Media contact: Maren Dougherty, Balboa Park Online Collaborative
Office: (619) 819-9200 / Cell: (302) 359-0397
Email: mdougherty@bpoc.org
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (July 20, 2010)– An iPhone application for Balboa Park is now available in Apple’s iTunes store. The application is designed to help visitors explore Balboa Park: the nation’s largest urban cultural park with more than 1,200 acres of museums, performing arts venues, gardens, restaurants, and other attractions.
Balboa Park Online Collaborative (BPOC) created the app in partnership with Spotlight Mobile, a software development firm that has created apps for Barnes & Noble, Style.com, and the Portland Art Museum.
“We love working with diverse groups with interesting spaces. In this case, the park presents a unique opportunity because of its large number of organizations and navigation challenges,” said Kiyo Kubo, Spotlight Mobile’s CEO. “Additionally, it was good to have an opportunity to create new features for our ‘Meridian Platform’ that makes it easier for future locations to get going with their existing data feeds.”
The iPhone app is part of BPOC’s effort to enhance the way Balboa Park museums and other cultural organizations use online technologies. The app is designed to make it quicker and easier for visitors to learn about cultural events and activities that are happening in the Park during their stay. The app is available for $0.99 from Apple’s App Store on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, or at www.itunes.com/appstore.
“The balboapark.org portal is already attracting more than 6,000 visits per month from people using iPhones, iPods, and iPads. We expect that this number will continue to rise,” said Rich Cherry, BPOC’s director. “The app makes it easier for people to not only find what they’re looking for, but also to find related events in the park that they might not have found otherwise.”
Unique Features Events guide: The dynamically updated event calendar is searchable by venue and category. Whether you’re looking for a kid-friendly exhibition, a dramatic play, or a new IMAX movie, you can find it in our guide.
Attractions guide: Find detailed information about more than 60 attractions, including the world famous San Diego Zoo, award-winning Old Globe Theatre, San Diego Natural History Museum, and The San Diego Museum of Art.
Restaurant guide: Satisfy your cravings by looking up information about all of the restaurants and cafes within Balboa Park. Find the perfect match for your budget and taste.
Maps: View maps of all the cultural institutions, gardens, and restaurants in the Park.
Bookmarking: Save your favorite places to the “Bookmarks” list to plan a daylong itinerary or to remember your favorite spots for your next trip to the Park.
Screenshots available upon request.
About Balboa Park Online Collaborative (BPOC) Founded by the San Diego-based Legler Benbough Foundation, BPOC’s mission is to: facilitate and execute a fundamental change in the way museums, cultural arts and science institutions in Balboa Park approach the use of online technology by making online technology an integral part of the way the institutions fulfill their missions, interact with patrons, and collaborate; improve their technology capabilities while reducing costs by bringing organizations with similar needs together on mutually beneficial projects; and allow smaller institutions the benefit of having technology systems of the same quality as larger organizations, who in turn benefit from streamlined expenditures. www.bpoc.org
About Balboa Park Balboa Park is a San Diego must-see, just minutes from downtown, and ranked as one of the best parks in the world. The Park is home to 15 major museums, several performing arts venues, lovely gardens and many other cultural and recreational attractions, including the San Diego Zoo. With a variety of cultural institutions laid out among its beautiful 1,200 lushly planted acres, Balboa Park is the nation’s largest urban cultural park. www.balboapark.org
About Spotlight Mobile Spotlight Mobile is an award-winning software development firm specializing in mobile and web development. Spotlight Mobile was founded in 2002 by Kiyo Kubo and Nick Farina based on research on mobile computing at the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at Cornell University. Spotlight Mobile has offices in Portland and San Francisco. www.spotlightmobile.com
Balboa Park is a San Diego must-see, just minutes from downtown, and ranked as one of the Best Parks in the World. The Park is home to 15 major museums, several performing arts venues, lovely gardens and many other cultural and recreational attractions, including the San Diego Zoo. With a variety of cultural institutions laid out among its beautiful 1,200 lushly planted acres, Balboa Park is the nation’s largest urban cultural park.
Balboa Park Marketing is a program of the Balboa Park Central, a non-profit organization promoting the cultural and recreational use of Balboa Park.
