NotifyMe Helps Keep the World’s Best Badminton Players Covid-Safe and Alert

Bangkok, Thailand, December 24, 2020 – NotifyMe, a sophisticated new notification solution, will play a key role in helping some of the world’s best badminton players stay COVID-19 safe and alert during the HSBC Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals tournament to be held in Bangkok in January.

Developed by If You Can – combining the expertise of employees in their U.S., Hong Kong, Thailand and Armenian offices – the NotifyMe app will be installed on the smartphones of the more than 1,000 visitors (players and their support teams) expected to attend the first major BWF tournament in Asia since the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020.

The NotifyMe app, together with the embedded CareChek health platform which supports rapid processing of infection risk assessment, adds another layer of security in the comprehensive efforts to keep the players, and their coaches, healthy and safe said If You Can CEO and Chief Strategist, Kevin Bloom.

Explaining how NotifyMe and CareChek will enhance player safety, Mr. Bloom said — “Every day at 6AM, the players and coaches will receive a NotifyMe alert asking them to open up the symptom checklist in NotifyMe’s CareChek screen to highlight if they have any symptoms – such as fever, body aches, headaches and 13 other ailments – on the list.

Based on their daily inputs, we can compare their symptoms with the location history on their phones to see if the players have been near any possible infection zones. Our technologies combine predictive analytics, big data, location tracking, and the symptoms listed to provide a risk score – or rating – for the person in either a green, yellow and red category.”

Mr. Bloom added, “The risk score information is vitally important because it enables tournament officials to keep those in the same risk band together – staying on the same floors of the hotels, training at the same time and venue, and relaxing and eating in the same areas.”

To enhance location tracking, hundreds of  NotifyMe proximity beacons will also be installed in the tournament zone including the Impact Arena stadium and its training areas, and the two hotels housing the players and their delegations.

Mr. Bloom said the use of NotifyMe at the tournament represents another step forward in the app’s evolution and raising awareness of its unique strengths.

“As the tournament is important for both the Badminton World Federation and Thailand, and their respective plans to gradually return to business as usual, we are honored to play a part in these. We are equally thrilled to partner with Thonburi Hospital, who will oversee tournament medical arrangements, and K2 Venture Capital (K2VC), the developers of CareChek, with whom we have a strong relationship,” said Mr. Bloom. 

He added, “Based on our close working experience developing CareChek integration with K2VC, we are excited to continue the alliance. K2VC’s leadership, expertise and speed in response to Covid-19 was truly impressive and CareChek helped to protect thousands of  at-risk workers during the height of Thailand’s lockdown.”

K2CV Managing Director, Stanley Wang was equally excited about extending the partnership.  

“There were several reasons why CareChek chose to work with NotifyMe as the delivery partner for our real-time COVID-19 risk analytics, including the features to accommodate different access, data privacy, and control structures. In addition, the development team was very responsive to evolving technical requirements and solving new challenges,” said Mr. Wang. 

Commenting on NotifyMe’s versatility, Mr. Bloom said, “While NotifyMe is designed to enhance B2C messaging and communications for businesses of all sizes, it can also be deployed by schools, sports leagues, teams, and many small communities and organizations to connect their respective members and attract new ones. 

“It’s purpose-built, not messaging tacked onto a social media platform, offering more functionality and privacy. It also features an auto-translation platform supporting more than 120 languages allowing users to write, and send a message in their language, while recipients can read, or listen to it, in the default language on their phone. This feature alone makes it perfect for this tournament with players and coaches coming from nearly 40 countries.” 

Many of the world’s best shuttlers including Kento Momota of Japan and Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan are expected to compete in the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals tournament in Bangkok – which runs from January 27-31. The delayed (due to Covid-19) 2020 season-ending World Tour Finals has a total prize fund of $1.5 million.