Blackpool cloud IT specialist reigns at Winter Gardens dance festival

As the ballroom and Latin dancers were getting ready to take part in the first day of the event they would have immediately noticed four large screens at the edge of the room.

The management team had introduced a new cloud-based software system to help manage the event.

It was produced by Digitav, based a few hundred yards from the event in the magnificent Empress Ballroom in the Winter Gardens.

The new software was making its first live debut.

Digitav owner Ian Mallam said: “Everything was in place, there was tension in the air and the competitors, their coaches, visitors, the festival management team and the Digitav software developers were ready.

“As the Festival, dubbed The World’s First and Foremost Festival of Dancing, began, the first set of results were displayed on screen. There was a flurry of activity as the dancers brought out their mobile phones, photographed the screens and sent the images to social media platforms.

“More than 6,480 entries were registered in competitions held over the 13 days of competitive dance. The bright, colourful and famous festival was, as always, a huge success as was the quieter introduction of the new software.”

The software launch was a big success for the managers and competitors and a big success for the friends and families of the competitors too.

Mr Mallam said the day after the competition finished, more than 48,000 people from 66 countries checked the results and rankings on the website. Nearly 3,000 people were still looking every day.

On behalf of BECL, Michael Williams, managing director, said: “The team at Digitav were great to work with and came up with solutions to ensure the system was fully operational for the Festival.

The software is key to the success and integrity of the Festival and will be used by The Blackpool Dance Festival in China in the hugely successful Dance Championships in Shanghai in August, and in other competitions in the future.”

Digitav was founded in 2006 with help from the council’s Get Started service, and specialises in building bespoke cloud-based business software programs and are based in Milbourne St. Street.