Meetings technology provider Aventri will launch a new
virtual meetings offering today. Unlike its previous third-party partnerships, this virtual
option is completely integrated into Aventri's existing platform and receives
all content, speaker information, marketing and registration details and data
as it is entered. The platform offers a toggle button to ask whether the
program owner wishes to create a virtual component as part of the overall
meeting. At that point all relevant data is piped into the virtual meeting templates
and becomes available as an integrated part of the total program offering.
Aventri Virtual Meetings Welcome Screen Source: Aventri
"We think this will be unique for several reasons,"
said Aventri chief technology officer Shane Edmonds. "If you look at the
existing partners, they are the incumbent mature technologies. They've grown
their clients' bases and are serving a market segment that is more highly
produced—they serve flagship events [that skew more toward] the exhibition and
tradeshow segment. On the other end of the spectrum, you have Zoom and Webex,
but they are not purpose-built for events. There's a whole chunk in the middle
that no one is catering to right now. We think that is the biggest piece of the
market."
Advance Signals
Aventri has been working on the technology since February. As a
supplier to the GSMA Mobile World Congress—one of the first major tradeshows to
cancel on account of the Covid-19—Aventri had an early encounter with the virus
and the devastation it could visit upon the meetings industry as a whole.
"We knew we would have to address the market,"
said Edmonds. "We had time to do some research and we found that that the
middle part of the market was underserved. In a survey of 158 clients, Edmonds was surprised to find that 28 percent had a virtual event strategy even prior
to the pandemic. "I actually thought that was a pretty high number," he said.
But when Aventri dug deeper, the majority of the strategy was Zoom and Webex.
"So we knew there was an opportunity," he said.
"We also found that having a virtual solution would
continue to be a huge piece of the market when meetings and events came back,"
he said, adding that 91 percent of survey participants said virtual would
be critical post-pandemic. "They are looking at managing risk, but also
looking at extending audience and offering more virtual sponsorship opportunities,"
Edmonds said.
The Upside of Virtual
Virtual events are already happening. Aventri has been in
beta with a handful of clients on its virtual solution and, according to Edmonds, the feedback has been positive, particularly about the easy lift for producing
a virtual component. In addition, for people who attend virtually every action
is trackable: every conversation, every download, every booth visited, every
scheduled meeting or session and all poll responses and dwell times.
"Because the platform is integrated, you can slice and
intertwine that data with the in-person data. You no longer have to look at it
side by side," said Edmonds. "It's so much more accessible than
operating in an offline world."
At the end of the day, if hybrid meetings are the future, it needs to
be easy. With many meetings teams smaller due to financial difficulties, implementing bulky
solutions—not to mention sourcing and vetting additional suppliers—may not be
possible. Aventri may be the first out of the gate with an integrated hybrid solution,
but the industry can look for others to follow.
Other Recent Updates
Aventri in recent months has made other updates to its product. Most related to Covid-19 is the ability to track venues in sourcing with available credit due to cancellations. This change provides centralized visibility into properties with available credits toward future bookings and allows sourcing planners to redeem credits before they expire.
The company also added internal notes, allowing cross-functional planning team members to collaborate and document details about a meeting or event—including their experiences with hotels, both good and bad.