When people are thinking of new places to go and visit, the internet's not the most inspiringplace to check them out…..at least until now according to Ben Knill.
The developer of ' beek ', an interactive destination guide, is onthe lookout for investment capital to develop the next edition of his software widget which can siton a hotel, attraction or restaurant's website, to make it easy for those thinking of visiting tocheck them out, as well as the surrounding area..
beek's special trick as such, is to enable a hotel for example, to show 3D immersive photos ofits inside and allow an internet user to 'walk' through its premise. People can stroll into abedroom, walk into the restaurant, check out the pages of a menu and wander outside through itsfront door, and down the street. They can keep on wandering, past the city sites, into other beekcustomer's front doors and premise, say a café, perhaps a ferry, and have a look (and listen too).The clever bit is all the businesses are advertising all the other businesses.
Knill has based his initial development and version on Wellington, working with tourism partnersto make contact with potential customers, which in turn has made it easier for him to sell theconcept to them. (It is one of those facts of life that, being interactive software, it's better tohave a look at it working than try and describe it.)
Knill describes the software as being a rabbit warren around capital (in this case), allowingtourists, or conference attendees or businesspeople to check the destination and its facilities out,without needing to actually visit.
He did something vaguely similar back in his British homeland, by taking photographs for a fee ofhistorical houses and the like, which internet users could click on and 'explore' inside.
The intended business model for beek, which is currently based in
The system will suit photographers in particular, who can charge up to $200/scene (of the hotelfor example), and those photographers in turn will download the images onto the hotel's website.beek's revenue will come from an annual subscription fee from each customer for guide membership,support, embedding on lots of websites and hosting the site (in Amazon's cloud).
"We're a start up, looking for capital, as the software needs more development in order toautomate it," Knill says.
"We don't want photographers needing to know how to code, and it needs to be easy for customersand tourism operators to use." At the moment, Knill has to labouriously download each item such asthe menu, photo, or scene himself. Enabling others to do this simply, is key to launching it on theworld stage.
He's been given a $40,000 quote from a developer to get it to an automated stage, and, havinglaunched and automated, intends expanding to Auckland, the rest of New Zealand and then to overseasdestinations. Alternatively, he and his three partners are willing to sell a 20% share for$165,000.
"beek's call to action is it is collaborative, that's its secret sauce," Knill says. By workingwith and through Regional Tourism Operators, whose job is to promote regions/cities, they in turncan contact people who they think will be interested in putting themselves forward to use theplatform on their own website, as well as interconnecting with others on the interactive guide.
"People are looking to work together, because that's what the internet is all about," Knillsays.
The system uses an Austrian colleague's proprietary software, though "getting out thereand providing the destination focus is a form of protection in itself. Speed is the key."
And in case you're wondering, whey 'beek'? Well, it’s a combination of things Knill says.
"Being nosey and cheeky for a start. But it's also to do with seek, peek, look and book."
Which, in a nutshell, it exactly what a good internet destination guide should do.