Lanyrd

Lanyrd
Type of site
Events, social networking
DissolvedSeptember 2013[1]
Created bySimon Willison, Natalie Downe
URLlanyrd.com
CommercialYes
Launched2010; 14 years ago (2010)
Current statusDefunct

Lanyrd (pronounced and named after "lanyard") was a conference directory website. It was created by Simon Willison and Natalie Downe and launched in 2010.[2] The site was created while the couple were on honeymoon.[3]

The site compiled blog posts, photos and other coverage from events and keeps it organised by session and speaker. Users on the site were identified through the Twitter API and events were shown to users based on their contacts on Twitter. The company received $1.4 million in seed funding in September 2011,[4] having participated in the Y Combinator startup incubator program.[5][6] The company was based in the Old Street Roundabout area in London.[7]

In October 2011, Lanyrd launched an iOS app for iPhone and iPod Touch devices.[8]

To help attendees at the 2012 SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, Lanyrd launched a special site listing conference sessions and speakers, and letting individuals see which of their friends from Twitter were attending or speaking at the scheduled sessions.[9] They also made the SXSW data available in the form of iPhone and mobile web apps.[10][11] In addition, Lanyrd produced browser plugins for Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari to filter tweets which mentioned SXSW or were from SXSW attendees.[12] The website became a useful tool for amplified conferences.

In September 2013, Lanyrd was acquired by Eventbrite.[1][13] Post-acquisition, the website lanyrd.com is no longer live.[citation needed]

  1. ^ a b Lanyrd acquired by Eventbrite, Lanyrd blog
  2. ^ MacManus, Richard (5 September 2011). "Happy Appiversary, Lanyrd". ReadWriteWeb. Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  3. ^ Johnson, Bobbie (9 September 2011). "How Lanyrd went from Casablanca to conference circuit". GigaOm.
  4. ^ Butcher, Mike (6 September 2011). "Lanyrd Secures $1.4 million In Seed Funding To Make Conferences More Social". TechCrunch.
  5. ^ Roush, Wade (11 April 2011). "Lanyrd: Twitter Meets LinkedIn Meets IMDB for the Conference Circuit". Xconomy.
  6. ^ Myers, Courtney Boyd (31 January 2011). "Lanyrd launches to change the conference landscape using Twitter". The Next Web.
  7. ^ Lindberg, Oliver (9 September 2011). ".net awards 2011: top 10 developers".
  8. ^ Lanyrd for iPhone, on iOS 4 and iOS 5, Lanyrd blog
  9. ^ Boyd Myers, Courtney (6 March 2012). "Lanyrd leverages Twitter to show you which SXSWi panels you should attend". The Next Web. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  10. ^ Dao, Alex (8 March 2012). "Companies Aim To Get Noticed at SXSW with New Offerings". BetaKit. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  11. ^ Rowinski, Dan (31 January 2012). "How Lanyrd Uses HTML5 for a Great Mobile Web App". ReadWriteWeb. Archived from the original on 4 March 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  12. ^ Butcher, Mike (22 February 2012). "How To Temporarily Silence All Those Annoying Twitterers At SXSW". TechCrunch. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  13. ^ Ha, Anthony. "Making Its First Acquisitions, Eventbrite Buys Ticketing Service Eventioz And Event Data Company Lanyrd". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-02-14.