Helsinki, Finland and Hamburg, Germany – 12th August 2020
MeetingPackage and Event Inc today announced the launch of a new strategic partnership between their companies that will see them work together to help hotels and event spaces in Germany and beyond making the long-awaited switch to online booking and management of meetings and events.
During the last months, both Event Inc and MeetingPackage have seen several industry marketplaces and similar players as well as venues and hotels, gone to insolvency state or have needed to close their operations due to COVID-19 and the current shape of the industry. Other players are struggling to make ends meet. MeetingPackage and Event Inc see this partnership will strengthen the service offering to hotels and venues as well as corporate meeting bookers. Both companies are the most used solutions in their respective business areas and feel that now is the right time to take digitization to the next level.
Based in Hamburg, Event Inc is Germany’s largest booking platform for meetings, conferences and event spaces. The fast-growing service provider supports corporate bookers in finding, planning and booking meetings and events. As part of the new agreement, Event Inc will roll out MeetingPackage innovative suite of software solutions to its hotel clients. This means clients will benefit from more visibility regarding availability and pricing, while venues will see increased direct bookings as well as more highly qualified enquiries.
Joonas Ahola, CEO and Founder of MeetingPackage, is glowing about the new deal: “Germany has long been the crossroads of Europe and as such it’s a really important market for meetings and events. Event Inc is the ideal partner for us in Germany as we are so complementary in terms of our service offerings. Event Inc has built a solid and fast-growing corporate client base while MeetingPackage can deliver the industry leading technology solution for the benefit of the German market. Working with a local partner will give us speed to market and a local presence to ensure venues and clients using our software will get the support they deserve. We also want to work together with Event Inc to support their ambitions in markets beyond DACH.”
The partnership will not only see the MeetingPackage software being rolled out to German event spaces, but in addition, venues across the globe that already work with the MeetingPackage software will be able to distribute their venues on Event Inc’s German platform, as well as on Event Inc’s platforms in Austria, Switzerland the UK and the Netherlands.
Paul Philipp Hermann, CEO of Event Inc, comments on the announcement, “We looked at a number of different options to help support our efforts of bringing the MICE industry bookings online and our business forward with the support of leading technology. We feel certain that MeetingPackage represents the best partner for us to help develop our service offering to clients and hotels in our core market. I firmly believe the future for M&E booking and management is online, and the present crisis is only going to accelerate in the medium term – with this strategic alliance we make sure to have a robust offering that is aligned with how we see the market evolving now and in the future. I believe that we and MeetingPackage are truly sharing that view.”
Initial work has already started on integrating systems and content and the two partners expect the first rollouts of the software to German venues to happen towards the beginning of October. As Ahola added, “We want to make sure we have things in place by October as people get back to work and the market for meetings and events starts to return.”
It is estimated that more than EUR 100 billion is spent each year globally on small meetings of under one hundred delegates and the vast majority of these events are still planned and booked offline.
About MeetingPackage
MeetingPackage is a Finnish SaaS technology company established in 2014.
Our objective is to improve the Meetings & Events booking process for both meetings planners and event venues including hotels, conference centres and serviced offices. The company integrates with venues’ existing PMS, S&C and back-office solutions while delivering products to all customer facing channels. Products include Global Distribution, an online Booking Engine and a Meetings & Events specific Channel Manager. The software features twelve different language versions and is used by thousands of hotel customers globally and over 500 distribution partners.
The CEO of MeetingPackage is Joonas Ahola, and the company has offices in Finland, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, and the United States.
Media contacts:
Joonas Ahola, CEO
Tel +358 (0)50 514 3542
[email protected]
About Event Inc
Event Inc is Europe's largest platform for booking corporate events of any kind. Via Event Inc's B2B purchasing platform, it is easy for companies to find the right location and receive corresponding offers. Event Inc's highly qualified expert team supports you in finding the ideal location and negotiating the offers. The service is free of charge and based on thousands of successfully arranged bookings. A company event cannot be booked in any easier, cheaper and more risk-free way.
Media contacts:
Paul Philipp Hermann, CEO
Tel +49 177 5453798
[email protected]
