Garden State Film Festival Rolls Out Mobile Balloting in Atlantic City, NJ

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - March 27, 2014 - PRLog -- March 27, 2014, Atlantic City – The 12^th Annual Garden State Film Festival (GSFF), which is being hosted for the first time in Atlantic City, has teamed up with Gold Mobile and Festival Genius to make the film festival experience even more enjoyable and easy to navigate. The result is a fully-integrated web and mobile solution specifically designed for film festivals and their organizers. With the addition of the solutions offered by Festival Genius and Gold Mobile, GSFF can now engage attendees and filmmakers both prior and during the festival, whether they’re behind their computer or their phones.

In honor of the festival’s 12th year and its move to a new location, GSFF Founder and Executive Director Diane Raver wanted to expand engagement for both the festival’s new and existing loyal audiences through the use of mobile technology. After seeing the amount of time and staff needed to count ballots during previous festivals, Diane conceived the idea for an e-ballot system to be used for this year’s GSFF audience choice award. With the expertise of Gold Mobile, a mobile-friendly e-ballot system was created which makes it easier for attendees to vote for their favorite films. Moviegoers are encouraged to text-in right from their mobile phones or from one of the kiosks located outside the event and the included real-time reporting enables results to be instantly tallied for Diane and the festival staff.

“Having the ability to connect with festival attendees on their mobile phones is a need being faced by every festival organizer and one that opens up many possibilities and sponsorship opportunities,” says Diane Raver, Founder and Executive Director of the Garden State Film Festival. “Festival Genius and Gold Mobile are bringing the festival experience into the 21^st century, saving us time and money, and making it easier for moviegoers to explore and enjoy the films we have to offer. By incorporating Festival Genius we expect to provide our attendees with the most engaging Garden State Film Festival to date.”

By incorporating mobile engagement, GSFF and other film festivals can better interact with people of all technology skill levels, regardless of what phone they choose to use. GSFF attendees will enjoy faster and easier access to movie information, film reviews, and much more. One of the most useful benefits of the Festival Genius system is the scheduling and calendar integration which allows attendees to not only see what films are playing, but also enables them to easily save the event. Festival Genius will also provide moviegoers with mobile offers and deals from area-sponsors sent directly to their phones.

“We are pleased to have worked with the Garden State Film Festival for the last two years,” said Bob Alexander, Director of Festival Genius. “And we are especially pleased to be supporting their move to Atlantic City, with more venues, more events, and more attendees!” Alexander commented that the Festival team has their hands full finding great films and organizing an exciting event. "They don't need to be worried about the mechanics of getting their program to the widest possible audience. We are very pleased to work with Gold-Mobile to support the onsite, mobile platform, device independent system they have developed with the Festival Genius database of film information, schedules and events for the Garden State Film Festival. This is additional outreach with no additional data entry!"

The Garden State Film Festival is taking place from April 3^rd-6^th in Atlantic City, NJ. A New Jersey-based event devoted to the independent film genre and the creation of a forum where local and other independent filmmakers can exhibit their work, the GSFF screens over 186 movies, many by New Jersey filmmakers. This year organizers expect close to 30,000 attendees. Film schedules and tickets for the Garden State Film Festival are now available on http://gsff.org.

About Gold Mobile & Festival Genius

Gold Mobile, a global cloud-based provider of a mobileordering, payment, and loyalty platform, will be enhancing and reselling Festival Genius under the At Anytime brand. A sister brand of Gold Mobile, At Anytime is an experience-driven marketplace which focuses on promoting and selling the best a community has to offer.

Festival Genius provides program presentation, ticketing integration, and attendee engagement services to Film Festivals throughout North America and Europe. Founded in 2005, it is owned and operated by Festival Genius, LLC, and is based in Astoria, New York. The collaboration between Gold Mobile and Festival Genius will premier at the Garden State Film Festival taking place in Atlantic City, April 3rd through April 6th.

For more information about Gold Mobile, visit: http://gold-mobile.com.

For more information on At Anytime, visit: http://atanyti.me.

For more information about Festival Genius, visit: http://festivalgenius.com