My question to anyone and everyone….

we are an internet startup and planning for a portal for online venue booking in india. what is your view on this… can this model working in US and UK work in india, where venue owner give you commission for getting a booking.

Thanks
Kiran

This is the good source of information. The traditional RFP process doesnít uncover true execution capabilities which are the heart of the event world. EM suggests starting with a Request for Information to get a sense of capabilities among a list of shops. Then whittle the list down to the viable candidates and move on to the actual RFP

Appreciate your attention to this area. It is getting more cluttered(which is a good and tough thing) with those looking at different ways to approach the challenge of making it easier to find venues for meeting and events. We’re focused on the venue realm, rather than taking a leap into figuring out models for each supplier type.

At core, our goal is to connect sellers (venues) with buyers (planners) interested in booking them – increasing utilization across the industry. Our technology provides venues the ability to do sell and planners the ability to inquire or book. It’s marketplace-oriented as we certainly can not represent the venue, or its management, to a customer(planner).

With feedback, we modify the interface regularly, but know there’s still a way to go.

We do get very good feedback from PCMA, ISES and CVB’s. But, the DMC side is not fully looped in, and would love to figure out a way to better support this arena in a transactional vs. advertising strategy.

Would be great to catch up with you to share lessons learned.

I suppose I should have mentioned that of all the ones I found, Meetingsbooker seems to be the most comprehensive and usable of the bunch. I’d love to learn more from you what your take is on the competitive landscape.

What I found the most shocking was that there are quite a few recent startup entrants into the space that don’t seem to be offering anything really new or noteworthy. “What are they thinking” is my first thought.

Thanks for the mention, yes I suppose there is a reasonable amount of competition in our space but it is a huge global market as well. Plus a lot of the companies you mention have very different revenue models.

The DMC side is neglected though thats for sure. I think its just because the focus is more on the actual meeting rather than the extra logistics and offsite needs.

Good luck with your new tool, look forward to seeing it live soon

Rgds

Ciaran
http://www.meetingsbooker.com