RoamingAround CTO Michael Arner to kick off the TechOvation Award competition on Tuesday March 1 during the HTNG 2016 North American Conference at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort
Boston, Mass. — February 23, 2016 — Next month at the HTNG 2016 North America Conference, Chief Technology Officer Dr. Michael Arner will present RoamingAround’s Location Based Marketing solution to a judging panelist of hotel IT executives and experts. Dr. Arner will showcase a patent-pending technology and demonstrate how it will enable hotels to be more aware of guests’ physical locations to drive content, offers and incentives and give travelers what they want in real time. In a presentation titled “Location Based Services by RoamingAround, One Platform – Infinite Possibilities,” Dr. Arner will educate HTNG members on the vast benefits of using location based services (geolocation and BLE beacons) from RoamingAround. The talk will center on RoamingAround’s holistic Geolocation Platform that enables hotel marketers to create automated content for direct delivery to users based on an individual’s preferences and physical location, and also on Rapid App, a tool that converts mobile and fully responsive websites into a native app containing geo-specific content and interactive experiences. RoamingAround’s Geolocation Platform is one of 15 solutions being considered for the 2016 HTNG TechOvation Award.
The event will showcase the latest technology solutions and services launched for hospitality over the past year. “Location Based Services by RoamingAround, One Platform – Infinite Possibilities,” will kick off the competition on Tuesday, March 1, at 9:20 a.m.
“Most hotel companies today are still not certain that the money they are spending mobilizing their websites and creating branded mobile applications is worth it,” Dr. Arner said. “Location-based services are rife with possibilities, and as such, there is a lot of discussion today about what to do quickly to reach the stratosphere. Hoteliers definitely need a platform that will take them all the way there, but they also need to demonstrate a measurable return on their investment as early as possible in the process.
“In this presentation, I will talk about the differences between a CMS wrapped around marked-up Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons that send messages to mobile phones willing to share their location and our platform that focuses on finding true location (with trilateration) rather than proximity,” he said. “Our philosophy is centered around establishing a trust relationship with the end-user and a business model that is not based on reselling beacons. RapidApp makes it fast and cheap to get started; once engaged, the value proposition becomes apparent almost immediately.”
Industry-Leading Experience Prior to joining RoamingAround in April 2015, Dr. Arner served as co-founder and chief technology officer of ROAM Data, a leading mCommerce platform that turns merchants’ mobile devices into secure point-of-sale terminals, and turns the mobile marketing channel into a mobile sales channel by enabling secure commerce in mobile applications with convenient mobile checkout; the company won the 2010 Technology Innovations Award at ETA. He also served as CTO and co-founder of Marbles, the world’s first thin-client mobile software company focused on enterprise mobile workforce applications—and the winner of multiple innovation awards. Dr. Arner is a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University and Boston University; he has taught at Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“In theory, my role as RoamingAround CTO is to set the technological vision for the company; in practice, I'm responsible for coordinating the efforts of a number of brilliant, energetic, and creative individuals to be brilliant, energetic, and creative towards the same ends at the same time,” Dr. Arner said. “It's a thrilling position to be in. Initially I was drawn to RoamingAround because I find the possibilities represented by this emerging space to be limitless and intriguing. Today, after recruiting some of the most gifted engineers that I've worked with from previous startups and being surrounded by so many talented visionaries, I know I made the right decision in joining this remarkable management team.”
For more information about the RoamingAround Geolocation Marketing Platform or the RapidApp, call (978) 777-8787 Ext. 308, or email sales@roamingaround.com. For media inquiries, contact RoamingAround PR Agent Barb Worcester at (440) 930-5770 or email barbw@prproconsulting.com.
