Leeds leads the way with virtual city guide
Visitors and residents in Leeds now have access to useful information including restaurant and hotel details, news headlines and contact numbers for public transport and taxi firms literally at their fingertips!
Leeds is now host to the world’s first virtual city guide, LeedsCast, an interactive guide which can be downloaded via Bluetooth to mobile phones.
It can be downloaded at a number of LeedsCast zones around the city centre, including Millennium Square, the bus and train stations, Leeds Visitor Centre and Leeds Central Library.
There are initially nine LeedsCast zones, with more to be launched in the coming months.
LeedsCast is a City Centre Leeds project created to make the city centre easier to understand and get around. City Centre Leeds is supported in this venture by Marketing Leeds which is supplying content from www.leedsliveitloveit.com, the city’s official website for business, leisure and education.
At the launch of LeedsCast, Leeds City Centre Manager, Cath Follin, said: “This puts a whole host of information at the touch of a button. You can take the information with you to access whenever and wherever you might need it.
"LeedsCast provides virtual signposting to complement the physical signs around the city. It also supplies important contact numbers, information on places of interest, and details about the city’s varied shops, restaurants, hotels and bars.”
LeedsCast will also provide access to a range of offers from city centre outlets, events and businesses, and even supplies walking directions between the different LeedsCast zones.
Deborah Green, Chief Executive of Marketing Leeds, added: “Leeds is proud to be hosting the world’s first virtual city guide, and we’re really excited that through this technology we can open up new channels of communication with people who come into the city.
"For visitors it will be a vital source of instant information, while for people who live and work in Leeds it can provide details of upcoming events, useful contact telephone numbers, regular news updates and exciting offers.
"LeedsCast represents a new era in location-based city marketing.”
The technology behind LeedsCast is gogo, a mobile messaging system which uses Bluetooth, making downloads and updates free to receive.
gogo was conceived and developed by Leeds-based marketing and communications company, an agency called england.
Tony Stanton, chief executive of an agency called england, said: “There is inevitably genuine excitement about the launch of LeedsCast. It gives the city an up-to-the-minute means of communicating with everyone who comes into Leeds. It’s great to see Leeds leading the way!”
Posted: Friday, May 16, 2008
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