H2O New Media

UAE. Targeting Middle East’s booming events sector, H2O New Media has launched a new vertical industry community website www.EventsGossip.com

The site provides the Middle East events industry with the latest news and exhibition updates, industry views, upcoming events, products, suppliers and the exhibitor profiles. Sponsored by Wicked Tents, leading suppliers of temporary structures in the Middle East, this complete social community by H2O New Media, also offers a complete and comprehensive suppliers list for the sector and is attracting industry users with over 130 senior executives as members to the community.

To qualify as an Events Gossip member you need to be actively involved in the Middle East events industry. Being either a provider or a supplier in the industry qualifies you to access the profiles available on the website. 

"Having several customers in this sector, we were drawn to develop a portal that is designed to fulfil the needs of the events industry. This vertical community provides them with a platform for communication and collaboration on all of the issues related to the industry,” said Steve Vaile, CEO, H2O New Media.

“We are working on a unified data services platform to underpin all of these communities. In time we will offer a complete range of data services including IPTV, SMS and online transaction services through these vertical portals. Getting the vertical communities deployed is certainly the most important step on that path. 

"We have plans to deploy a single sign on application within the next few months. I think the Yahoo! model of content-based applications linked to a single sign on is certainly what is required in the UAE and I think we can execute faster than Yahoo from a local market perspective. We will be significantly expanding our footprint with multiple community platforms by opening up access to our platform for other vertical markets over the next 12 months. 

"Right now we have another five vertical industry based communities in the pipeline and our speed of deployment has really reduced to weeks rather than months. We are also talking to content partners and providers of search technology to work out how we can integrate these into our community offerings,” continued Vaile.