NOVEMBER | TECH
What’s hot?
What’s in
your stack?
All sorts of decisions need
to be made in creating a
technology stack for an
events business. Whether
a festival, sports event or
corporate activation; the
relevance of the technology
to both the organisation and
the organisations audiences
needs to be considered
when creating a stack of
technological functionality.
I recently attended Cvent
Connect Europe 2019 and
got into a conversation
with the Europeans sales
manager Jamie Vaughan
about why Cvent buys smaller
technology companies – in
effect building a bigger stack
of functionality. Cvent do
this according to specific
criteria. The cultural fit of the
companies, the way in which
the acquisition can enhance,
fill gaps and differentiate the
Cvent product offering, and
whether the new company
create new opportunities
in other verticals or new
geographic regions?
But Cvent isn’t the only
large technology company
that has been buying up
smaller companies and
complementary client bases.
GES purchased N200 and
Poken some years ago.
Aventuri, Freeman and other
large companies have done
the same. Then there are also
mergers – Live Nation and
Ticketmaster – with the later
buying Stub Hub. But the
56
Words: James Morgan, founder,
Event Tech Lab
question is whether its best to
buy, invest in or just continue
to use the services of a smaller
company as and when needed
to add into a tech stack? This
is a question large organisers
with their own platforms need
to explore.
Buying outright means
seamlessly integrating a
new function into a larger
platform. Clients may use this
functionality at some points
in time and hopefully the
purchase will show a good
ROI. Then there is incremental
investment in a company by a
larger one. The investor uses
the functions to augment
their current offering. As the
investment company pushes
marketing resource to the
smaller company we see the
profitability and thereby the
investment value increase.
Good for both parties.
But what of smaller
organisers who just want to
improve their technology
offering? Enter Blendr.io. Its
an open integration platform
for events technology. The
platform can integrate
platforms such as event
management systems, CRM,
registration or ticketing
platforms, mobile apps, and
other cloud tools. With all
these options maybe there’s
a conversation to be had by
small companies too?
Myclimate Energy Revolution
The Swiss website
helps organisers
plan climate
sustainability. The
calculator works
out carbon footprint
for events, based
on various topics.
The tick box and
checklist approach
translates the data
into advice on
how to reduce and
offset emissions
myclimate.org This UK festival
industry
environmental think
tank allows artists,
contractors, crew
and attendees
travelling to a
festival to calculate
their emissions.
The website then
suggests a donation.
energy-revolution.
org.uk/travel-
carbon-calculator/
Grub Stub
Food being sent to landfill creates carbon
emotions. Grub Stub helps event managers
and caterers take control of food service and
waste, thereby reducing costs. The system
helps to manage food costs, portion control
and effectively cuts down food wastage.
https://grubstub.co.uk/