Corporate Background
About MarketArt
MarketArt is a digital media technology company that develops and sells interactive media and advertising systems to both online and to out-of-home markets. The company is the leading provider of electronic directories and media systems to the events and trade show markets with its You Are Here products.
You Are Here is an event management, event marketing, exhibitor promotion and attendee information system for event managers, exhibitors and attendees. Its core is an interactive, map-based, directory and advertising platform used to build trade shows and online marketplaces for associations and their members. You Are Here leverages user-content, search, social and digital media into a powerful event marketing 'magnet' that builds community and connects buyers and sellers year round. It provides exhibitors extended value to their event participation and enhances the value of each exhibitor's own online marketing programs.
The system is deployed both on a show's web site and directly throughout the show floor itself, is deployed by many of the largest trade shows in the U.S. and is a new-media advertising platform for thousands of exhibitors from around the world. You Are Here can replace traditional printed materials and is especially important to environmentally 'green' events. The company has offices in Alexandria, VA and Albany, NY.
History
MarketArt Inc. is a New York corporation founded by three early veterans of MapInfo Corporation (NASDAQ: MAPS). MapInfo pioneered the desktop mapping industry and laid the foundation for the effective development of intuitive mapping systems used by a wide variety of people. Until then, mapping systems required specific technical skills that constrained their use and limited the distribution of benefits.
It was this experience that brought the founders together again to develop the You Are Here system. Recognizing that legacy, single-point applications were constraining the events industry, in late 2007 they introduced the world's first on-floor interactive exhibitor directory and way-finding system that seamlessly integrated an on-site promotional solution for trade show managers, exhibitors and attendees alike.
The team drew on their separate experiences throughout the software industry to build a system that goes well beyond industry-standard maps and directories.
Designed and built not as a point solution - but as a collaborative media platform - You Are Here is poised to take the event industry and all its participants into the digital realm of 365 marketing, advertising, lead generation, social networking and community building.
To accelerate growth, the closely-held company completed its first round of institutional financing in December 2009.
###