Start-up
Reventory: A Vinted for the event industry?
Theo Reilly speaks to Albert Latorre at IBTM World about his interesting concept – a marketplace to buy second-hand equipment for the events industry, and how it could challenge the black market of event waste disposal.
t IBTM World 2025 in
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Barcelona, tucked in between a series of presentations by event start-up founders seeking investment, one pitch stood out. Here was Albert Latorre with his idea of an exchange platform for MICE professionals. The concept is simple: a marketplace where event professionals, be they organisers or exhibitors, agencies or suppliers, can sell, rent out or buy those little-used items that so often end up discarded or in warehouses. Furniture, AV equipment, coffee machines, water dispensers, mobile power stations – even Starlink satellites – any and all event-related equipment can be rented or purchased.
Albert gave me a breakdown of how Reventory works. Many event organisers, he explained, are sitting on stock of event kit they no longer use – stock that is gathering dust somewhere in a warehouse.
Reventory gives them a chance to sell or rent out that equipment to other professionals in the MICE industry – be they exhibitors at a show, organisers of their own event, or a player of any kind. Furniture hire solutions already exist, of course. But before Reventory, he says, there was no exchange platform dedicated to the MICE industry.
The black market of event waste dumping Albert then made an interesting statement – telling me about the“ black market of event waste”. He pointed to the tables and chairs around us, and said,“ Much of this will end up being disposed of by a black market. To get rid of items like furniture through normal channels is expensive.”
This illegal waste economy is a multi-billion dollar industry. Plastic packaging waste in particular is increasing, and disposing of it is getting more and more expensive. In the UK, between 2024 and 2025, landfill disposal costs increased from $ 132 to $ 160 per tonne. But there’ s a cheaper option – black market services, who dump the waste illegally underground or in secluded areas.
As we know, the events industry produces a vast amount of waste. Steps are continually being taken to mitigate that waste – to hit those prized sustainability targets that form the point of discussion of so many event seminars. For local government, this is a major issue. Rectifying the illegal dumping of waste is a costly matter. Recently, a picturesque field in Oxfordshire, England, became an illegal waste mountain when organised crime networks dumped hundreds of tonnes of waste 10 metres high. The local council has said it would
30 Issue 6 2025 www. exhibitionworld. co. uk