The Official Poken Blog

‘Friday Night Lights’ in 2010 Switzerland have nothing to do with American high school football and everything to do with blue waters, palm trees, and, you guessed it, pokens.

On January 29th, “Urban Oasis” at City Beach in Basel, Switzerland featured pokens in an effort to build their brand community while adding interactive entertainment.  Amidst the soft lighting, eclectic music, and paradise decor people discovered the full poken experience, from the green glow of pokening, to the dynamic website, poken.com, and of course the many networking opportunities that followed.

This pokenEVENT was especially pivotal for the Poken team because glowing pyramids were in the mix.  ”Huh?” you ask, “What do pyramids have to do with widgets, APIs, and, wait for it… Shindig?  ”Everything” is your answer.

Our engineers love the Poken glow – in all shapes and sizes.  This night pokenDOME had the shape of a pyramid and the size was, well, bigger than your average poken.  Early prototype?  Yes.  Masterpiece?   Getting there.   Product for mass market?  Not yet, but it’s cool and we here at Poken are über psyched.  Definitely check out what Alan has to say about it (video below)… and please do forgive the interjection; this Pokenaut just thought it was “Nah-iiiiiice !”  - clearly.

Some of you may have already heard whispers of the pokenDOME.  Well, let these whispers turn to ‘oohs !’ and ‘ahhhhs!’ and, of course, more interactive pokening for Pokenites.   Hats off to the Poken engineering team that turned a pyramid-shaped pokenDOME into pure visual entertainment.  Those that pokened ‘the dome’ could see their Poken card displayed on a 40″ high-def monitor and, with a little luck, win a variety of prizes (including several Urban Oasis inspired items, and the grand prize, an iPod Touch).  It all went along pretty smoothly, though there were some dramatic moments to keep us on our toes: dear Alan’s heart skipped several beats, Harald rushed to his computer, and Steve frowned in deep thought, but quickly broke into a smile and said : “Those guys’ll figure it out.”  Murphy’s law or not, 3 minutes later they did.  Nah-iiiiiice!

So overall, many lessons learned in the product, marketing, and engineering teams.  And surely the future will bring fewer glitches, more fun, and endless possibilities.  That’s the beauty of innovation.

Special thanks to everyone involved in this event, in particular Camel/JTI who sponsored it, and Epoch Insights, who did a beautiful job of coordinating everything with the Poken team.  If you’d like more information about the pokenDOME, or pokenEVENT and how we can incorporate the poken experience into your next event please email us at events@poken.com.

Newbie Pokenites at the Poken registration desk

The 'dome' and pokening the 'dome.'

Pokenites registering... and pokening

City Beach in Basel, Switzerland