Grad Profiles highlight the personal and professional stories of Founder Institute Graduates from across the globe.
This profile on Dather, a Graduate of the Los Angeles Founder Institute, was written by Emma Tzeng. Co-Founded in 2019 by Kieve Huffman, Dather is a crowdsourced digital scrapbook for events.
Interactive timeline interfaces are all the rage lately on several social media channels. A couple months ago, Facebook rolled out its Timeline profiles, which sorts users’ “life events” chronologically; and apps like Path, which functions as a mobile, shareable journal, are quickly gaining momentum and reach.
It only makes sense that Los Angeles-based startup Dather, which acts as a crowd-sourced scrapbook for events, has caught the attention of event producers and attendees alike.
Dather curates event buzz after the actual event takes place using user-generated photos, tweets, audio clips, status updates, and blog posts. In essence, it’s a digital, group-facilitated scrapbook that allows attendees and non-attendees to stay abreast event happenings.
Besides being a fun tool for event participants, Dather also adds value to businesses by generating awareness even after a company-sponsored event. Brands pay Dather a licensing fee in exchange for its technology platform, which sorts all related content into one virtual space that can be accessed by anyone, including potential customers and investors.
In the words of an official introductory video, Dather “allows customers to directly participate, telling the story of the event and building an online community that extends the life of the physical event in a valuable way for any business.”
Founded in 2009, Dather is the handiwork of Kieve Huffman and Scott Boyd. Huffman boasts 20 years of experience in digital entertainment, direct marketing, and business development, while Boyd is a new media executive with over 15 years of experience in music, entertainment, and online content development. The two executives combined their firsthand knowledge and expertise in the entertainment and business sectors to build Dather’s interactive, intuitive platform.
Event producers also reap the benefits Dather has to offer. The startup organizes user-produced material which showcases event goings-on in an accessible format that event planners can utilize to market future events.
More specifically, event marketers and brand managers can use Dather in three formats: they can embed the application into their own sites, create a branded microsite, or activate Dather’s Facebook app. The product’s flexibility speaks into its customer-centric focus and makes customer acquisition that much more seamless.
The ability to attract new users is a trait that the startup enjoyed even in Dather’s earliest stages: some of Dather’s first clients included Samsung/AT&T/Glee Live Tour, Rihanna, and the John Lennon Educational Tour. To date, Dather has served seven different clients in the entertainment and music sectors and fostered over two million views and interactions on its platform.
In addition to attracting a stream of high-profile business partners and new customers, Dather was also selected to demo its product twice in 2011--once at the Los Angeles Social Media Week’s New Technology Startup Demo and Happy Hour and again at Tech Cocktail LA’s showcase event.
As Dather continues to bridge the disconnect between offline events and online buzz, we can expect to witness some radical changes in the event landscape. Surely, that fact alone is something worth commemorating.
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