Viova turns Cannonball Ireland sponsorship into trade expo showcase

Viova has confirmed it will exhibit at the 2026 Auto Trade EXPO at the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin from 10 to 11 October, following its sponsorship of Cannonball Ireland 2026, showing how a technology supplier is turning a charity event sponsorship into a live product demonstration for Irish dealership decision-makers. As part of the sponsorship, Viova ran a live event hotline across the four-day rally, which handled more than 900 calls and over 1,000 minutes of conversation, texting route tracker links and answering questions on start times, stops and viewing locations.

Viova is an AI voice platform built for automotive dealerships and garages, registered in Dublin and part of the Valsoft Group, with its technology underpinned by Google Gemini. It supports dealerships in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Germany and Ireland.

Cannonball Ireland is the country's largest supercar rally, founded by Alan Bannon, bringing more than 200 supercars across Ireland to free public stops. It has raised €2,281,871 for Irish children's charities, with Ronald McDonald House, which has supported 5,413 families since 2004, as its 2026 charity partner.

The sequence reverses the usual order of event sponsorship: Viova used the rally as a working demonstration first, running its call-handling technology on a public hotline, and is now taking the same system to a trade audience of dealership principals and service managers.

Will Desormeau, CEO of Viova, said Cannonball let the company show what the platform does rather than describe it, adding that every call the hotline answered and every message it routed to organisers mirrors the work Viova does for a dealership's phones every day.

Viova launched what it describes as the UK's first AI voice agent built for motor retail earlier this year, integrating with dealer management and customer relationship systems, according to AM Online.

Cannonball gives sponsors a high-footfall public audience well beyond the trade, with more than 250,000 spectators expected at free stops, according to Echo Live.

For the sector, the case shows how technology suppliers can use a charity event sponsorship to generate company-reported usage figures, such as calls and minutes handled, that support a trade show pitch to buyers.

Source: Autotrade.ie / AM Online / Echo Live