Gizmo

People are such ingrates. As the head of marketing for a major corporation you know this for a fact. You organise a wonderful junket to a top event, fly key customers down there business class, ferry them around in limos, make sure they meet the stars and afterwards they forget all about you.

You know you should be building lasting customer relations, but short of going around to their homes the next day with Solpadeine and chocolates, how can you keep the relationship going? You can't even find out if they enjoyed themselves without sounding desperate on the phone. You'll just have to organise another jolly.

But wait! There is a way to keep in touch, you just have to plan it in advance. If you ask everyone to wear a small Vividot badge, you'll be able to contact all your customers with lovely photographs of them and the stars, or in groups. Photographs they will want.

Image recognition technology picks up the order and shape of the colours in each badge, and translates it into a number, which corresponds to an individual. Afterwards, the software can easily identify all photographs with a particular individual. You can send them a link to the photos by e-mail, and even have them supply additional information about themselves before they can access the shots.

The Vividot system, around £2,000 (€2,540) for a 500person event, is available from Keith Nolan at Pancom on 012808744.

Become a gizmo source: smaccarthaigh@irish-times.ie