[App Fridays] With a map-based UI and customised feed, EventsHigh aims to make event discovery easy

A few decades ago discovering events was difficult and there was no unified platform to search for them. Fast forward to present, technology has made our lives easy and it is now simple for people to discover events around them and also keep up to date with the latest news and developments. But with the sheer volume of content available both online and offline, a new problem has arisen -- searching for relevant events among all the clutter. EventsHigh aims to help people with this pain point.

What is it?

EventsHigh is an event discovery platform that aims to bring all events under one roof and help people find relevant events based on their location, interest and availability. While there are many events discovery platforms in the market, EventsHigh’s USPs include a map and list based UI, recommendations and other personalized features.

In a survey they conducted, EventsHigh found that 85% of the participants generally came to know about an event after it had happened and then regretted missing it. So they aim to make event discovery easier and more seamless through their mobile and web based app.The app is functional in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and two international cities, Singapore and Jakarta. They cover over 20 categories of events some of which include events related to music, technology, comedy, and literature etc.

Special features

- User Interface: While checking out events under various categories for a particular area, users can opt for either a list or a map-view based on their preference

-Users can also keep themselves up to date about events happening ‘today’, ‘tomorrow’ or ‘weekend’ and ‘favourite’ or invite a friend to an event.

-Custom feed: Based on the categories users chose and their likes and dislikes they can customize their feeds and see events they may be interested in.

-Notifications: Users can set alerts for their interests and the app will send them a notification whenever a relevant event comes up. The event detail page on the app gives users details like venue, time, link to book tickets etc.

Team behind it

EventsHigh was started by Nikesh Garera and Arvind Batra, who were part of the Kosmix team in the Bay Area that was later acquired and became WalmartLabs. They developed a strong background in machine learning and big data as a result. Nikesh (CEO) is an alumnus from Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins where he pursued his MS and Ph.D respectively. Arvind (CTO) did his MS from Georgia Tech. Parag Sarda, a ME from Indian Institute of Science, joined them a few months ago. He leads their Android effort and brings his engineering experience from his prior work at Google and WalmartLabs to the table.

While Arvind and Nikesh were working at Kosmix, they had a strong yearning to attend the Google I/O event but kept missing out on the announcements and were never able to book tickets for it. So they built a web-based crawler that would notify them when the Google I/O tickets went up for sale. This was how the idea for EventsHigh came about. They realized that there was a need for an event discovery platform and started working on it after moving back to Bangalore recently.

They found that most Indian cities had thousands of events happening every week, but as all the information was scattered the onus was on the user to sift through and find what he or she needed. So they developed a product to address this pain point. EventsHigh bagged the second place at Tie Pitchfest San Francisco, first place for their Android app at Startup Launchpad and were among the top 10 startups shortlisted by TiE Bangalore for ‘AnthahPrerna’. They were also selected for the $20K bootstrap track of FBStart mobile app programme.

While their mobile app is free to download and use, they have a B2C business model through which they help event organisers get the right leads and reach the right target audience for their events. They have events from over 50,000+ event organizers on their platform and about 100,000+ monthly unique visitors.

What we liked?

While the content, layout and overall user experience is good, what stands out is the map based UI, which gives users a bird’s eye view of events happening in their area. Users can also pinch and zoom in on events and favourite or invite their friends while still in the map mode. The notifications for various events are a boon for absent minded users.

The volume of events and search filters makes event discovery simple and easy. The search bar in the app delivered desired results for different keywords as well.

What could be improved?

While the app makes event discovery easier, the next step could be to make it more social and let users know if their friends or contacts are attending a particular event or if they have also checked out the details about the same event. Nikesh confirmed that they are working on this and are in the process of adding other new features too. For example, in the future users will be able to see more event attributes such as whether an event is free or ticketed, kid ­friendly or not, parking available at venue etc.

YS verdict

With an experienced team and a well-executed product, EventsHigh is a unique app and it is definitely worth trying out if you are interested in discovering and attending events in your city.

Website: EventsHigh, Mobile App

What do you think about this app, do let us know in the comments. Also do check out other apps under our App Fridays and Pursuit of APPiness series.