Bibiana McHugh is TriMet’s IT Manager of Geographic Information Systems and Location-Based Services.

Last Thursday, I was privileged to announce the grand-prize winner and runner-up of the Tour PDX App Contest at Ignite SAO at the Alberta Rose Theater in NE Portland.

TriMet, the City of Portland and Travel Portland sponsored the contest to solicit applications for the web and mobile devices that make it easy for visitors to get to the many great attractions the Portland metro area offers, using TriMet’s open data and City of Portland’s open data. We were looking for apps that would keep visitors talking about how easy it is to get around here—an app that would keep them coming back to the Portland metro area again and again.

Grand prize winner: Transit Board Hotel

We awarded the grand prize to Chris Smith and Matt Conway of Portland Transport for their submission, Transit Board Hotel, an application for the Transit Appliance platform. It is designed to be displayed on large-screen TVs in hotel lobbies, airport terminals and other locations where travelers may be. It provides suggestions for destinations in Portland (complete with pictures) and tells travelers how to get to each destination using TriMet. The entire experience can be transferred to a user’s smartphone by way of a companion mobile app.

Runner-up: SeatMate

Edwin Knuth, a web developer specializing in scientific and geographic applications, submitted the runner-up. His application, SeatMate, is a mobile web app that allows transit riders to interact with other passengers on their bus or MAX through a real-time chat.

In a few weeks, we’ll be unveiling links to the applications and adding them to the TriMet App Center. In the meanwhile, congratulations again to our winners!

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Update April 16, 2012: Transit Board Hotel and SeatMate are now available in the TriMet App Center.