Fashion GPS, the creator of a number of iOS apps and web services for coordinating the logistics of fashion week, has released a new app targeting the broader world of special-events planning called Events GPS. Although the company will continue to develop its fashion apps, it is also looking to expand to ticketing management by the first quarter of 2014 as it moves to become a more comprehensive event resource.
Events GPS, which the Museum of Modern Art in New York has already used for an event, can be used for managing the guest list, sending out e-vites, tracking RSVPs, assigning table seating, and checking people in on the night of the event to see who showed up and who didn’t. Essentially, the app is a spin-off of existing Fashion GPS technology.
“We have a solid technology that manages events all the way from the CRM, the invite, checking in,” Fashion GPS CEO and founder Eddie Mullon said. “The way we saw it, a fashion show is an event. [The technology] doesn’t have to be used for a fashion runway show. It can be any event.”
Rates vary, a rep from Fashion GPS told us, but the standard fee for Events GPS is $350 per user per month.
Fashion GPS was first used as the tech platform for runway shows in 2010 and, in being adopted by Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and most of New York’s PR firms, was used by 90 percent to 95 percent of all designers showing in the city last season. London saw about 60 percent adoption, and Paris and Milan, both more tech-averse fashion capitals, stood at 40 percent.
Outside of event management, Fashion GPS’s GPS Radar app for fashion editors can also be retooled to service other industries, Mullon said. The app currently enables editors to RSVP to shows, organize their schedules, download images of complete collections, and request samples. This could prove useful in the art world at gallery events, for instance.
Across its event platforms, Fashion GPS is planning to make more use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tagged invitations along with the scannable invites it already uses. RFID invitations automatically check the guest in when they’ve entered the venue and track how many times the same invitation has gone the door, in case anyone was planning to hand it off to a friend. But more importantly, Mullon said, it helps high-profile guests get through the door and to their seats more quickly.
Relative to other event systems, Fashion GPS is marketing itself on its simplicity and efficiency. Mullon said he sees Cvent, the online event organization tool, as a competitor. As Fashion GPS moves into the ticketing space at the start of next year, they will also have to take on well-known companies like Eventbrite, along with smaller ones like Eventfarm.
Catering to cultural and luxury event organizers outside of fashion week seems like a natural extension of Fashion GPS’s capabilities, as a number of its non-fashion clients came to it through word of mouth before the release of Events GPS. How far it will successfully broaden its reach remains to be seen.
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