Jochen Witt
Dr Gerd Weber
Jimé Essink
organiser will have to source new event service providers such as catering , construction , and staff as an additional exercise .
“ We constructed venueScout through the lens of the cumbersome task faced by event organisers and meeting planners when they have to host an event at an unfamiliar destination , launch a new exhibition , or regularly rotate company meetings and conferences ,” said Dr . Gerd Weber . “ These planners must search each venue one by one and usually the information available is in different formats or missing . venueScout allows our users to search against many criteria and view extensive information such as floorplans , room and hall dimensions , move-in capabilities , visitor and organiser reviews , appropriate service providers , and even allows organisers to submit RFPs .”
Former president and CEO of UBM Asia ( now Informa Markets in Asia ), Jimé Essink joined jwc ’ s board in June of 2020 further strengthening the group ’ s insights on large scale exhibition organisers . The trio decided it was the right time to turn this dream into a reality and setup venueScout . For the last two years , the team conducted several stakeholder interviews and workshops with venue operators , organisers , and associations to further develop and refine this concept . The team then hired and worked with renown professionals in areas of user experience , research , application development , data , and
sales and marketing towards the full launch of venueScout slated at the end of 2022 . The group has also secured partnerships with TSNN , who oversees sales operations in North America and Mexico , IFES ( International Federation of Exhibition & Event Services ) and Mash Media . venueScout has already built over 4,000 profiles of venues globally including major exhibition , conference , and congress centres , and a growing number of hotels with large meeting capacity . These venue ’ s owners are invited to participate in venueScout ’ s soft launch taking place in July of 2022 and ‘ claim their venue ’ as to further edit and add bells and whistles to their listing . During the soft launch period , these venues can also take advantage of a 50 % discount on packages and automatically be upgraded as Platinum members for one year starting from when venueScout fully launches .
TripAdvisor for the events industry “ We plan to become the TripAdvisor for the events industry ,” said Jimé Essink . “ No longer will event organisers and planners have to rely on multiple platforms and websites to get the information they need . We present the onestop-shop user experience for them to create and host their event efficiently . And with the events industry badly in need to rebound from the pandemic , venueScout ’ s debut is just in time to help venues and service providers be
re-discovered and gain more business .”
Beyond the direct benefits for event planners , organisers , venue operators , and service providers , venueScout ’ s unique platform will also provide invaluable analytics and insights for the events industry at large in the long run . No stranger to research and data , the team at jwc for years has produced widely used resources such as the Global Industry Performance Review . With the wealth of additional data collected on venueScout on topics like most searched venues , event services , and most desired venue characteristics , no doubt the jwc / venueScout team will have even more insights to share in the future .
“ What is most exciting about venueScout is the long-tail value we hope to bring to the events industry . Aside from improving the experience for event organisers and planners and helping to market venues and service providers , we believe that the feedback and testimonies from our users will ultimately help venues and service providers to improve their offering which in turn helps organisers , which in turn creates a virtuous circle for the industry overall .” concludes Essink .
Between June through August of 2022 , venues can claim or list a venue on venueScout and enjoy the soft launch discounts with automatic upgrade to Platinum status . More information on venueScout can be found on venueScout . org .
www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 4 2022 19