue