Meetings Beat - 2003-02-10
Microsoft Buys Webconferencer PlaceWare
The Webconferencing industry was shaken up last month by news that Microsoft Corp. had agreed to purchase privately held PlaceWare Inc., the Mountain View, Calif.-based Webconference firm, for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter, after which PlaceWare will be integrated into Microsoft's information worker business. In conjunction, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft announced the creation of a new business unit, the Real Time Collaboration Group, which will encompass the company's various communication and collaboration initiatives. This unit, which will be headed by Microsoft research executive Anoop Gupta, will include PlaceWare's tools. Current PlaceWare president and CEO George Garrick will remain with the company for about a three-month transition period, then exit, according to published reports. "The acquisition complements our business and is an important step forward in our strategy to expand our information worker solutions base," said Microsoft group vice president of productivity and business solutions Jeff Raikes, to whom Gupta will report. "PlaceWare is a solid company and, with Garrick's leadership, has built a strong Webconferencing business." Though executives of industry-leader WebEx Communications of San Jose, Calif., publicly were nonplussed by the acquisition, Wall Street was less kind, as shares of WebEx and competitor Raindance Communications of Louisville, Colo., dropped sharply amid analyst downgrades.
Corps. Keep Cruising, Survey Says
A recent study conducted by a major cruise line and an independent cruise meeting management firm found about 62 percent of meeting and event planners have held a business event on a ship. The study of 165 planners—about two-thirds of them corporate—was sponsored by Carnival Cruise Lines and Landry & Kling Meetings at Sea, both based in Miami. It also found that 92 percent of respondents typically hold business meetings at resorts. About 60 percent of those surveyed said their average budget was between $500 and $2,500 per attendee, excluding air. Of that 60 percent, half indicated a budget of between $500 and $1,000 per attendee and half indicated a per-attendee budget of $1,000 to $2,500. "Because everything is included on a cruise," said Landry & Kling president and CEO Joyce Landry, "many meeting planners find that a shipboard event can actually be more affordable than traditional meeting venues.
StarCite Thinks Globally W/ Networld Move
In a move to expand its international presence, StarCite last month integrated a marketer of international meeting and event planning products and services into its operations. Networld International will operate as a subsidiary of the Philadelphia-based online meetings portal. The two companies about three years ago developed a relationship, which has included financial investment in StarCite by Parsippany, N.J.-based Networld. The move offers StarCite a broader scope of global suppliers, including hotels, destination management companies, cruise lines and airlines, for its online marketplace. "We'll be able to leverage Networld's global network of contacts to spread StarCite's technology, including our leading Web-based attendee registration and group air-booking engine, to the international buy-side community and also to dramatically increase the international supply-side participation in StarCite's marketplace," said StarCite chairman and CEO John Pino.
Certain Enhances 123 Capability
San Francisco-based Certain Software last week released an enhanced version of its Register123 online registration tool, which includes a new interface, better methods of standardizing recurring information, new survey and evaluation tools and a more direct support-request mechanism. Certain, which bought Register123 in November 2001, has been creating the new version of the application for about a year "in response to customers asking for complex customization abilities that are still easy to set up and use," said vice president and chief marketing officer Vanessa Vlay. Since the acquisition, Certain—which also sells the Meeting Planner Plus desktop meeting management software to which Register123 can interface—has signed about 15 corporate accounts to use Register123, Vlay said, including Yahoo, Extreme Networks and PetSmart.