Anthony Miller is the chief marketing officer at Lanyon, a company which focuses on automating events, and says that his company believes that business is better when people get together.
And he’s right. A recent report which was sponsored by the U.S Travel Association and Destination and Travel Foundation found that companies realise $1.50 in revenue for every dollar they invest in business travel. In fact both business travellers and Executives estimated that almost 28% of existing business would disappear without in-person meetings, and 40% of prospects become new customers after in-person meetings, compared to 16% without such a meeting.
Some people tend to believe that trade shows and conferences are becoming outdated in a time of such new technology, where prospects can learn about a company on their website or learn through different webinars. However Millar disagrees, and says that virtual technology still isn’t as effective as being face to face. Business gets done when people are together, he maintains.
Lanyon currently counts 80% of Fortune 100 corporations as its customers, and after merging with StarCite, GenieConnect and Passkey, the result is a software company which is focused on providing technological solutions for managing corporate events, meetings, and travel programs.
The company doesn’t actually make the bookings, and instead it provides software which helps hotels and venues interact with companies and organisations.
David Bonnette is the CEO of the company, and says that the economics of these meetings are huge, with a $40 billion company spending $2-$3 billion on meetings, travel and events. And yet this is the last huge sector which has yet to be automated with software-ironic considering some of the biggest events are held by software companies.
“Corporations want to automate their experience in hotels, and hotels want to automate their interactions with corporations” he says, “Lots of dollars are leaked simply because the process isn’t automated.”
The software is especially helpful for events, and can help register people manage the content, agenda, and speakers, and monitor whether attendees go to the sessions they pick, while keeping them out of sessions they don’t register for. The software also allows speakers to receive feedback and then adjust their presentations for second or third rounds.
This software also replaces the constant barrage of Excel spreadsheets which end up constantly traveling between event planners and hotels, along with Outlook for invitations, and of course the huge amounts of paper at the event itself. Now event planners can walk around and have all of the information at their fingertips on a tablet.
It can also help companies to track results and manage their budgets, while seeing the ROI on roundtables, trade shows, and individual meetings.
This is excellent news for businesses, which can now step back and leave almost all of the planning to technology and professionals. With travel agents booking the actual process of getting from point A to point B, and software automating the events, businesses can focus on making the most of the opportunity to interact with colleagues and clients.
