Corkboards in the lobby and flyers in the elevator might be on the way out if a Vancouver tech firm has its way.
Vancouver-based bazinga! borrowed Sheldon Cooper's catchphrase from TV's The Big Bang Theory (with legal permission) and built a social network specifically tailored to condo and high-rise apartment dwellers. The firm recently partnered with one of Canada's largest condominium developers, Tridel, which has been beta testing the platform in four GTA condos and now plans to spread its use throughout most of its buildings.
The Tridel partnership means that now more than 100,000 homes will have access to the network from desktops, smartphones or tablets. Each resident can create a profile, similar to that on Facebook with public and privacy settings in tact. The network app connects residents of the same building, property management staff and other condo employees to enable up-to-the-minute sharing of information on all building activities.
Whether you want a visitor's parking permit, a new security fob, someone to play tennis with or to message a fellow tenant, bazinga! makes that all possible.
With so many condo projects currently under construction, property developers are eager to use the networking service to communicate with homebuyers even before they move in. In fact, it facilitates scheduling of appointments to discuss suite design and unit upgrades and helps to better organize events like the pre-delivery inspection.
While new developers generally pay a licensing fee to implement bazinga! up front, the cost to existing properties is about $2/month per user, which is usually picked up by property management or included in maintenance fees.
As you can imagine, there's a huge range of possibilities open with the service. For example, if you get a large enough group together, you may be able to negotiate bulk discounts on dining, sporting events or even home insurance service.
