New venue scout launches on the block
Paul Colston talks to venueScout ’ s chief operating officer Sebastian Witt
ebastian Witt serves
S as venueScout ’ s chief operating officer but is no newcomer to the events industry or tech development . With a pedigree of events industry know-how running through his veins , Sebastian also serves as senior consultant for jwc GmbH , the global management consultancy firm for trade fair and conference business . When the jwc board asked Sebastian to take on the role of COO of its new initiative , venueScout , and shepherd this concept into reality , he jumped at the chance to utilise his years of experience in sales and project management and IT strategy from the insurance industry and apply to venueScout . We asked him to tell us more about the origins and future prospects of the project .
SW : venueScout plans to be the definitive platform connecting exhibitions and event venues , service providers , and meeting planners and organisers . We want to improve the events industry overall by bringing about more transparency , knowledge , and business opportunities . At its core , venueScout is a global search and evaluation platform where users ( organisers , meeting planners , exhibitors etc .) can search across multiple criteria for an event venue and service provider across the world . On the flip side , our platform is designed in such a way that allows venues and service providers to truly showcase in detail all their capabilities and the kind of information that organisers and meeting planners are looking for . The idea for venueScout actually began many years ago as jwc ’ s body of work spanning venues , organisers , and government bodies gave us insights between all of these groups on how they could serve each other and benefit the community better .
Where is venueScout currently in its launch timeline ? We just soft launched venueScout in the past month , inviting venue operators to claim their venues . We ’ ve had very good reception from the community regarding venueScout ’ s unique value proposition – especially through our educational and promotional work with various partners and associations like IFES , TSNN , and UFI .
Much of our insights comes from our team of about 17 sales and marketing professionals across the world who are out in the field acting as educators and a concierge service to venue operators and service providers to join our platform to which we ’ ve already gained subscribers in North America , Europe and Asia .
Above : Sebastian Witt
You have set yourselves quite a task , with the number of venues out there . What kind of technology are you using to help you and how are you processing / streamlining the data coming back ? Our biggest investment is technology actually . Based up on our initial stakeholder research comprising of over 40 interviews with industry professionals , we had a good understanding of what was needed in terms of features and then created the IT development road map to get us there . venueScout utilises a host of cutting-edge technology and tools in our development , ranging from being designed in REACT with true responsive design for desktop , table , 6 .
What are your short-term and long-term aims for the project and where do you think venueScout will be in , say , six months time in terms of venues listed ? Our short-term aim is to get as many venue operators and service providers on board as possible , as their contribution adds to the quality of the platform , thus creating more value for users . Our long-term goal is to attain a critical mass of a continuous flow of visitors and quality content being updated onto the platform . By achieving this we can deliver on our value proposition , which is to help meeting planners and organisers in their search for the locations and services they need to host great events ; provide venues and service providers with a better channel to advertise and gain more business ; and provide a platform for all industry stakeholders to share ideas and opinions . Well , in six months ’ time , I hope to be back here discussing with Exhibition World future insights and wins . EW
www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 5 2022 47