Can an App Help You Make Friends in the Lobby?

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MIT and Marriott Hotels turn a hotel lobby into a social hub with Six Degrees.

No, Kevin Bacon is not in your hotel lobby, but a fellow Tufts alum or Microsoft employee could be. This month marks the beginning of an app launch from a MIT-Marriott collaboration as part of Marriott’s Travel Brilliantly campaign. MIT’s Mobile Experience Lab partnered with the hotel chain to create Six Degrees, a social app that connects to a user’s LinkedIn profile to find connections. Dare we say, it sounds like a professional version of Tinder?

With the app, two people with a shared connection are sent notifications about each other, creating a potential relationship. Six Degrees is no match.com though—shared connections are based on professional, academic, and common interests. So, when you have some down time and want a running partner on your next business trip, Six Degrees is there. Information can also be shared with the hotel staff to organize networking events.

The app goes even further with a LED-light interactive table where guests place their phone on a hub and instantly see a light-up connection to a phone with any similarities. So, when can you use the app on your next business venture? For now testing continues at the Boston Marriott Cambridge but will enter proof-of-concept testing soon if all goes well, with eventual expansion to all 500 hotel locations.

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Would you try the app if you came across it in your hotel lobby? We’d love to hear your comments!

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(Photo: Mobile Experience Lab, MIT)

 

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