The conference networking app Whova, developed as a startup by CSE Prof. Yuanyuan (YY) Zhou, has received a $10,000 prize to pursue Whova's potential in international markets. The MetroConnect Prize is a program of the World Trade Center San Diego to help local companies accelerate their global growth, and Whova is one of 15 prize recipients announced in early July.
While Whova has not done a proactive campaign with international users, word of mouth is the reason why foreign markets already represent 35 percent of the 3,000+ events that Whova has supported (see breakdown to date at right). The U.S. market accounts for 65 percent of total events. "We're glad to have an excellent starting point, with events held in 85 other countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, India, China and more," said YY Zhou. "The Whova app has great features meant for globalization, and the MetroConnect Prize will allow us to improve on those features to further serve our global customers."
According to Zhou, the prize money will be used to perfect Whova's language support. Event organizers can already upload event-specific information in their own language, but Whova also wants to support localization of the app's user interface. The app will also expand on social media used locally in foreign markets (such as WeChat and Kakao). Finally, Whova wants to expand customer support in order to provide quick service to event organizers and attendees in other time zones. "We’d like to thank World Trade Center San Diego and the MetroConnect program for giving us an opportunity to further accelerate our global growth and support more events globally," noted Zhou in a post on the Whova website. "We will work to localize our product and provide the same quality service around the world!"
Whova applied to the MetroConnect Prize program on the recommendation of Jacobs School of Engineering Dean Albert Pisano and The von Liebig Center's former director, Rosibel Ochoa (now at UC Riverside, where she is Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Partnerships).