A couple of months back, around the most recent Techcocktail in DC, I saw some press about one of the presenting companies was showing off this piece of hardware called a Minglestick. At first glance of the email I received about it, I musty admit I didn’t really “get it”. However, that night at the event, I made a point to head over to the Mingle360 table and see what it was all about. I came away with a much clearer picture and a new found admiration for what I think has the potential to be one cool product.
So here is the deal, Mingle360 offers a suite of products (Minglestick and MingleManger)that is geared for producers of large trade shows and conventions. In turn they are then able to brand the MingleStick to suit their needs and pass one out to every person in attendance. In turn this ubiquitous piece of hardware allows all the attendees to connect with each other with just a click of the Minglestick. Bye-Bye business cards. All the interactions are stored on the Minglestick until later when they can download all the exchanged info they received from the interactions directly into the MingleManager.
You can then review and connect with the people you met that day and choose on a very granular level what information you want to share with the various people. As a conference organizer, you are also able to brand the web pages of the MingleManager for a certain period of time following the event, giving you even more time to have the product in front of your consumers.
So besides the Minglestick, which is your gateway to the interactions the MingleManager offers some pretty cool features that last long after the conference or meeting is over.
- Personal Address Book (That auto updates your contact’s info as they change it)
- Event and Calendar Sharing
- Message Center
- Group Organization
- Content Sharing
- Privacy Controls
The Mingle360 solution offers event organizers and incredibly powerful tool that they can pass along to the attendees to utilize both during and after the event. It builds a quasi branded social network built in and around the show/event with the ability to gain an incredible return on their investment. The Minglestick is not a one shot pony either. Use it at other events to continue to build your social database and connect with new and old contacts alike. Check out some of the videos they have put together showing off their product features.
The Mingle360 team is a local company based in Northern Virginia. Currently the company is seeking up to $2 million in angel or VC investment.
