Join us at PCMA Convening Leaders for Behind-the-Scenes Event Technology Tours

We’re looking forward to PCMA Convening Leaders, which is just 3 weeks away in Orlando, FL. As an event management technology provider to PCMA, we are leading tours on how PCMA is using technology at the convention. We will provide an exclusive look at our technology in action from how attendees can check into the conference from the convenience of their hotel to the mobile event app, social media integration, surveys and more at the conference.

Sign up for one of our 7 tours before all spaces are reserved:

• Monday, January 14: 7:30 am, 9:45 am, 3:00 pm
• Tuesday, January 15: 7:30 am, 9:30 am, 10:30 am, 2:45 pm

And for participating on the tour or visiting our kiosk in the Learning Lounge Partner area, receive a free copy of our new study – Event Trends: 2008-2012. The study looks at eRFP patterns in five key U.S. meeting destinations to help meeting planners and suppliers make smart decisions in 2013.

Unable to make a tour? Leave us a comment and we’re more than happy to meeting one-on-one or answer any questions you have.

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

PCMA Gets Smart. And What Other Associations Can Learn From It.

When Jason Paganessi, VP of Business Innovation at the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) talks association technology, he speaks with the unguarded enthusiasm of a child talking toys. Yet his technology strategy is serious business.

Today, he and PCMA announced ACTIVE Network as their exclusive event management technology partner to power most of PCMA’s global events—from annual conferences such as Convening Leaders to worldwide chapter events.

“We sat back and said, ‘we really need to know more about our members’…And that’s the situation a lot of associations are in right now.” – Jason Paganessi

Without good technology, many associations have bad data. Data is often scattered across several systems or, even worse, buried in excel spreadsheets. So, associations rarely have a persistent view of a member’s behavior – or even that person’s most basic information. Read the rest of this entry »

Written By: Eric Olson

Success Story: IBM Transforms Meeting and Event Strategy to Drive Client Savings and Supplier Visibility

If you enjoyed Eric Olson’s post on the The next big thing in SMMP: The unlikely marriage of  event marketers and procurement, you may be interested to learn about IBM’s Success with its Strategic Meetings Management Program (SMMP), through which it successfully streamlined its global meeting and event sourcing process and tackled meeting spend head on.

The Challenge

IBM is a big spender on meetings globally but recognized the need for a better way to manage those meetings and control spend.

To do this, IBM decided to focus on its smaller meetings (less than 150 delegates) initially, and roll out a global meetings and event sourcing process. The project was led by Paul Wakelin, Strategic Sourcing Specialist at IBM who set out seven key objectives for the project and has exceeded expectations with the results.

The Solution

As a first step Wakelin set about sourcing the right technology partner to bring the project into fruition, and after exploring several options signed with Active Network | StarCite. With Wakelin’s objectives clearly laid out, StarCite was able to develop a customized meeting request portal to meet IBM’s specific requirements. This included an easy to use single sign on system, for which over 200 IBM staff received training.

Success

Speaking of the success of the SMMP, Wakelin comments

“We now have greater compliance that drives client savings, supplier visibility and opportunities, we’ve improved data collection and been able to define a global process and reporting mechanisms,”

The results have been so impressive that the company has been slowly rolling out the new system around the world and, in mid-2008, the IBM and StarCite teams launched full global deployment of the system.

“It transformed IBM’s strategy and approach to meetings and events, it provided a centralised framework to manage the meetings and events (M&E) process, captured key data for analysis into the company’s M&E spend, enhanced visibility of that M&E spend, offering opportunities to drive and develop key supplier relationships, and delivered process efficiencies and cost savings through IBM agreements.” - Paul Wakelin,Strategic Sourcing Specialist at IBM

Wakelin lists the following points as the key rewards of strategic meetings management technology:

• Standardised, automated processes to identify and source requests globally

• Visibility into company-wide request activity – when, where, what, who and how much

• Capability to leverage meeting volumes and associated spend to a preferred consolidated supply base

• Capability to highlight preferred suppliers for improved utilization

• Consistent RFP formats and reports on spend and savings

• Convenient access to thousands of suppliers globally

• A solution familiar to and welcomed by suppliers globally

• Improved efficiency and productivity for clients and for procurement

For more on how IBM controls meetings spend click here to access the full article and success story as featured in The Business Travel Magazine

Written By: Irene Coghlan

Association Congress 2011

We’re happy to announce that we will be exhibiting at Association Congress 2011 in London (July 18 – 19), Europe’s largest association conference. The event will be held at the Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Islington – London N1 0QH.

Here is where you can find us:

• Technology Seminar presented by Banks Holcombe, Head of Sales EMEA at Active Network, Events on Tuesday at 9:15am.
• Exhibit Floor, Booth #45 – Schedule an Event Technology Demo with us or stop by to have a chat with a member of the Active team. Click here to request a technology demo.

Hope to see you in London!

Filippo Ciampini
Marketing Specialist
Active Network | Events

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

See Real Life Event Marketing Strategies & Technologies in Action

We’re happy to announce that we will be exhibiting at the 2011 Event Marketing Summit in Chicago (May 16 – 18), one of the world’s leading experiential marketing conferences.

Here is where you can find us – and if you haven’t signed up yet, register today as our VIP Guest with the code “AseVIP”:

• Technology & Events Workshop presented by Anthony Miller, Strategic Director, Active Network, Events: Monday, May 16th at 8:30 am
• Event Technology Roundtable – Wednesday, May 18 at 8:00 am – Open Discussion
• Exhibit Floor, Booth #415 – Schedule an Event Technology Audit with us, and stop by to enter to win a Microsoft Kinect in person! Click here to request a technology audit.

Hope to see you in Chicago!

Lindsay Nayer
Enterprise Marketing Manager
Active Network | Events

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

Active Network is Added to the General Services Administration Schedule

Today, Active Network announced that its ActiveEvents RegOnline product has been added to the General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule. Under the GSA Schedules program, GSA establishes long-term government-wide contracts with commercial firms. Offered through Active Network’s Events division, RegOnline is now one of the 11 million commercial products and services that has been contractually approved by the federal government and can be accessed at volume discount pricing.

The U.S. government is the largest consumer in the world, spending more than $600 billion each fiscal year on contracts. The contracts under the GSA Schedule help alleviate the complications that vendors and customers face when navigating the rules and regulations of the government market. The GSA Schedule offers fast, flexible, cost-effective procurement solutions that significantly reduce the time and oversight of the acquisition process for both the contractor and the federal customer.

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

Active Network Adds One-Touch Social Media Integration to Make Global Event Promotion Easier

The Active Network announces the addition of a social media integration module to its ActiveEvents RegOnline product that makes global event promotion easier for event planners. Clients can now use RegOnline to promote an event on social media sites like Facebook, Eventful, Upcoming and Google. Event planners can then link social media users back to RegOnline to see their event’s official website and access online registration.

Active Network products assist event planners in promoting and running events in their communities and around the world. Active Network provides organizers with software solutions to register participants online and create custom websites for events and conferences of all sizes and types. One-touch social media integration broadens Active Network’s offerings even further and subsequently reduces the workload for event planners while offering an affordable way to increase participation.

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

Active Network Announces Release of ActiveEvents Conference 6.2

Today, Active Network announced the release of ActiveEvents Conference 6.2, which features innovative new tools that help grow event communities. Available through Active Network’s Events division, the latest version of ActiveEvents Conference offers organizers the ability to better connect with participants and exhibitors through new features such as:

• iPad™ Onsite Tools for Administrators: Event organizers can now easily view event statistics and onsite activity from an iPad. The tool includes reporting and search capability for key accounts, exhibitors, sessions, attendees, surveys, and registration. Plus in addition to viewing reports, organizers can use “Concierge Check In” on the iPad to check in and print badges for registered attendees who have paid for the event.
• New Updates to ActiveEvents Connect™: A new “Shop Window” page lets exhibitors display contact information, logos, videos, product information, related sessions, and interested attendees. A three-dimensional, detailed profile facilitates attendee and exhibitor connections.
• Price Point Management & Reporting: With improved, centralized price point management, all prices, discounts, and fees for registration packages are managed from one place—a new central Package Pricing page. Plus a Price Point Revenue report makes it easy to see how many attendees or exhibitors have purchased packages at a certain price point or for a certain category. The report also shows projected revenue, compared to actual revenue, for each price point, so your budget stays on track.

To learn more about ActiveEvents Conference 6.2, visit www.ActiveEvents.com. Or download the Conference 6.2 Release Guide.

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

Active Network Launches Integrated Physical and Virtual Event Platform

November 16, 2010 – The Active Network has launched a fully-integrated virtual event platform that brings together two industry-leading technology solutions, Active Network Inc., event technology with millions of registered users, and INXPO, a leading virtual platform that has delivered over 2 million virtual registered users. This powerful combination of physical and virtual event technology will be available in the Active Network Inc.’s ActiveEvents product suite, combining their ‘total data integration’ platform with a virtual platform to provide a one-stop event portfolio solution for enterprise events and show management.

The seamless integration is the first instance of an event technology provider integrating with a virtual platform, and offers event organizers an additional revenue stream, and event attendees a more compelling event experience. With this new integration, event organizers can extend the reach of their physical events to reach virtual audiences online, easily build online communities, and obtain a more complete view of audience activity and results across their physical and virtual event programs.

The  Active Network Inc.’s ActiveEvents product suite integrates online registration, audience acquisition and event and attendee management into a total data integration solution for hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of events around the globe. ActiveEvents is the world’s most comprehensive event technology solution, enabling communities, organizations and enterprises to get a more complete understanding of all its member and constituent data, event activities, attendee behavior and business results in a single view. For more information about the ActiveEvents product suite, please visit www.ActiveEvents.com.

Media Contact:

Jake Gonzales, The Active Network, Inc.
jake.gonzales@activenetwork.com or 858-652-6133

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

George P. Johnson and the Active Network, Inc., Form Event Technology Alliance

Deal provides event marketers end-to-end technology, consulting and software

Auburn Hills, MI and San Diego, CA (October 7, 2010) – The number one ranked event marketing agency, George P. Johnson (GPJ) and a world leading provider of integrated event management software,  The Active Network, Inc. (Active Network), today announced a groundbreaking strategic agreement which integrates GPJ’s award-winning experience marketing services with cutting-edge engagement marketing software offered by Active Network’s™ ActiveEvents platform.

As part of the strategic marketing agreement, GPJ sold its customer-facing event registration, content, housing and related technology assets, including its MobilePromote product to Active Network. Also as part of the deal, GPJ will use Active Network’s ActiveEvents technology platform and Active Network will use GPJ’s experience marketing services as each other’s first choice solution for clients.

“Event marketers need to eliminate multiple technology systems, reduce complexity, drive down costs and improve the brand experience online, on devices and in their physical events,” said Jeffrey Rutchik, Senior Vice President, Client Services Worldwide, General Manager. “This alliance with Active Network allows event marketing leaders to elevate both their individual event programs and entire event portfolios by placing them on this proven platform of integrated marketing services and software that can drive better results and ROI.”

The new comprehensive platform of experience marketing services and software touches on the entire event and relationship life cycle, including strategic planning and portfolio analysis, lead management, measurement, event registration, audience, sponsorship, content and event management, and mobile device communications.

“The financial and operational benefits of working through one technology platform across the entire event life cycle makes our combined offering the industry’s first one-stop source for implementing, monitoring, and measuring event marketing investments,” said JR Sherman, General Manager of Active Network’s Events division. “For GPJ’s current and future business-to-consumer and business-to-business clients, the ActiveEvents platform represents the next generation of strategic event marketing technology and one of the most comprehensive event solutions available today.”

Today, GPJ and Active Network already support many of the world’s top event marketing clients. This new offering enables existing and future clients to execute event programs in established and emerging markets worldwide using GPJ’s experience marketing teams and Active Network’s cost efficient technology infrastructure.

For more information on Active Network’s industry leading ActiveEvents technology platform, please visit www.ActiveEvents.com.

About George P. Johnson Experience Marketing (gpj.com)

GPJ is a worldwide experience marketing agency that creates great ideas and brings them to life through integrated live and online experiences and environments, helping clients cut through marketplace noise, differentiate from the competition and create lasting relationships that directly impact the bottom line. Ranked by Advertising Age as the “#1 Event Marketing Agency” and consistently placing among the world’s top marketing agencies, GPJ provides its services through 26 offices around the world. The agency’s clients won 37 awards in 2008, five Ex Awards in 2009 and took home both the Grand Ex Award as well as the Best 100% Virtual Ex Award in 2010.

About Active Network

The Active Network, Inc. is a technology and media company that helps millions of people find and register for things to do and helps organizations increase participation in their activities and events. For more information about The Active Network, Inc., please visit www.ActiveNetwork.com.

Media Contact:
Tom Maher
Director, Marketing Programs
PR and Corporate Communications
George P. Johnson
617-535-9820
tom.maher@gpj.com

Jake Gonzales
Corporate Communications
Active Network, Inc.
Tel 858.652-6133
Jake.Gonzales@ActiveNetwork.com

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee