Attendee Mgmt. Cos. Grabbing More Corp. Customers

<B>Attendee Mgmt. Cos. Grabbing More Corp. Customers</B>

By Chris Davis

Though several Internet companies proffering meeting management solutions have struggled to find a wide audience, one segment of that industry seems to be gaining corporate clients: attendee management solutions, which automate the entire process of hosting client-driven or internal events.

These products are proving popular particularly for sales or marketing events in which outside clients and customers are invited. Attendee management solutions allow the meeting sponsor to automate all invitations, and replies to these events, log registration, manage housing, and consolidate and analyze post-event registration and attendee surveying data.

"It's a very different environment than it was six months ago," said Chuck Ghoorah, senior vice president of Arlington, Va.-based attendee management Web site Cvent.com. "Corporations have online registration on the brain. They're asking lots of questions and doing research on the various options. The concept has moved into the mainstream."

Cvent, which offers event marketing and attendee data analysis with online registration, has captured several corporate customers in its nine months of existence, which Ghoorah attributes to economics and effectiveness of the tool.

"It can cost $5 to $10 per head for a printed invitation and mailing costs, but with e-marketing there's no additional cost and organizations have reported response rates of between 20 percent and 95 percent," Ghoorah said. "Afterward, you can use our tools to slice, dice and analyze attendee data, which becomes a business intelligence report that helps you realize what attendees think or want. Corporations spend hundreds of thousands to marketing consultants to find that out."

Cvent employs a pricing strategy, common in this segment of the industry, based on an annual license fee: between $5,000 and $50,000, depending on the number of events--not transactions--a corporation commits to in a 12-month period. Exceed your annual projection, and Cvent charges $3 to $5 per transaction.

Karin Ruhkala, midatlantic marketing manager for the Reston, Va.-offices of Imperial Bank, decided on Cvent as a solution to not only organize the process of submitting bank event invitations to customers and investors, but also to increase the response rate.

"With this, you know an assistant or secretary to the attendee won't put it on the bottom of the pile," Ruhkala said. "If I send invitations by mail, there can be two full weeks to even react if there's an address wrong, much less receive a reply. Now, I invited 600 people two days ago to an event and I've already received 190 responses. The money's better spent and we look good." Ruhkala needs Cvent for only a handful of large events per year, but Imperial Bank bought a 25-event package to spread across offices throughout the country.

Cvent competitor SeeUthere.com of Santa Clara, Calif., prices somewhat differently and negotiates on the basis of committed volume-based subscription fees. Officials said a popular package includes 20 events for a $12,000 subscription fee, with a $3 charge per attendee transaction. "We provide the technology to allow all centers of planning in a company to roll out data to a higher level," said SeeUthere vice president of marketing Helen Loh. "It allows for easier methods of post-event surveys, which when rolled up and tracked can be used as behavior analysis. You can determine the attendee type by department or title and ascertain their preferences and requests without digging around."

Loh said SeeUthere's client base is predominantly corporate, with most interested in event marketing and driving attendance. Some planners, though, have approached the company about soft approaches to companywide data consolidation. "It allows you to accumulate information and data without sacrificing internal sponsors' independence," Loh said.

Dan Klimke, marketing operations manager for Everett, Wash.-based network hardware and solution provider Fluke Networks, turned to SeeUthere after the frequency of his sales and marketing events to existing and potential customers increased dramatically. Going from two to four per month to 45 per month rendered the company's third-party registration management provider too expensive. "We had a branded Web site for registration and we wanted to keep that functionality for a cheaper rate," Klimke said. "This does so, and it lets us build custom surveys to address exactly what we want to know. We haven't even touched much of their functionality, in terms of onsite event multitasking, but it's still been worthwhile."

Also gaining attendee management clients is Event411 of Marina Del Rey, Calif., which has developed Web-based software that allows clients to centralize all meeting management, registration and housing functions online. Event411 sees itself branching into other arenas, including wireless meeting applications and integrated meeting and travel policy management. "Our vision is for our solution to be a tool for corporations to blend their meeting management, travel management and business policies," said executive vice president of sales, marketing and client services Sam Rand. "Through the centralization of that activity, significant cost savings could be realized."

Philip Morris Management Corp. recently selected Event411's PremierPlanner application to manage housing and registration applications for about 500 events, said manager of meeting and hotel programs John Lowry. "We were looking for a seamless attendee experience, and PremierPlanner provides that--gathering the information we want and connecting to hotels," Lowry said. "This makes the job easier, because you no longer have to cross-check rooming lists."

Despite the moves these companies have made in attracting clients, the Internet can be a dangerous place for meeting industry companies (Meetings Today, Jan. 29). But executives brushed aside notions that the number of suppliers exceeds demand. "There's a compelling market here," Ghoorah said, "and our investors have indicated they will re-up again, which will take us to cash-flow positive.