By Chris Kappes, Strategic Advisor, There.App Co.
San Francisco-based There.App Co introduces mobile-first platform designed to streamline real-time coordination for tradeshow and event operations teams.
The tradeshow floor at 7:30 AM is barely controlled chaos. Exhibitors race against setup deadlines, event managers coordinate last-minute booth changes, and somewhere in the maze of convention halls, a critical vendor is running late with essential signage.
The event director is frantically tracking down team members through a mix of texts, emails, workgroup chats, social media messages, and sometimes just running around shouting—whatever contact method happens to be at hand.
It’s a scenario that plays out thousands of times daily across convention centers worldwide. And it’s the problem that Seth Kenvin set out to solve when he founded There.App Co.
The Core Problem: App Juggling on the Event Floor
According to Kenvin, event operations teams typically manage coordination through six or more different applications—Slack for messages, WhatsApp for quick updates, Asana or Monday for tasks, Google Drive for files, radios for emergencies, and texts when everything else fails.
The result? Time waste and error prone collaboration switching between tools. For operations involving hundreds of crew members across massive venues, this fragmentation becomes untenable.
“I’ve faced my fair share of challenges locating the right person at the right moment, like finding the VP of marketing for a final pre-event walk-through or getting the relevant team members when a key account arrives,” Kenvin recalls. “Event professionals everywhere tell the same story. Teams are juggling too many apps, getting lost in large project notebooks and chasing down details that may not even be current anymore.”
An Unrecognized Need
For an industry built on bringing people together, event professionals have adapted to app juggling and information fragmentation as unavoidable aspects of event operations.
While project management tools abound for office work, nothing adequately addressed on-location execution. Event teams face unique challenges: they’re mobile, pressed for time, constantly absorbing new personnel, and critically dependent on physical location.
“Event teams need something fundamentally different than desktop tools,” Kenvin notes. “They need instant access, intuitive interfaces, and most importantly, they need to know where things are happening and where people are located.”
A Silicon Valley Perspective on Event Operations
Kenvin brings an unconventional background to event technology. With degrees from Cornell University (BS and MS in Engineering) and an MBA from Stanford, he spent three decades in Silicon Valley working on enterprise software, tech finance with Bear Stearns, and venture capital with Venrock Associates and Cedar Funds.
As VP of Strategic Marketing at BigBand Networks, Kenvin helped the cable industry transition to advanced digital services like HDTV and broadband Internet. Those roles introduced coordination challenges around tradeshows, video production, and off-site meetings. Later, his company Market7 worked with media production teams for clients including Google, Johnson & Johnson, and Toyota.
“My career has always involved coordinating team execution,” Kenvin explains. “Whether it was industrial production lines, multi-party financial deals, or video production crews, there’s a constant theme of helping distributed teams coordinate complex projects with each person focused on using their best talents.”
The Solution: Built for the Field, Not the Office
There.App’s integrated approach provides a live, dynamic view of project status, team locations, and critical information in one place. The platform is accessible on iOS, Android, and mobile web, allowing teams to start using it immediately without mandatory downloads.
“We drew inspiration from wayfinding—the art of helping people navigate physical spaces,” Kenvin explains. “We efficiently direct users to the right place, literally and figuratively, focusing on what’s most important in the moment.”
Ten Modules Working as One
There.App’s design centers on ten lightweight, interconnected modules that teams can activate based on project needs:
Share shows real-time team locations with individual privacy controls—the platform’s most distinctive feature for large venue coordination.
Places maps venues and key nearby locations with one-tap navigation to hotels, service providers, and essential facilities.
Team provides a directory showing everyone’s role and contact information.
Events displays schedules and timelines, highlighting where activities occur.
Tasks tracks work progress and assignments, again with location context.
Files provides document access, including integration with outside cloud storage systems.
Media presents photos and videos for visual documentation.
Web extends access to external sites and systems.
Board creates customized pages highlighting priorities using features from other modules.
Chats enables real-time messaging with the whole team or specific members, incorporating information from other modules.
The modules work together rather than in isolation. For example, a chat message can include a task assignment, link to relevant files, and show the location where work needs to happen without switching applications.
“We’re not trying to replace tools that work well in their domains,” Kenvin notes. “We’re providing the coordination layer that’s been missing—one that’s designed specifically for teams working in physical spaces under time pressure.”
Design for On-Site Teams
Full functionality is available on desktop computers, particularly useful for project setup using keyboards and large monitors. The interface emphasizes customizable design and editorial capabilities, ensuring projects stay on-message and on-theme with overall production.
This presentation quality helps event teams maintain professional standards while providing what Kenvin calls “a sense of white-glove service” for everyone using the platform.
Applications Beyond Tradeshows
While built with emphasis on tradeshow and conference production operations, There.App’s potential extends to any professional collaboration scenario in physical spaces.
Trade show exhibitors can coordinate on-site colleagues and service providers. Conference organizers can ensure speakers, moderators, and AV teams have necessary resources. Broader applications include experiential activations, corporate events, tourism and hospitality operations, sports coordination, media production, and large-scale celebrations.
In each scenario, There.App provides real-time coordination focused on where people are, whom they’re with, and their activities together, eliminating fragmented information and manual check-ins.
Launch Partnership Approach
Rather than rushing to market, Kenvin is building the company through a launch partnership program with event organizations interested in consulting on platform development responsive to industry needs.
“This approach allows us to refine features based on real-world usage and build a platform that addresses what really matters for event success,” Kenvin says. “We’ve seen significant advances come from consultation about how people are using There.App in actual operations.”
The company doesn’t charge customers until the platform demonstrates clear value and adoption.
Operating from San Francisco, There.App Co is preparing for broader commercialization following the current partnership phase. Event organizations interested in the launch partnership program can contact the company to discuss participation.
Contact: Chris Kappes, Strategic Advisor, There.App Co
chris.kappes@there.app
