Brian Dunphy was the first employee hired by New Brunswick-based Radian6 and helped its co-founders run the social analytics firm in its early days. After being acquired by Salesforce.com in a $326 million deal last year, Radian6 has been pointed to repeatedly as an example of a Canadian startup success story.
So does Dunphy have another such success in him? That’s what Jordon Smith is hoping. In an interview with the Financial Post, the founder of OneLobby reveals he’s working with Dunphy on his social networking software for the conference industry.
There’s no shortage of startups looking for ways to connect social media to the conference experience. The basic idea is to help conference goers meet digitally before they attend an event so they know who will be best to meet with in person, then to continue building on those in-person connections after the conference has concluded. The standard business card continues to be the relied-upon way to pass on contact information despite social networks like LinkedIn. Many startups are trying to find a better way to strengthen those connections made at an event.
Details about OneLobby are still slim, as the site is in private beta at the moment. But the site describes features that will let users connect with conference attendees ahead of time, allow event organizers to communicate to attendees about specific sessions, and allow for the discovery of different conferences to attend through your network of connections.
