Bartizan Wins “Breakthrough” Industry Award for iLeads Lead Retrieval Mobile App for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad

Bartizan’s iLeads, the first-of-its-kind iPhone App for tradeshow lead retrieval, debuted in April and has already had a quantifiable, industry-wide impact. Though only four months on the market, iLeads has been honored with the “Breakthrough Award” from the Trade Show Exhibitors Association (TSEA). This prestigious award recognizes Bartizan’s innovation and excellence in the pioneering and launch of the industry’s first lead retrieval app. The Breakthrough Award was presented to Bartizan on July 15, 2010 at TS2, the exhibition for exhibit and event professionals held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

At this year’s show, 28 new products and services introduced to the industry during the last year were up for the award. The 2010 Breakthrough Award recognizes the latest innovations hitting the exhibit and event industry. A panel of industry judges reviewed all entries and their votes were tallied along with the votes of all show attendees to determine the Breakthrough Award winner.

“The fact that iLeads was voted the 2010 TS2 Breakthrough Award winner reflects the importance of gathering qualified leads at tradeshows in a more simplified way. We are honored to be chosen by our colleagues in the business – this makes the award more important to us,” said Lew Hoff, president, Bartizan Connects. “Our team wakes up every day excited by what we do. Innovation drives our business,”

The competition’s judges praised iLeads because unlike traditional lead retrieval equipment that uses barcode scanner technology, iLeads runs on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. This breakthrough to existing lead retrieval systems makes it easy to add notes, surveys, photos and qualifiers to leads collected at trade shows, making the leads more valuable for sales.

Using iLeads, event organizers, registration contractors and exhibitors will find that much of the unproductive work and extraneous costs normally associated with lead retrieval disappears. These include shipping costs, on-site training and distribution, equipment maintenance and the need for specialized bar codes.

With iLeads, exhibitors also are no longer tethered to a table, booth or even the trade show floor. Now, efficient and effective lead retrieval goes wherever an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad can go. Combined with the most popular business and social networking apps, iLeads has become the starting point for a powerful, integrated lead generation and follow-up system.

To capture an attendee’s data, users simply enter the unique number printed on each badge – and the record is quickly and easily captured. This data is wirelessly uploaded to each exhibitor’s secure LeadsLightning.com account. If exhibitors do not own iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad devices, they may rent or purchase an iPod Touch with the iLeads app pre-installed.

“The iLeads app has had a huge impact on trade shows,” said Elizabeth Mazei, executive vice president & COO, Bartizan Connects. “At Bartizan, our research and customer surveys tell us that most exhibitors, when using traditional lead retrieval terminals, fail to enhance their leads by adding information, such as qualifiers and notes. With the introduction of iLeads this past April, a much different picture emerged. More than half of all leads now contain notes and qualifiers. At our very first iLeads event, nearly 80 percent of the leads gathered had notes attached to them. In the trade show business, that’s a game changer.”

To download the iLeads iPhone app, users of Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad may go to the Apple App Store within iTunes and search for 'iLeads.' To test the app and see how easy iLeads is to use, simply launch the app and enter event access code 1006. Then click on the event and enter test badge number 8188.