OnVantage Secures $18M In New FinancingMeetings management technology provider OnVantage Inc. on Jan. 17 announced it has secured $18 million venture financing, co-led by Norwest Venture Partners and Texas Pacific Group Ventures. John Chang, CEO of the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, said he had expected to raise $3 million to $5 million through the offer. "It turned into something much bigger," Chang said. "Our plan is to take some of the money and accelerate our sales and marketing and continue product development." The funds also will be used to further the company's transition from a matchmaker to a transaction processor, he said. "We're leveraging the assets we have and building new capabilities." Chang said the company nearly doubled its volume of transactions in 2005. "There's going to be significant investment in our technology to support all the new customers that we've brought on board." OnVantage continues to eye an initial public offering, with a listing "a very real possibility" within three years, Chang said. "It depends on the technology market." Jim Lussier, venture partner at NVP, and Bill McGlashan, managing director at Texas Pacific Group Ventures, joined the OnVantage board of directors. OnVantage was formed in September 2004 through a merger of former meetings technology rivals PlanSoft and SeeUthere Technologies. Chang said 2005 was a transition year for the company, and this year customers can expect new developments and products. "There's always going to be rough spots as you try to merge two organizations, because it's like bringing together two extended families. We did the merger in 2004, so 2005 was our painful year of bringing together the two companies—2006 is when you're going to see the fruits of that labor really start to shine," he said.
CIC Bids Management ContractThe Convention Industry Council last month announced its executive committee has voted to distribute a request for proposals for the future shared management and staffing of the organization. The RFP process will be open to any qualified bidder, including the current management company, McLean, Va.-based Association Management Group. A volunteer taskforce of CIC board members made the RFP recommendation following a year-long evaluation of the association's management processes, practices, roles and responsibilities. "The CIC board believes periodic evaluation of management options is healthy, advisable and in the best interests of CIC," said CIC chair Thomas Mobley, general manager and CEO of Washington Convention Center, in an association release. The board also praised AMG and Mary Power, president and CEO of the association
(see story), for their "leadership and professionalism." Power and AMG have continued their roles under interim contracts during the RFP process, according to the release. The CIC board hopes to have a new management contract in place by May.
GetThere Adds To DirectMeetingsSabre's GetThere in early February plans to release enhancements to its DirectMeetings tool, according to company executives. Jeremy Stubbs, product manager for GetThere Meeting Technologies, said customers can expect three main developments to the tool: a new database architecture that provides integration with GetThere's DirectCorporate tool, enhanced reporting technology that allows meeting planners to further filter DirectMeetings reports by date and time and the ability to register on behalf of an invitee. "The biggest piece of the puzzle that is coming out is this user database architecture. Today, there's a user database for DirectMeetings and there's one for DirectCorporate and what we're going to be offering, which is an industry first, is a single user database for both tools," Stubbs said. Change reports allow users to separate and search for recent changes to a rooming or reservation list, he said. For example, users would be able to send a vendor an electronic list of new attendee additions without printing the entire rooming list and highlighting the changes, Stubbs said. Another enhancement allows an administrator to register on behalf of an invitee. Previously, administrators were prevented from changing an attendee's reservation due to privacy issues. GetThere ceased selling DirectMeetings as a separate product in 2004
(Meetings Today, Aug. 2, 2004) and included it into its DirectCorporate tool for transient travel.
~Corrie Dosh