TextCaster Tells Its Story During White House Meeting

While President Obama traveled to Kansas City on Tuesday, a local company journeyed to the White House.

TextCaster was one of five companies chosen to give presentations on emergency communication to the White House’s chief technology officer. Laura Lombardi, TextCaster’s executive vice president of media sales, represented the company during Tuesday’s event.

“It was an honor to be invited to join other technologists and entrepreneurs focused on designing and building tools that help save lives during large-scale emergencies,” Lombardi said.

TextCaster uses text messages, email, social media and other technologies to deliver alerts about storms and other emergencies directly to users’ phones.

The service can also send out messages about evacuations, power outages and other post-disaster information. For example, when flooding ravaged northwest Missouri a few years ago, local authorities used TextCaster to warn about road closures and levee breaches.

The company’s clients include more than 300 media outlets, along with police departments, school systems, churches and other large organizations.

The invitation to the White House came via the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service. Many of the TextCaster’s alerts are based on data from the National Weather Service. The agencies previously invited TextCaster CEO Rob Sweeney to present at the prestigious Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas two years ago.

“It’s obviously an honor to even be considered,” Sweeney said. “To be considered, you have to be on their radar screen, no pun intended.”