Website gives conference participants greater choice
Founders of Conference Bay (www.conferencebay.com), which came online last September, say the company is doing well in its goal of bringing together conference organisers and potential participants.
Founder and CEO, Mr Frank Bomers, said the uptake since its launch had been very positive with 170 registered conferences, mostly in Asia-Pacific, but some as far away as London and New York.
The company was born because Mr Bomers and his friend and managing director, Mr Arnout Mostert, got tired of calls from telemarketers trying to sell them conference seats.
Mr Mostert said: “Customers sometimes get two to three calls a week from call centres trying to convince them to attend events.
“This is not a professional way of selling tickets, as there is more push than pull. Organisers have relied on this method in the past because there was no other way.
“With Conference Bay, customers express their interest and enter a bid and it is up to the organisers to bite.
“Customers can manage their costs as they can select conferences that are within their budgets, or they can name a price they are willing to pay.
“Organisers get delegates who have sought them out and who are genuinely interested in the event.
“The appeal of the concept is organisers list their events for free and only pay when they get results.”
Sellers upload information about their seminars, workshops and roundtables for free and only pay Conference Bay a 20 per cent commission for every seat sold.
To control the quality of the delegates, Conference Bay said it worked with organisers to ensure those who had put in their bids were not representatives from the shows’ competitors.
Organisers can also list the delegate criteria, for example CEOs only, and Conference Bay will try to screen delegates.
But according to Mr Mostert, unlike trade exhibition organisers, conference organisers are more sales-driven.
“They will sell to anyone willing to pay the price to attend the conference.”
Mr Mostert added he hoped more organisers would choose Conference Bay as their exclusive reseller.
The company is targeting events between Dubai and Australia on the world map.
Mr Mostert explained: “We think the growth is in this region.
“With the time difference, it is tough to focus on the US and Europe, which are also more established and more difficult to break through.
“But eventually we plan to go global.”
The company has plans to enhance the website with more organiser-friendly functions such as a venue
locator with a search engine.
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