Perk has launched a new automated event planning tool, which the company says can reduce manual work in sourcing, booking and coordinating meetings of up to 5,000 people.
Perk Events' features include AI-powered venue matching, upfront pricing and customizable attendee event pages through which administrators can manage RSVPs, view reporting and keep up with such details as attendees' dietary restrictions. Workflows for the events are consolidated into a single platform, according to Perk.
The platform was designed "to remove the hidden tasks and complexity behind every team event," Perk president and COO Jean-Christophe Taunay-Bucalo said in a statement. "By taking the work out of in-person moments, we're giving teams the space to focus on what truly matters: building relationships, driving collaboration and doing real work."
Automated technology for event management has been a growing area of focus for the industry, with the winners of both Business Travel Show America's and Phocuswright's technology faceoffs last year—Nowadays and BoomPop, respectively—tackling that task. Perk's own research, a survey of 721 decision-makers and 8,004 company employees conducted by Forrester Consulting in September, showed that 57 percent of companies either do not automate event management at all or do so minimally, the company said.
The Perk Events tool was developed by the company's Real Work Incubator program that the company founded last year. The program enables employees to pitch and develop products aimed to reduce "shadow work," work outside of an employee's core tasks.
Reducing shadow work was Perk's announced goal when it rebranded from TravelPerk in recent months.