GES, a global full-service provider for live events, has acquired Poken, a cloud-based event management platform.

“This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to being the preferred global live events partner offering the most comprehensive breadth of technology and services,” said GES President Steve Moster.

He added, “We know our clients want engagement and concrete metrics from their events. They will benefit from the technology and insight capabilities that Poken and our existing Visit solution offer together.”

Poken brings together digital and physical event spaces to drive engagement and gain better insight through real data.

The Poken 360° platform offers a seamless ecosystem of technology tools that enhance event engagement through smart badges and digital document collection through its patented “Touch and Glow” technology, visitor-to-visitor engagement, gamification and full metrics reporting.

Poken joins the N200|GES event intelligence team, and the company will retain the product name Poken 360°.

Poken founder and CEO Stéphane Doutriaux and the global Poken team will join GES with offices in New York City, London and Lausanne, Switzerland.

“We have always enjoyed working with the N200|GES team,” Doutriaux said. “This acquisition demonstrates their commitment to being the world leader in event technology, and especially to the importance of measurement and data intelligence.”

He added, “Together, we intend to pursue an aggressive strategy to bring about a truly measurable and connected event.”

The Poken team brings significant innovation capabilities, experience, and knowledge of intelligent events and will further extend the value GES brings to its clients and their attendees.

GES and Poken already work closely through a strategic partnership, providing clients with measurable and effective technology solutions for event registration and visitor engagement.

N200|GES and Poken currently are integrated with plans to develop deeper integration with even greater customer benefits.

Together, the technology platforms further enhance engagement, streamline the management of events, and offer measurable insights for exhibition organizers, exhibitors and event sponsors.

Event attendees benefit from Poken’s meeting scheduling. Attendees can maximize the effectiveness of their time by creating profiles that identify and match them with the most suitable people, as well as schedule meeting time slots.

Attendees also are able to receive product and service information digitally.

“The addition of Poken is a game-changer in providing a truly intelligent event for organizers, exhibitors, brands, and attendees,” added GES Executive Vice President of International Jason Popp.

He added, “The extensive features and services offered by Poken create and drive engagement and are a natural complement to GES’ core live event services and robust technologies. Poken has an extremely talented and enthusiastic work force and we are happy to welcome them to our team.“

Collectively, GES and Poken support thousands of exhibitions and events throughout the world each year.

With the addition of Poken, GES now offers the premier global events intelligence platform, focused on event registration and intelligent events, according to GES officials.

The Poken suite of products and services still can be purchased on a stand-alone basis or as an integrated suite with GES’ other registration products and services.