Meetings sourcing technology provider MPbid last month formed a partnership with New York-based event registration, payment processing and information management firm ERSVP to offer combined attendee management products and services for the meetings industry.
MPbid will seek multiple such partnerships with registration technology providers during the next three months, according to the company's founder and president.
James Etkin, president of Pembroke Park, Fla.-based MPbid, said under the agreement, each firm will coordinate marketing and operations to offer combined meetings consolidation and attendee management solutions from the offerings of both firms. MPbid has a similar arrangement with Atlanta-based SignUp4, announced in June.
"We've never built a registration piece. The modules and software that are out there are pretty comprehensive," Etkin said. "Certain organizations, corporate or otherwise, either have their homegrown registration application or outsource to a Web-based registration company like SignUp4 or ERSVP. What we're saying is, let's tie that all in to make it one environment."
Etkin said said the partnerships put MPbid in competition with heavyweight meetings technology providers StarCite Inc., based in Philadelphia, and Santa Clara, Calif.-based OnVantage Inc.
"There are not that many other players out there. We're all doing the same thing. If you divide it up into three modules and take out the service and consulting element, we're all doing the collection of the data," he said.
Etkin hopes to gain new customers that want to integrate their registration tools with technology to consolidate data and source corporate meetings.
"We're flexible. We'll plug in any of the registration companies that works best for the organization," he said.
Pricing for the technology products remains the same for both MPbid and ERSVP, Etkin said. The partnerships are an option for customers that wish to add to their meetings technology systems.
"It allows an organization to be as flexible as they want. We're playing with the possibility of an organization being able to use different registration tools depending on the types of meetings they have," he said.
MPbid "truly leverages the power of information technology to solve practical problems faced by meeting professionals every day—to create direct, positive impact on return on investment," said Ajay Arora, ERSVP co-founder and CEO.