Ok, maybe you don’t know the BetaGroup: this geeky group that meets-up every month to show what’s new in the Belgian tech scene.
So, lets first present what BetaGroup is about, their objective is to “connect Entrepreneurs, Creative Thinkers, Software Developers, Digital Marketers, Web Designers, Web Agencies, Advertisers, Publishers, VC’s and Business Angels to innovate together”. That’s why their monthly meeting is so buzzed in the Belgian tech-sphere.
Enough for presentations, what was shown new in the last BetaGroup?
Yaxo: allows small business to enhance their web-site with click-to-call and click-to-chat buttons or even pop-ups to allow web-site representatives to chat directly with the consumers if they need help. Differently from other web-tools, this one allows a representative to call customers in their phone. Neither less to say that customers doesn’t need to type or search into confusing forum to get help anymore.
iDiscover: a spin-off of an academic project to make museums visits more interactive and entertaining to people. Instead of simple “audio guides” this project allows museums to create games for visitors (specially school groups) allowing them to “learn by playing” while they visit the museum: interesting concept –maybe it could be introduced in Italian museums.
Twoddler: a conceptual project (and not yet a business) it’s a “Fischer Price Activity Center” hack and aim to make possible to parents track the activities of their “still too young to talk on the phone” babies while working. The basic idea is that, when the baby push a button of their Fischer Price game, this one tweets a photo of the baby to the parents, and yes, the parents can send them back an image (or maybe a videos) for their children, shown in their “Fischer Price Activity Center”. The question asked for the audience was: “does it have a business potential?” I believe so, but be free to answer the Twoddler Team this “fundamental question”.
Bebuzy: a platform to select & buy a service online, with possibilities to select suppliers by region and availability, contact them directly or send sms. A good and simple website, right to the point, delivers its promise.
Netway : probably the most impressive business presented, it’s specialized in “Applied Behavioral Science”. Whatever this means, it objective is high: create “Ergotools”, a software to simulate how the brain will react when a web-page is shown. This software should be able to simulate the area of the page that will capture more attention of visitors, what areas will be “blur” or “bypass” by them or which links are more likely to be clicked by an average internet user. More, Ergotools should be able to predict the “complexity” of a text, predicting if the reader can be dump teenager or an expert in the field to understand it. With all its scientific background Netway, catch the attention of Adobe with this project and I wouldn’t be surprised if Adobe buy them in the coming years, after all, this is the tool any webmaster would love to put their hands on.
After those pitches, an “open live tweets”, where everybody could tell to the audience whatever they want, took place, some used this opportunity to promote web events in Belgium and other to announce new positions in their own start-ups. Off course, the event finished with a networking hour where VCs, web-developers start-up owners and other tech enthusiasts could meet each other in the corridors of ULB (yes, with a lot of potential this group didn’t fund a better place than an auditorium in the university ; ).
As you could see from yesterday’s post, there has been a Startup Competition going on at LeWeb, in Paris. Mike Butcher, from TechCrunch Europe and the French Minister of Internet just announced the winners of the competition.
