Hoveton app developer pocket places is ‘Olympic’ finalist

Hoveton-based app developer Pocket Places is going for gold in a London 2012 contest to discover world beating ideas for smartphone apps for visitors attending the Olympic Games this summer. The company is the only one in the region to reach the Race for Apps final with its Pocket Britain tourist information app.

Judging starts in May and Pocket Places CEO Mark Oakden said the company would use the time to add more content to the app.

Having the Olympic Games in the UK gives us a world stage and hopefully this competition can help us promote our app to a worldwide audience,' he said. If we are successful then we intend to start similar tourist information apps in other countries, including the USA.'

The competition is part of the Digital Shoreditch Festival, the UK's largest digital event celebrating creative and tech startup talent. The festival takes place in late May in London, adjacent to the Olympic Park, and hoping to attract 50,000 people from around the world.

'We intend Pocket Britain to become a digital tourist information centre by providing users with multimedia tourist information directly on their mobile phones,' Mr Oakden said. 'Using the GPS facility of a modern smartphone, our app determines a users location to provide local information, including what to do and where to stay, as well as fascinating history and entertaining stories. Content is created collaboratively, with Pocket Britain articles written by tourist boards, attractions and various other organisations. Recent collaborators include South West Tourism, Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the RAF.

'It is about time that one of the world's top digital applications came from the UK, instead of California. Who knows, perhaps the next google, twitter or facebook can come from Norfolk!'