Interview with Eved, the Market Leader in Event Commerce for Event Planning Companies

At Plan An Event one of our main goals is to provide you, the reader, with technology updates for the meetings and events industry. As part of that goal we keep on top of top event planning companies to see what new and improved technologies are being introduced to our industry.

So for this post a company called Eved caught our eye. Eved is an Event Commerce company that automates the buying and selling for meetings and events, allowing the entire industries supply chain to interact and transact online.

We reached out to Regan Gleason, Marketing Coordinator at Eved and asked her a few questions on how Eved’s marketplace benefits meeting professionals.

(Plan An Event) How can Eved be a service to event planners?

(Regan Gleason) Simply put – Eved’s technology allows event planners to spend more time on value-add functions and less time on operational functions.  Eved is an Event Commerce company that automates the buying and selling for meetings and events, allowing the entire industry’s supply chain to interact and transact online.  In an industry that is all about the personal touch and continually raising the bar, meeting and event professionals are increasingly challenged to manage costs and still deliver extraordinary experiences.  With time eating ‘back-office’ tasks of sourcing and managing suppliers, it is hard to focus on marketing your company, and find new and innovative ways to stand out from your competition. Eved handles building tariffs, proposals, invoices, interaction with clients on proposals and contracts and getting paid on time. Time is saved with Eved so you can focus on what matters most in this highly personal industry – your clients.

In addition to our commerce product (explained above,) Eved has two products that are great for meeting planners.

DealBoard is a new free sourcing tool that allows meeting planners to find deals on hotel group meeting space and set specific alerts for value-add packages, discounted meeting space and sleeping rooms.  Meeting planners can search through the current hotel listings across the country. For planners who have a meeting or event coming up, alerts can be set for each event and will be notified when a deal meets the criteria.  The alert criteria allows you to set destinations, dates and number of guests to conveniently receive an email notification when a deal is posted that matches your criteria.

Galleries One stop shopping for your event needs! Eved’s Gallery Marketplace provides planners for smaller meetings and events with an easy-to-use online solution that increases their efficiency and reduces their costs.  Meeting planners and individual consumers leverage the buying power of their local destination service providers and shop online with one resource instead of calling multiple suppliers for their small meeting and event needs. Galleries are location specific and the offerings in each Gallery vary but you can find everything from floral, linen, staffing, transportation, activities and entertainment.

(PAE) What should planners know about Eved that can save time and enhance the experience?

(RG) In Eved’s more recent product release on August 9, all members in Eved, whether basic or premium, can build a private network which is a directory of all their suppliers.  A basic buyer in Eved can invite all of their meeting and event professional to join their private network on Eved for free. Getting contacts out of Outlook makes it easy to sort through and source suppliers based on their location and offerings. Additionally, suppliers manage their own profile so information is always up to date.

(PAE) Are there any standout or popular trends you’ve been seeing at events?

(RG) Meeting planners and event companies are beginning to embrace technology and implement it into day to day business. There are hundreds of new tech event companies launching mobile apps to help manage events.

(PAE) What is the problem that your technology seeks to solve?

(RG) The event industry is self admittedly 15 years behind regarding technology adoption than most industries that have already figured out how to harness technology to create efficiencies, growth opportunities, and cost savings.

Specifically, the industry lacked a business model that efficiently connected the entire supply chain.  The meeting and event industry had never incorporated commerce technology into its business practices. The lack of technology in the industry enabled an environment of inefficient back office practices, one-time sales and dead end relationships. Client acquisition costs were high, suppliers had limited to no access to multiple vendors and insurance compliance was a constant hovering issue. The long selling process, inefficient transacting and poor communication leading to unmanageable quality expectations only add to the list of issues in the industry. The intensity of the problems above lays in the fact that all the inefficiencies currently require countless manual labor hours to tackle. Time is what you sell in the event industry, it  is the most expensive aspect of planning and executing any event and running a business. Without the incorporation of technology into the industry and the increasing cost of labor, businesses in the event industry are pinching their profit margins.

(PAE) What does your tool help a meeting and event planner do better?

(RG) Cut costs, not the experience. In a business that is all about the personal touch and continually raising the bar, meeting and event professionals are increasingly challenged to cut costs and still deliver extraordinary experiences. The technology Eved provides greatly reduces the manual labor hours required by incorporating efficient business practices, developing low cost buy-seller relationships, and online transacting directly from one bank account to another completely eliminates the current timely practices of faxing, mailing, and bank visits.

(PAE) What would you say is the single, best feature of your product?

(RG) Eved’s products, DealBoard and Galleries allow you to quickly and easily plan your events at any hour of the day. You are no longer limited to planning between the hours of 9-5!

For more information on Eved, and its product offerings, please visit their website.

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