The popularity and versatility of online registration tools has prompted buyers and vendors to see the application as a gateway to developing more advanced data management tools. Some of this already has happened, as online reg tools have been linked to some online self-booking products as early as 2001. Yet, new development in 2004 and beyond could see further growth of that concept, as new players and tools are introduced into travel technology and other forms of meetings data management as well.
As the backbone of all attendee management technology, online registration is one of the most popular meetings tech applications ever to be introduced into the market, as even corporations that have shied away from online site sourcing, requests for proposals or data consolidation tools often have, in some way, embraced registration. "The idea of online registration is really established and ubiquitous," said Rodman Marymor, CEO of Berkeley, Calif.-based meetings technology consultancy Cardinal Communications. "People use it for everything. The industry has made it flexible, yet able to handle complex, multi-day events with multiple venues and unlimited program tracks and events."
The industry followed by developing the opportunity to link online registration with online booking for air and hotel at negotiated meeting and corporate rates, and Marymor believes this interface will present the next opportunity for development. The further melding of travel technology and meeting technology—particularly online registration—will be the next step in the future of attendee management.
"There's going to be a major convergence between the highly functional and accepted meetings industry technology and the broader online travel services, like Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and Hotels.com, within the next 12 months to 36 months," Marymor said, pointing to the alliance formed between meetings technology firm SeeUthere Technologies and Expedia Corporate Travel in November
(Meetings Today, Dec. 8, 2003). "Attendees will want to go to Expedia, for example, to get their hotel and air, then push a button to register for the meeting. The travel technologies are converging to fill the insatiable appetite for technology, and these are harbingers of things to come. The only questions are who hooks up with whom and in what forms?"
The further amalgamation between attendee management and travel technologies also should eliminate any planner concerns about attendees booking around contracted room blocks through the Internet, Marymor said.
"You're going to see more agreements like that focusing on the group space," said John Pino, CEO of Philadelphia-based meetings technology firm StarCite Inc. "There's been more activity there in the past six months." Pino long has predicted further convergence between attendee management and travel technology tools (see story, page 23).
Other firms see online registration as a gateway to other technological aspects. Certain Software, the San Francisco-based owners and operators of the Register123 attendee management system, has received requests from several of its clients in the financial services industry to change the manner in which data is housed so that it can be used for a variety of other corporate functions, said vice president and chief marketing officer Vanessa Vlay.
"We're seeing more clients move away from an ASP model to a dedicated ASP in which all data sits on their servers," Vlay said. "That's been a shift that happened in the past six months. The feature sets they are looking for get more into data management and use attendee management data beyond registration to interface with customer relationship management data and internal employee databases."
These new structures use online registration technology as the bedrock of their development. The potentially detailed information attendee management tools can gather on every attendee attracts corporate buyers and other executives more so than have other meetings technology applications, so far.
"Online registration is the primary piece that people have adapted to more than automated requests for proposals or automated site selection," Vlay said. "There are more strategic sourcing and procurement groups involved now too, and they see what this kind of information can tie into. When we talk to corporations, we're not just talking to planners. We're talking to sourcing and information technology people too."