In Case You Missed It
At BizBash, we recently published a guest column from Adam Sloyer, the CEO of event production company Sequence, who relayed five ways he predicts AI will be used by event professionals. We also spotlighted Propeller, a digital marketing platform that aims to inspire activism and help build social impact movements through experiences.
Spotlight On
The event tech world is all about AI these days, with artificial intelligence-driven tools becoming increasingly popular and trusted. One example? Last week, American Express Global Business Travel unveiled the latest findings from its survey of finance leaders about their business travel and expenses. The survey found that a whopping 89% of financial decision-makers trust AI technology to support travel and expense management, and that more than a third (34%) trust it to detect issues without any human intervention. (Check out the full report here.)
Event Technology We're Excited About This Month
To host an accessible—but still immersive—event in the metaverse
Vatom is a Web3 platform that works with brands like Deloitte, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and iHeart Media. The platform recently collaborated with Google Cloud on the brand’s first-ever “Beyondverse” event experience, hosting 22,000 people worldwide in a customized virtual space intended to incentivize team engagement and learning—while also creating opportunities for spontaneous networking as attendees could “bump into” each other across five distinct virtual spaces. One unique component? The program was designed specifically with accessibility in mind, accommodating various devices and replicating each experience in a 2D mobile environment that eliminated the challenges individuals with disabilities might face with multilevel interfaces. 
Google Cloud’s Beyondverse, a three-day virtual event, welcomed employees and partners from around the globe in a single virtual space powered by Vatom. Across five different spaces, the event featured impromptu networking sessions, holographic videos, and keynote content. Each space was equipped with collaborative features, specialized sessions, and opportunities to earn Beyond Points and digital swag. Additionally, gamification encouraged team members to interact directly with content such as social posts, surveys, and selfie videos.Photo: Courtesy of Vatom
To simplify speaker and content management
Event management platform EVA has integrated with speaker and content management platform Sessionboard to optimize clients’ speaker, session, and content management flow. Customers will now be able to gather and evaluate speaker/award submissions, collect and manage documents and data, automate and communicate with speakers via custom portals, upload and distribute session content internally and externally, and utilize an intuitive drag-and-drop agenda builder.
"Event technology should make the lives of meeting planners easier," said EVA CEO and founder Vinnu Deshetty on the decision to partner with Sessionboard. "By bridging the planning software with EVA’s engagement platform, we streamline the process to produce an event website and save our clients time and stress in the process.”
To seamlessly book event travel and experiences—all on one platform
Today, tech startup Crewfare announced the global launch of its integrated travel-booking solution. The goal? To be a one-stop-shop for booking travel and every other experience that goes into attending an event. The easy-to-use platform offers access to heavily discounted accommodations curated by Crewfare's team of experts, along with 24/7 support and access to exclusive extras like merchandise and shuttle passes. It also allows split payments to simplify group travel. And for event organizers, Crewfare offers a simplified and personalized portal to manage all staff and attendee travel. Crewfare has already partnered with more than 100 global live events slated for 2023, including Ultra Music Festival, South Beach Wine & Food Festival, and Governors Ball.
“Crewfare was born from the lack of tech-forward, easy-to-navigate options available to manage event travel,” said founder Jason van Esso. “Over the years producing large-scale events, we kept running into roadblocks when it came to travel—for attendees and internally for our team. A software that addresses this pain point didn’t exist, so we created one.”
To cut down on lines at registration
Global digital events agency MAP Digital Inc. has launched Fast Pass Badging by MetaMeetings, which offers quick and efficient event badging and schedule printing that aims to eliminate lines at check-in. The tech allows attendees to check themselves in and print a badge in seconds through a simple, QR code-based system and self-service kiosks; the service also allows guests to print their meeting schedules. “Fast Pass Badging fits seamlessly within our MetaMeetings platform and is our first stand-alone SaaS solution," notes Mary Ann Pierce, founder and CEO of MAP Digital. "It builds upon our mission to reimagine events that empower attendees to get to business faster while reducing stress for the event planners.”
To create more effective digital marketing programs
Event marketing platform RainFocus has released new data integration solutions, in collaboration with Adobe. The goal? To seamlessly connect real-time behavioral event data with Adobe tech—allowing planners to easily collect and aggregate various touchpoints to clearly visualize the attendee journey and create more personalized digital marketing programs and experiences. "Utilizing Adobe's innovative solutions and the RainFocus platform, we can deliver personalization at scale, measure impact, and drive sales and ROI simultaneously,” explained JR Sherman, CEO of RainFocus.
To simplify room-block management
Destinations International—the global trade association for CVBs and tourism boards—has teamed up with hotel booking company Groups360 on an easy-to-use, tech-forward group-housing solution. Once the product launches later this year, convention bureaus will be able to use Groups360’s existing GroupSync online marketplace to handle room-block management for large, multi-venue events. The partnership will also give DMOs the chance to add info and images to their listings in the GroupSync marketplace.
The Latest Updates, Funding, and Merger News
Arguably the month’s biggest event tech news? Private equity firm Blackstone has acquired event management software provider Cvent in a $4.6 billion deal that is expected to be complete by mid-2023. “As one of the world’s largest private equity firms, Blackstone brings deep expertise in the event and hospitality industry, and with their backing, we plan to continue to invest in our business and deliver the innovative solutions that meet our customers’ needs and power the meetings and events ecosystem," said Reggie Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Cvent, in a press release.
ExpoPlatform will be the new official event tech provider at IMEX Group’s shows in Frankfurt and Las Vegas. The online platform aims to make it easier for exhibitors and buyers to find and connect with each other leading up to the show, with options like free lead scanning, networking options, AI-enabled recommendations, personal emails and calendar integration, and more. It will also allow each attendee to have their own personal account that can be reused for future IMEX shows.
End-to-end video creation platform Screencastify has appointed a new CEO, Vishal Shah. The browser-based tool has been used by 12.4 million users to record, edit, share, assess, and video nearly 450 million videos since its founding in 2016.
