Startup Saturday: Why startups are getting SaaSy about event solutions
Events are major money and have been for last 100 years. The question now is who will enable the tech universe to cash in on the meetings, incentives, conferences market
10Times, software helps users find relevant events
Atul Todi, founder, 2014
Incubated at India Mart
Rs 25 lakh: seed money
$2 million: turnover today
850 customers worldwide
In the beginning
Says Todi: “One had to go through different magazines, newspapers, trade journals to find events. Why not have a software that would the job?”
“Social media did its job in making people aware of what was happening, but that is not enough. It is imperative for people to meet others physically. A handshake has greater value than meeting online. Companies want to get their marketing right. All this means that event tech has a big role to play. While it was easy to find food online, that was not the case with events.”
“Also, I realised that while a billion people attended events worldwide, very few of them could actually manage to meet more than a handful of people.
Starting point: putting all the events in one place
“It was a chicken and egg story. Like every market, we started by scraping the physical and digital world. We scanned magazines, online and offline; websites, and bookmarked it all to build a database.
“It’s much like Flipkart; you put the products out on display, the buyers will come.”
Out of every 10 people who view an event announcement, only one will attend
“We found out that if they had more and intricate details about the event and offered the possibility of connecting and meeting relevant people, the possibility of attendance rose to 30% ”
Enabling the organisers
“Using AI and ML, we let organisers manage their events. Besides trade shows and conferences, it also enables an organiser to have other formats like webinars. Our SaaS allows you to manage it from the backend. It puts all his content in one place and structures it. It can also push messages on social media or any other marketing channel from one place. 
The s3M
S is the setup which could be your website or app that is your event identity. Around this is are the 3Ms –market, manage and monetise. Once a person signs up, he is sent reminders to ensure conversion happens.
Revenues
“Revenues are earned through subscriptions and event marketing. Looking ahead we want to build a transaction platform as well. Last year we had 4 million enquiries, but we want to do this globally. Also we want to keep building more solutions on our SaaS tool.”
Frasier, event experience tech tools
Co-founded: Drona Panchal and Pranav Sharma, early 2019
Bootstrapped: Rs 50,000
Says Panchal, “We felt that events could deliver more to companies if it could be made more interactive, or easy.”
Says Sharma: “With these tools, organisers will not have to invest in personnel; will know who attended; their areas of interest; all to create a database for the future.”
Slingshot
A Slingshot is attached to the attendee’s phone. He takes a selfie and shoots it on an LED screen, the LED screen displays his picture as is.
Swipe feedback
The user enters a feedback of the event/showroom and swipes it up, it further displays on the LED screen which is calibrated with the application.
Object-recognition table
3-D models are calibrated with a QR code, which consist of product information. When this model is placed on a touch-enabled LED/LFD screen, fabricated in the form of a table, it displays product characteristics.
Gesture-based presentation
Slides can be changed with the use of hand gestures.
Events industry outlook
-Organised events industry has grown 15% annually from Rs 2,800 crore in 2011-2012, to Rs 4,258 crore in 2014-2015.
- Industry is expected to grow at 16-17% reaching Rs 5,779 crore in 2016-2017.
-Growth will be led by Mice (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions); sports and personal events
- 35% of marketers are providing some level of digital integration.
Info: Ernst & Young
