SpiritEvent: Entrepreneurial Success in Event Technologies

Official Launch of the New SpiritEvent Robotic Cocktail Creator

On May 23, at the conference organized by C2Montréal, which brought together more than 5,000 decision makers, SpiritEvent launched its new cocktail robotic cocktail creator after months of hard work and challenges. This proved to be a true success for these entrepreneurs!

Entrepreneurs from ÉTS

The start-up, incubated at Centech, was created by five friends who met at an introductory course in Entrepreneurship during the final year of their bachelor’s degree, at the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS). As part of this course, students were required to prepare a business plan and present it to the class. This experience gave them the entrepreneurial bug. Luc Giguère, professor and serial entrepreneur responsible for the course, was impressed by their work and offered to become the team’s mentor and for them to develop their project at Centech. SpiritEvent was born.

Even before their robotic cocktail creator was built, it was already reserved for the March 2016 Rock and Dance, one of the biggest student events in Montreal, a gathering of more than 2,000 people. Starting from scratch, the five founders spent the winter in a garage making their first prototype with very little means, in order to successfully deliver the robot on time. Customers and  planners were thrilled with the product. The founders noted that the robotic cocktail creator was a genuine attraction in the VIP area and that it greatly simplified the work of the event planner. This was solid proof that the concept would attract event planners! The team then decided to continue experimenting within its market for the remainder of 2016 by participating in 13 events and distributing over 2000 cocktails.

A More Diversified Offering

Since its inception, SpiritEvent has been seeking to democratize the world of cocktails. Their cocktails are made with several ingredients, including organic fruit purees, and recipes are prepared by a renowned Montreal mixologist. The SpriritEvent robotic cocktail creator is designed to offer more diversity in drink selections. Today, cocktails with several ingredients require skilled staff and take time to prepare, which inevitably lengthens queues at the bar. It is more beneficial to serve the fast drinks (beer, wine and other) at the traditional bar and to complete the offering with a robotic cocktail creator, adding a new technological aspect to the experience. Event  planners are consulted and participate in customizing the menu with specific colours, from which the mixologist creates six cocktail recipes.

Simple and Effective Operation

To reduce queues and create excitement, two menu screens are circulated, allowing customers to choose their desired recipe while they wait. When a cocktail is ordered on the touch screen, the bottle of alcohol from which the cocktail is made is illuminated. The robotic cocktail creator is a genuine promotional showcase that appeals to event sponsors. Independent peristaltic pumps connected to solenoid valves each handle one single ingredient so that the flavours do not mix from one recipe to another. The robotic cocktail creator can serve quality cocktails in just 15 seconds!

To Be Continued…

SpiritEvent members will be very active this summer. You should be able to meet them during festivals as they intend to help as many event  planners as possible in offering quality cocktails derived from innovation and technology. Several other robotic cocktail creators are also being manufactured and the technology continues to be optimized.