For those of you who go to a lot of conferences and events like I do, collecting business cards, exchanging data and keeping in touch with people after the fact is a daunting task.
Sure, there are apps who have promised to faciliate the exchange of information in the past, but most require both people to have the app installed or the need to work in some unnatural and awkward way.
And, then there’s card scanners. I’ve invested in three over the years and two of the three ended up in a yard sale not so long ago.
The other one I donated to Goodwill.
Bottom line, they’re not accurate so you’re stuck stuck fixing all the mistakes or retyping the contact info into your database for the second and third time.
I recently started working with a French-founded start-up called InTooch who is now based in Silicon Valley.
InTooch is a mobile application that allows you to instantly turn people you meet into personal and business relationships that matter.
Selected to present their technological innovation with over 75 other companies on the DEMO Fall stage this week, their demo unveiled in the social media category.
Did you realize that of all the people you meet at a conference or even in a personal situation, you won’t stay in touch with 85% of them? InTooch aims to not just decrease that number but improve those relationships using their app.
The great thing about the product is that it’s easy, it’s fast and it’s free. Instantly, the moment you meet, the InTooch social connector exchanges contact information and connects you on your preferred social networks on the fly.
While many apps have tried to solve the contact update and data overload problem, most require both people to have the app
installed for it to work, or they involve connecting in an awkward way.
In doing research about how people around the world stay
connected, they discovered that the majority call each other to exchange numbers in real time more than they connect on social networks and exchange a business cards.
InTooch takes it a step further by allowing people to share more than just numbers in real time, including your social data. In other words, you can choose to connect on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as well as your email and phone or only a few.
The other cool feature is that InTooch automatically detects where you met them, so later on if you want to select and filter by the city you met them, the map appears instantly. Additionally, the photos of who you met in that city will show up.
How it Works:
Whenever you meet someone you want to stay in touch with, simply call their cell. The app detects that you have called someone for the first time and prompts you automatically to exchange your business or personal contact information.
Works on Any Receiving Device:
You can send and receive new contact information regardless of what phone the other person has. If the other person doesn’t have InTooch, it simply sends a link and the rest is done seamlessly through their social connector technology.
Social Network Integration:
In just one call, you can connect through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. There’s no need to search for a contact in each social network nor to send invitations – connections are simply established on the fly.
No Need for Both Parties to Have the App:
Unlike so many solutions which require both parties to have the app installed to work, InTooch works regardless of whether the person you just met has it on their phone, making it the most natural, straight forward and easy way to share your personal or business details. Obviously if the other person has the app, exchanging data is even faster.
New Connection Highlights and Personal Match Score:
For personal encounters, InTooch brings augmented reality to your connections, alerting you to all the things you have in common with another person (friends, places you visited, music, movies you like, social network info, check-ins, interests you share) so you can instantly engage in mutually interesting conversations. It also provides a matching score based on an algorithm which calculates the probability of how well you should get along with that person.
Geo-Tagging of New Connections:
Since it’s much easier to remember where and when you met someone than his/her name, InTooch automatically tags the location of the initial connection, so you also can search for people by when and where you met them.
Privacy (Control What Data Your Share): InTooch respects your privacy, allowing you to customize what information you want to share and with whom.
InTooch is available for download at https://www.intooch.com and is free for users. Currently, InTooch works with both the Android and iPhone is in process, pending approval, with support for iOS6, other platforms and mobile devices coming later this year.
Disclosure: I provide consulting to the company.
Renee Blodgett is the Founder and Managing Editor of We Blog the World, a global travel, culture and lifestyle publication exploring the world through the lens of meaningful experiences, human connection and cultural depth. Having lived in 10 countries and traveled to 95, Renee has spent much of her life immersed in the people, traditions, landscapes and ideas that shape how we experience the world.
Since launching We Blog the World in 2007, she has written and produced extensive editorial coverage spanning boutique and luxury travel, culinary experiences, arts and culture, wellness, adventure, technology, spiritual traditions and transformative travel. Her work is rooted in the belief that travel is about more than where we go—it is also about what a place, culture or encounter awakens within us.
Renee brings more than three decades of experience across journalism, photography, media, brand strategy, technology, wellness and global storytelling. She has worked with companies and organizations around the world on brand positioning, communications, product launches, media strategy, speaker positioning and storytelling. Through Blue Soul Media, she works with authors, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and purpose-driven brands to clarify their message and expand their impact, which includes speaker coaching/training for high-profile stages such as TED and bringing authors’ work to market while retaining authors rights.
She is also the co-founder of Blue Soul Earth, an educational platform exploring consciousness, ancient wisdom, spirituality, healing and the intersection between science and the nature of reality. Renee is the producer and host of the award-winning Blue Soul CHATS, a conversational series bringing together leading voices in science, technology, consciousness, wellness and spirituality.
Her growing body of work also includes Blue Soul Living, which extends her interest in consciousness and well-being into the spaces we inhabit, exploring how intentional design, energy and environment can support greater harmony and connection.
Renee is the award-winning co-author of the bestselling Magdalene’s Journey and founder of the Magdalene Collection, inspired by women’s voices, stories and wisdom across cultures and generations.
A longtime photographer and storyteller, Renee has documented people, places and cultures around the world and produced photographic collections focused on destinations including the Galápagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome and Ecuador. She also co-founded Traveling Geeks, an international initiative that brought entrepreneurs, journalists, creators and technology leaders together with their counterparts in other countries to exchange ideas and explore innovation across cultures.
Renee’s work has been recognized by Forbes, the United Nations and others for her influence in media and social storytelling. Across her work in travel, media, consciousness and culture, a common thread remains: curiosity about the world, the stories that connect us and the ways meaningful experiences can change how we see ourselves and one another.
