Shelfbucks CEO Erik McMillian, Author Robert Scoble Bring ‘Context' To Future Of BLE And Location Technologies For Retail At Austin Bluetooth Meetup March 7

Noted co-writer of ‘Age of Context’ to address mobile, sensors, data and privacy for retail; Shelfbucks Twitter competition awards copies of book to attendees 

Shelfbucks Inc., the leading iBeacon promotion platform for retail stores, will partner with author and technology guru Robert Scoble in Austin March 7 to help technology and retail executives better understand how Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and other location  technologies will fundamentally change the relationship between consumers and brick-and-mortar retailers.

The Bluetooth Smart Meetup will be held Friday, March 7, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Bourbon Girl music venue, 212 E. 6th St. in Austin. Tickets are available to the public.

Mr. Scoble, Startup Liaison at Rackspace and co-author of “Age of Context,” will address how location-based technologies like beacons deliver context to the overall shopping experience for both consumers and retailers.  Shelfbucks CEO Erik McMillan, whose company is setting a new standard for beacon technologies in the retail setting, will open the event with discussion of how the right beacon-based platform can uniquely enable retailers to more effectively connect with their customers, particularly Millennials and Gen-Y shoppers.

As part of the event, Shelfbucks will host a Twitter competition through which 50 attendees will receive free copies of Mr. Scoble’s book.  Participants will tweet about the Age of Context using the Twitter hashtags “#WinScobleBook,” “@scobleizer,” “@shelfbucks,” “#retail,” or “#beacon.”   Twitter commenters that receive the highest number of re-tweets and favorites will be awarded Mr. Scoble’s book.  The top three winners will be announced on stage by Shelfbucks just before Mr. Scoble’s keynote presentation.

“Robert has a great clarity of vision about how location technologies bring context to overall shopper experience and help level the playing field between physical and online retail,” Mr. McMillan said.  “After more than three years of developing beacon-based solutions for retailers, we share his beliefs about how the intersection of retailers, brands and consumers is changing for the better.”

Published in 2013 and co-written by Scoble and Forbes contributor Shel Israel, “Age of Context” address the convergence of five technology forces: mobile, social media, big data, location-based and sensors. According to Mr. Israel:  “This convergence is forming a perfect storm in which our connections with our devices will become far more personal and our devices will know more about us than even the people with whom we are closest.”

Introduced in October, Shelfbucks is a finalist for the prestigious SXSW Interactive Accelerator competition in the Enterprise and Big Data category.  Shelfbucks was named a winner of the “DEMO God” award at the DEMO Fall 2013 conference, an exclusive competition renowned for launching innovative new technology products. 

About Shelfbucks
Shelfbucks is the leading in-store beacon promotion platform which allows shoppers to interact with products on retail shelves from their smartphone via iBeacon, BLE and NFC Beacons. Shelfbucks enables retailers and brands to measure real-time in-store shopper demand and deliver personalized special offers, coupons and content to shoppers' iPhone or Android smartphones to impact purchase decisions. Shelfbucks helps retailers and brands build a loyal relationship with in-store shoppers, while increasing incremental category sales, profit, and return visits. It is the first platform to allow retailers and brands to build a relationship with the growing number of GenY and Millennial shoppers, who aren't reading print newspaper circulars, reading direct mail, or clipping paper coupons. Shelfbucks also helps retailers reduce price matching and showrooming to increase in-store sales opportunities. For more information, visit  www.shelfbucks.com, www.shelfbucks.com/faq.