©2023 by Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP
Technology changes in the past six decades have been astonishing. This chronological list of significant technology milestones with societal technology events in “black” and face-to-face and virtual events industry-related technology innovations in “blue” shows far we have come,
1962
The Kodak Carousel slide projector was introduced.
1963
Bell Telephone introduces the push button telephone November 18, 1963.
On December 7, 1963 during an Army-Navy football game on CBS the first instant replay is shown on TV.
1964
IBM introduces its System/360, the first of its computers to use interchangeable software and peripheral equipment.
The electret microphone was invented offering greater reliability, higher precision, lower cost, and a smaller size. It revolutionized the microphone industry, with currently almost one billion manufactured each year.
AT&T introduces Picturephone at the World's Fair, New York.
1965
Gordon Moore makes an observation in April 19,1965 paper that later becomes widely known as Moore's Law. This prediction that the number of transistors on a computer chip will double every 18 months, has been astonishingly accurate for nearly that past six decades.
1967
IBM creates the first floppy disk.
1968
Intel Corporation is founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore.
Early experiments with liquid crystals to generate a video image were done by John A. van Raalte at the RCA-Laboratories in 1968.
1969
The Apollo 11 space craft lands on the moon and Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the moon.
The first U.S. bank ATM went into service at 9:00am on September 2, 1969.
1970
AT&T introduces the Picturephone ($160/month for each fixed end-point).
1971
The first laser printer is developed at Xerox PARC.
Ericsson demonstrates the first trans-Atlantic video telephone (LME) call
1972
The first video game console called the Magnavox Odyssey is demonstrated May 24, 1972 and later released by Magnavox and sold for $100.00 USD.
The compact disc is invented.
Atari releases Pong, the first commercial video game on November 29, 1972.
Giant screen projection TV is first marketed.
1974
Intel's improved microprocessor chip is introduced April 1, 1974, the 8080 becomes a standard in the computer industry.
1975
Bill Gates and Paul Allen Establish Microsoft April 4, 1975.
1976
Steve Wozniak designs the first Apple, the Apple I computer in 1976, later Wozniak and Steve Jobs co-found Apple Computers on April Fool’s day.
Sony introduces Betamax, the first home video cassette recorder.
1977
Apple Computers Apple II, the first personal computer with color graphics is demonstrated.
The First West Coast Computer Fair in San Francisco's Brooks Civic Auditorium is held on April 15, 1977.
1978
The 5.25-inch floppy disk becomes an industry standard.
1979
Hayes markets its first modem that becomes the industry standard for modems.
CompuServe becomes the first commercial online service offering dial-up connection to anyone September 24, 1979.
First cellular phone communication network started in Japan
1980
Worldwide, the number of computers in use is 1 million.
Sony Walkman invented.
Conferon develops a system of wireless headsets and beepers for meetings that is designed to improve on-site communication. This is before the widespread use of portable radios.
Several registration companies (Galaxy Information Services, CompuSystems, and Registration Control Systems) offer basic computerized badge production and lead retrieval (via embossed plastic “credit” cards) to the trade show industry. Before these cards, exhibitors wrote down attendees' badge numbers, which the registration company later matched to the contact information.
Galaxy provides the first computerized on-site registration. Using 12 registration stations transmitting over one 1,200-baud modem, this innovation eliminated the need for an on-site mainframe computer.
Ray Shaw of Intermedia in Brisbane Australia imported U.S. computer components to build a CP/M computer. He wrote “Camputer” which lead to Version 1 of EVENTS which eventually became Amlink. A 400-person conference was run on Events V1 during the year. The original program was a flat database, produced nametags, rooming lists, reports and confirmation letters. It took about a week to set up the software for each conference.
1981
Commodore VIC-20 hits the market — the first color computer for less than US$300 — and sells more than 1 million units. The monitor was a TV set, the storage was a cassette tape, and the “killer apps” were video games.
IBM releases the first personal computer
First “laptop” computers are sold to public. Developed the Osborne, it weighed 24½-pounds and had a 5" display.
MS-DOS 1.0 was released August, 1981.
MeetingPro, the first database software for the meeting industry, is released for continuing medical education events, enabling personalized confirmation letters, big-print name badges, accurate attendance lists, and basic market tracking. This product was later renamed as PeopleWare
NHK demonstrates HDTV with 1,125 lines of resolution.
1982
The TIME magazine nominates the personal computer as the "machine of the year" December 26,1982, the first non-human ever nominated.
Compression Labs begins selling US$250,000 video conference systems with US$1,000 per hour line charges.
1983
GPS The Global Positioning System was opened for use by civilian aircraft
Eric Orkin launches Delphi Management Systems, the first comprehensive meetings and group sales, marketing, and catering software for the hospitality industry. It became Newmarket Software in 1985.
Events V2 (which eventually became Amlink) was rewritten in PL1. This reduced the customization time to less than a day per event. This was run on a 24-user MP/M computer which connected to a Compugraphic typesetter to produce abstract books, conference publications etc.
1984
Apple releases the Macintosh Computer, the first widely produced computer with a mouse and a graphical user interface.
CD-ROM for computer disrupts two major industry: data storage and music dissemination.
Galaxy ran 120 tradeshow registration workstations from a single microcomputer built by Digital Systems Corporation.
Events V3 (which eventually became Amlink) was demonstrated a Technicongress in Paris. This was the first meeting planning software suite seen in Europe.
1985
Microsoft releases Windows 1.0 in is initially sold for $100.
CD-ROMs are released with the ability to store 270,000 papers of text on a single disk.
The first Internet domain name symbolics.com is registered by Symbolics, a Massachusetts computer company on March 15, 1985
Phoenix Solutions releases MeetingTrak 1.0, another very early meeting planning relational database product.
The first badge making software, PCNametag, is introduced at MeetingWorld in New York. Using a dot-matrix printer, it could produce 120 badges per hour. Attendees lined up three-deep to see the product.
1986
The first IBM PC virus, a boot sector virus call Brain, is released in the wild.
The first commercial mailing list program called LISTSERV is developed by Eric Thomas.
Compaq introduces the first 386-based PC compatible computer.
MeetingMatrix, the first room diagramming software is created and released.
Meeting Industry Microcomputer Users Group is formed by Judith Mathews. For several years, MIMUG met before the annual meeting of Meeting Professionals International (MPI). The tabletop software displays were among the first technology education for the meeting industry.
1987
The first cell phone small enough to fit into a pocket, is launched in Britain with a price tag of 2,500 pounds.
The first association focusing on meeting technology is formed. The association, its name lost to history, lasted about two weeks before being co-opted by MPI to become the Computer Special Interest Group.
PowerPoint 1 (originally called Presenter) is released. It provided only black-and-white images, had only one transition, and ran only on Macs.
1988
IBM and Sears joint “videotext” venture starts operation under the PRODIGY name.
the Internet’s first self-replicating worm “The Morris worm” with 99 lines of code, crashed about 10 percent of the world’s internet-connected computers in 24 hours.
1D barcodes emerge as the first generation of paper-based automated lead systems for tradeshows.
Sixteen hotel chains contribute $100,000 each to fund a startup company, The Hotel Industry Switch Co., to electronically link the global distribution system companies, such as Sabre, with hotels' computerized reservation systems. THISCO eventually became Pegasus, and now processes more than 300 million transactions per month.
1989
From 1987 to 1989, the global number of fax machines more than doubles to 2.5 million units.
The number of computers in use worldwide reaches 100 million units.
The Internet bulletin-board system Quantum Computer Services acquires a new name, America Online (AOL). From 1989 to 1998, AOL grew from 100,000 members to more than 14 million members.
PCNametag and LasersEdge develop software for laser-printer badges.
McNametag, one of the few meeting-industry software programs ever written for the Macintosh computer, is released.
1990
Tim Berners-Lee invents hypertext – the principal idea that evolves into the World Wide Web.
The Hubble space telescope is launched.
The world’s first webcam goes online at Cambridge University to remotely monitor the coffee pot in the Trojan Room of the Computer Science Department.
1991
Computer companies introduce notebook computers with advertisements showing happy users with their “freedom machines” by pool sides.
Linus Torvalds creates the first version of Linux, a collaboratively written computer operating system.
PlanSoft begins development of Ajenis, the first attempt to standardize meeting specification communications between meeting planners and hoteliers. The software eventually rolls out in 1995 but is not widely adopted, in part because of rising competition with early web-based tools.
School Home Office Products Association is the first group to use smart cards (plastic cards with integrated computer chips) for lead retrieval at its trade show.
1993
At the start of 1993, the web had a total of 130 sites.
Lynx is launched: a texted-based browser that couldn't display any graphic content.
America Online and Delphi began to connect their proprietary email systems to the Internet, beginning the large-scale adoption of internet email as a global standard.
Apple computer introduces the first PDA (personal digital assistant) called the Newton.
MPINet, the first online discussion group for meeting professionals, is created as a forum on CompuServe. The formation committee of 16 people met in December 1993, and the service went online the following month. It grew to more than 2,600 members before closing in 1997 losing ground to web-based forums.
1994
Laurence Canter sent the first spam e-mail — “Green Card Lottery 1994 May be the Last One!! Sign up now!!” — creating a huge uproar in the internet community. As a result, Canter lost his job, and his Internet service provider cancelled his subscription.
To keep track of Web sites of interest to them, two Stanford students created “Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web” which soon was renamed Yahoo!.
Israeli computer scientists Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty invent VoIP for sending telephone calls over the Internet
The first software product to track meeting spend and sourcing is introduced by McGettigan Partners (now Maritz). This evolved into Core Discovery, originally provided only to McGettigan clients. In 1998, the company released an upgraded version with a web interface to the general public under the name Real-Planner. In 1999, this became a separate company, StarCite, with a package of Web-based sourcing, attendee management and spend-tracking solutions. In 2016, this became part of Cvent as part an acquisition by Vista Equity Partners.
Registration Control Systems and Galaxy provide magnetic stripe cards for trade show lead retrieval.
1995
The number of U.S. homes with one or more personal computers increases by 16% in 1995 to about 38 million households, up from 33 million in 1994 and 25 million in 1993.
Broadcast.com becomes one of the world's first online radio stations.
Amazon and eBay are launched.
Conferon (now Experient) creates a separate entity, PlanSoft (later known as Mpoint), the first comprehensive searchable meeting facilities online database and RFP (request for proposal) engine. This was a unique consortium of a privately held company (PlanSoft), two associations (MPI and the American Society of Association Executives), and three hotel companies (Marriott, Sheraton, and Hyatt). Plansoft.com came online in 1997.
Reed's InterMedia trade show is the first to use two-dimensional barcode paper-based lead badges, allowing exhibitors to extract full contact information directly from a badge.
Holiday Inn opens the first hotel Web site with online purchasing of sleeping rooms.
The first online meeting-registration tools emerge — all hand-coded by programmers.
Lee Travel took over Internet World Tradeshows to managing housing. They provided the first housing web site in 1996 to track room blocks and real time housing inventory. From Lee Travel grew b-there.com in 1998, one of the major pioneering attendee management, housing and meetings consolidation products. Their product was originally called ERS – Event Reservation System and was one of the first template-driven housing and registration products. B-there was later purchased by StarCite.
Microsoft NetMeeting, a web collaboration tool, is released with Windows95, allowing people to use their computer to “meet” and work together from remote locations. It was soon joined by WebEx (1996), PlaceWare (1996), and others to provide audio, slides, screen-sharing and file-sharing collaboration capabilities.
1996
WRAL-HD broadcasts the first high-definition television (HDTV) signal in the United States.
Universal serial Bus (USB) is created by a group of seven companies
The San Francisco Miyako Hotel (now the San Francisco Radisson) provided the first online request for proposal, built by Cardinal Communications.
Passkey, one of the first online housing/room block management companies, is founded by hotelier Bob Motley and Brian Layton. The first Passkey-enabled single property meeting was for the New Orleans Sheraton Hotel for 900 people in 1998.
Cardinal Communications creates the Meeting Industry Mall, the first Web-based interactive meeting industry portal. From this grew the MIMlist, the first listserv for meeting professionals.
1996-1997
In 1997, Wi-Fi becomes available publicly.
Most of the major hotel corporations and meeting industry associations develop web sites.
The first template-based meeting registration tool is released by RegWeb by Cardinal Communications. This allowed planners to set up semi-customized registration pages without a web designer. This is the precursor to the thousands of meeting industry application service providers to follow.
1998
Google opens workspace in a Menlo Park California garage in September and is recognized as one of the “Top 100 Websites” by PC Magazine in December 1998.
ExpoCardWeb started allowing exhibitors to access leads via a web-based tool.
AllMeetings.com provides a free online meetings cost-analysis tool.
Lee Travel provided the first generation of an online integrated housing, registration, and air-booking product that incorporates zone fares.
In April 1998, the Open Source Summit event was held. This was a pivotal event significantly boosting the idea of free, public developed (open-source) software. This has grown into a much lower price and faster software development model including the Linux and Android operating systems and hundreds of thousands of mobile applications.
1999
Several pundits predict total a computer system collapse because of the Y2K bug (the inability of older computers to distinguish between the year 1900 and the year 2000). Almost no problems are encountered in the New Year, but fears lead to major system upgrades throughout the global corporate environment.
The first Blackberry mobile device is launched (Blackberry 850).
Bluetooth 1.0 is launched.
Napster, a peer-to-peer file sharing service was launched, with major disruption to the music industry.
HotDatesHotRates.com becomes one of the first websites to offer “distressed inventory” — hotel meeting space and sleeping rooms — usually at short notice and at discounted rates.
September 1999 - seeUthere.com launches one of the event planning application service provider (ASP) products (renting web-based applications versus software installed directly onto a computer), with online credit card acceptance for registration fees. Evite.com at about the same time launched a consumer-oriented site, which was eventually purchased by Ticketmaster.
2000
Sixty percent of U.S. households own at least one computer.
GPS becomes available for civilian users to receive a non-degraded signal globally.
The LoveBug worm/virus infects 2.5 million PCs and causes an estimated $8.7 billion in damage.
Application service providers (ASPs) explode onto the meeting planning scene, fueled by enthusiastic venture capitalist funding. Several of these companies do not last past the bust in 2001.
The first virtual trade show, ExpoExchange, is held.
SpotMe presents its mobile networking device in London, allowing attendees to see pictures and contact information of people standing within 30 feet (10 meters). Session information, audience polling, surveys, attendee lists and more were later added. This was the precursor of many mobile event apps seen today.
GetThere Direct Meetings provides the first online group space reservation tool. This is followed in 2003 by other group room block reservation tools such as Groople and Hotel Planner, primarily for small meetings.
APEX (Accepted Practice Exchange) initiative is started by the Convention Industry Council, the first voluntary standards initiative for the meetings industry.
2001
Apple released the iPod, which became the most popular MP3 player in history leading to a disruptive and sweeping change in the music industry.
Wikipedia, the largest and most popular general reference site on the web was launched in 2001. It now has more than 17 million articles written collaboratively by volunteers around the world.
Use of online meeting and collaboration tools such as WebEx and PlaceWare (now Windows LiveMeeting) spikes after September 11 terrorist attack in New York.
November 12th: seeUthere.com and TRX ResAssist offer the first online, real-time group air-booking products.
StarCite offers the first Web-based, two-way, real-time RFP tool for meeting space and rooms.
Growing numbers of attendees search online travel site such Expedia (launched in 1996), Travelocity (1996), Orbitz (2001), and others — to find low-cost hotel accommodations at events. Booking “outside the block” creates significant attrition problems for planners. In 2004, to combat the problem, Hilton launched its Group Reservations Identification Program, allowing planners to compare registration lists with hotel guest room reservations and thereby account for all attendees staying at the hotel.
2002
iRobot Corporation releases the first version of its Roomba® vacuum cleaning robot.
Friendster, the first widely-used social network, was founded by Canadian computer programmer Jonathan Abrams
Hyatt releases E-mmediate Meetings, an online meeting-booking tool designed for small meetings. From this came E-mmediate Response, the first real-time, two-way connection between an RFP site (in this case StarCite) and a hotel sales system.
Web-based business meetings matchmaking programs are developed. The first was Columbia Resource Group’s Rio product. Others to follow were IntroNetworks and ExpoExchange’s Smart Event. Similar to the widely used social matchmaking programs, these programs assisted attendees to find people of like interests at meetings. These were the meeting industry precursors to Facebook and other social media sites.
Mobile web logs (MoBlogs) are first used in an event setting with technology companies leading the way.
2003
Intel incorporated Wi-Fi in their Centrino chip opening a floodgate of wireless internet adoption in the next few years.
Web services standards are developed making it much easier for different online programs to share data through APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). This allowed online databases and software to become much faster and easier to develop.
In May, the amount of SPAM e-mail exceeds the amount of legitimate e-mail for the first time.
A number of strategic meetings management programs (then known as meetings consolidation products) were developed and refined.
Intellibadge was the first to use RFID (radio frequency identification) to track attendee movements in the exhibit hall and meeting rooms for IEEE meetings.
Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) wireless high-speed internet access is deployed in more than 6,000 hotels,
The first product from APEX (the Glossary) was delivered. Many more products (voluntary standards) were later released including meeting history standards, site profile, requests for proposals, housing/registration, and green meetings.
2004
Google indexed more than 8 billion pages on the web.
Facebook (limited to Harvard students only) started this year.
The number of online bookings for Hilton Hotel exceeded those of their call centers for the first time.
Two of the major meetings technology vendors, PlanSoft and SeeUThere, merge to form OnVantage
2005
YouTube, the first video sharing site came online in 2005 and has grown to one of the most popular sites on the web. YouTube used more bandwidth in 2010 than the entire internet did in 2000.
The two oldest meeting planning software firms (Peopleware and Amlink) merge under the Amlink name.
2006
Twitter, the micro blogging site opens with 140 characters maximum per message.
iTunes downloaded its billionth file in May of 2006.
Web 2.0 technology (later to be called social media) started to be used by the meetings industry including blogs, video blogs, and wikis (interactive web sites).
The two largest meetings consolidation technology vendors, OnVantage (a merger of PlanSoft and SeeUThere) and StarCite (a merger of StarCite, b-There and RegWeb) merge.
Mobile phone technology providers such as LogOn develop products for meetings including a variety tools such as product directories, networking functions, schedules, and audience voting via standard cell phones.
2007
Apple introduces the iPhone in June revolutionizing the mobile phone industry.
Google releases Google Docs providing free web-based spreadsheets and word processing tools.
Google introduces Street View.
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference in Austin Texas became the tipping point in of popularity for Twitter increasing tweets from 20,000 to 60,000 per day (in 2011 this grew to 200 million tweets per day).
Poll Everywhere, one of the first attendee polling systems, started operation in April 2007.
2007.
2008
Amlink is acquired by Certain Software in April 1, 2008 with hopes of expanding its event management portfolio.
The Active Network acquired two major online registration companies: RegOnline and WindgateWeb.
2009
Digital television became the broadcast standard in the U.S. and other parts of the world, opening the door to web-based TV services.
2010
Apple introduced the iPad, another revolution in portable “tablet” computing.
There are 4.7 billion mobile phone subscriptions (2 out of every 3 people on the planet). There are more people with mobile phones that have running water or toothbrushes.
Skype provides high-definition video conferencing. This gave planners the ability to stream good quality video signal for free at events.
Mobile apps specifically for events and tradeshows saw explosive growth with hundreds of new companies providing services emerging.
2011
Amazon releases the Kindle Fire tablet computer/eReader in October and sells more the 25 million by the end of the year.
There are more than 600,000 iPhone/iPad apps and 400,000 Android apps.
More than 5.6 million iPhone apps are downloaded daily.
There are more than 800 million Facebook users (more than 1 in 10 on the planet).
Major revolution occurs in the Middle East kindled by mobile phones and social media.
1.2 billion mobile apps were downloaded over the Christmas 2011 holidays.
FutureWatch 2011 Surveyand others indicate that more than 80% of meeting professionals use smartphones and other mobile devices in their jobs. Yet, relatively few planners (9%) have used mobile applications yet for their own meetings.
The first “virtual wine tasting” occurs at Event Camp Europe using Google Hangouts (a free multiple location video conference product). Attendees at the main location in London, and pods of attendees in Poland and Sweden, were all provided wine. Using this free video conference too, attendee in all locations simultaneously heard/saw the description of the wine from the host, felt the wine glasses, saw the color and legs of the wine, smelled the bouquet and tasted it. All five senses were engaged.
2012
Tablet computers become the fasted adopted technology hardware in history.
The Active Network acquires StarCite. Previous merges of these two companies include some of the major pioneers of meetings technology: RegWeb, b-there, seeUthere, PlanSoft, OnVantage, RegOnline and WingateWeb -- another step in the consolidation of major meetings technology companies.
2013:
The iBeacon was introduced at Apple’s 2013 World Wide Developers Conference in June 2013 leading to precise location-based marketing.
Multi-event apps are developed by most of the major event app providers. These template-driven programs allowed meeting hosts holding many events each year to reduce costs, speed delivery and make it easier for attendees to access.
Progress is being made in using iPads and other tablet computers to replace the 3-ring paper conference binder.
Vista Equity Partners acquires Lanyon, a hospitality software firm at the time.
Centium Software (the original creators of Amlink Software) buys back eventsPro, one of the original desktop software from Certain Software which Certain purchased from them in 2008. Centium the rewrites the entire program as a SaaS online platform to create EventsAir, one of the leading full-featured events management applications.
Loopd, one of the first companies to use wearable beacons started in Silicon Valley. This was acquired by Etouches (now Aventri) in 2017,
2014:
Facebook bought the Oculus VR company for $2 billion.
Google releases Cardboard - a low-cost and do-it-yourself stereoscopic viewer for smartphones.
Consolidation continues as Lanyon (owned by Vista Equity Partners) acquires the Active Network portfolio, housing company Passkey and mobile event app company Genie Connect.
Cendyn, a major travel management firm acquired strategic meetings management firm Arcaneo.
Mobile event app companies such as EventBase, DoubleDutch and GenieConnect start using beacon technology (introduced in 2013 by Apple in 2013.
MPI FutureWatch 2014 survey indicated that planners who are using or soon plan to use mobile event apps has grown to 85% (up from 9% in 2011).
2015:
Microsoft releases the operating system Windows 10.
Amazon releases Amazon Echo and the Alexa ecosystem.
Cvent acquires meeting facility and publishing company Elite Meetings and lead management firm AllianceTech.
Etouches (now Aventri) acquires mobile event app company TapCrowd
Data analytics for events expanded with the launch of InsightXM
2016:
In the biggest event software purchase and merger in history, Vista Equity Partners (owners of Lanyon) acquired Cvent for $1.65 billion. For good measure, Vista Equity Partners also acquired sales automation firm Marketo for $1.79 billion.
Data analytics increases at events: eTouches (now Aventri) releases an integrated event ROI measurement tool.
Grip, becomes one of the first companies to use artificial intelligence (AI) in their event matchmaking system.
2017:
Many companies are developing their own VR headsets, including HTC, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Sony, and Samsung.
The two largest meeting technology firms, Cvent and Lanyon (acquired by Vista Equity Partners) merge.
Etouches acquired wearable beacon technology firm Loopd.
GES acquires Poken, a wearable NFC-based attendee engagement and measurement system.
Freeman launches major developments using augmented and virtual reality.
The Event Tech Tribe is formed, a consortium of cloud-based event tech products that work together, but individually provide specific services including: event logistics management, speaker/abstract management, agenda management, registration, onsite registration/badging, and marketing.
Sciensio (now 42Chat) developed one of the first AI-powered chatbots for the events industry.
Snöball, one of the first EVENT influencer marketing platforms, is launched.
2018:
Cvent acquires QucikMobile, one of the major event app companies and adds to its extensive portfolio in May 2018.
Cvent acquires Social Tables, the largest room diagraming firms abound in October 2018.
Aventri acquires INT International which provided registration services for some of the largest meetings around including the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Zenus begins, one of the first companies to use facial recognition to streamline the registration process.
A wide range of direct meeting space booking sites (primarily for unique (non-hotel) sites emerge including: Peerspace, Spacer, EventUP, Spacebase, Beetingsbooker, eVenues, Bizly and Groupize.
2019:
Lexar announces the first SD card in which could store 1 terabyte
Freeman announces Fuzion, the largest data integration project in event tech history.
Cvent acquires DoubleDutch This adds to the already purchased significant event app companies: QuickMobile, CrowdCompass (2012), and Event Genie. Plans are to take the best of these products and rewrite into a single platform in 2020.
Freeman acquires Convention Data Services, a major online registration service.
Wordly, an artificial intelligence-based system provides simultaneous translations capabilities in 15 languages for events, replacing in some cases the human interpreters.
2020-2022:
The pandemic dramatically changed the way we live and work, and it has forced us to rapidly adopt new technologies in order to adapt to these changes. Many of them will last long after Covid has passed. We have increased remote working, advanced online learning, adopted telemedicine to a greater degree, increased e-commerce, contactless payments and entertainment streaming in significant ways.
Technology innovation has advance significantly as well in the past two years as well:
- Artificial Intelligence: AI has continued to advance rapidly, with major breakthroughs in natural language processing, computer vision, and autonomous systems.
- 5G Technology: The fifth generation of wireless technology promises to be much faster and more reliable than its predecessor, 4G.
- Internet of Things (IoT): The IoT has continued to expand, with more devices and systems connected to the internet, allowing for greater automation and control.
- Cloud Computing: Cloud computing has continued to grow in popularity, providing businesses and individuals with scalable and cost-effective computing power.
- Blockchain: Blockchain technology has continued to gain traction, with new use cases emerging in areas such as supply chain management, finance, and healthcare.
- Quantum Computing: Quantum computing has continued to advance, with new breakthroughs in quantum computing hardware and software.
The pandemic created the greatest disruption in the events and exhibitions industry in history. As face-to-face (F2F) group gatherings were banned, event hosts were forced to pivot to virtual events. Society in general was forced to learn Zoom and other virtual meetings software with everyone from school children to grandparents communicating with teleconference tools.
Consequently, we have seen an explosion in virtual and hybrid event technology innovation as well as the development of best practices in using them. Here are some of the effects:
- The number of virtual/hybrid event companies has more than tripled during this time with more than 230 businesses offering these products.
- Nearly all the major attendee management companies (including Certain, Cvent, Aventri, EventsAir, ATIV Software, EventMobi, MeetingPlay and many more) significantly expanded their virtual/hybrid capabilities.
- Major attendee management companies have purchased or allied with virtual event production companies. Examples include Cvent partnership with the major event production company Encore and the acquisition of ShowFlo, an event production software company. Aventri has partnered with virtual event production company Brandlive and its product. Greenroom. Broadcast quality production will increasingly become the norm for virtual and hybrid events.
- There has been a significant trend to provide more professional production capabilities within virtual/hybrid platform applications including Cvent Studio, Socio, and SwapCard.
- Many significant event app companies (including SpotMe, Pathable, Socio) greatly expanded their virtual/hybrid offerings. Socio, for example, started as a simple event networking mobile application. Acquired by Cisco, and rebranded as Webex Events, their principal focus is as a full-featured F2F/virtual/hybrid event platform.
- Other event tech companies also jumped into the game. Allseated, the room diagramming product, released its eXvo product, an easy-to-use immersive avatar virtual/hybrid meeting product.
- Major event producers including GES and Freeman also significantly expanded their virtual/hybrid event portfolios.
- Major webcasting and video distribution companies such as ON24, Xyvid, Digitell significantly expanded their virtual and hybrid event capabilities.
- Hundreds of best practices have been learned in the process. Everything from event timing, production values, virtual emcees, engagement options and much more have been developed and will continue to do so as hybrid events develop alongside with the return of F2F events.
Event tech mergers, acquisitions and huge amounts of funding have occurred, especially in the virtual/hybrid event space.
The past two years have seen the most significant increase in event tech funding, mergers and acquisitions in history. Here are some of the most significant occurrences (with companies often being grouped as opposed to a strict timeline):
- Cvent, with 3,841 employees and a posted $499 million in 2020 revenue, announced they were going public again (assisted by Zoom with a 10% equity share), with a valuation of $5.3 billion merging with SPAC (Special-purpose Acquisitions Company) Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. Cvent expected to raise $801 million to “accelerate innovation and expand its product offerings.” 8/2021
- Cvent closed a $500 million, five-year senior secured revolving credit facility that will help it "pursue strategic opportunities to expand its market leadership position and deepen its platform capabilities," 2/2022.
- Cvent, acquired VenueDirectory, the UK-based venue finder and booking service for an undisclosed sum, 6/9/22
- Cvent is now exploring potential sale to private equity again, 2/2023
- London-based virtual event company, Hopin, raised more than $1 billion in funding. This included $450 million in Series D funding at a valuation of $7.75 billion in August 2021 after receiving $400 million in Series C funding at a $5.65 billion valuation in March 2021. The had 583 employees and an annual revenue of $85 million (May 22, 2021 as posted on LinkedIn). Among Hopin’s recent acquisitions were: live streaming studio company Streamyard ($250 million), hybrid event platform and app Boomset, mobile event platform Attendify, video hosting company Streamable, virtual workplace app for remote teams jamm, and event networking app Topi. 3/2021
- Hopin laid off 138 employees (12% of its full-time workforce) 3/11/2022 having hired 800 in 2021 (only 8 employees at the start of the pandemic)
- Allseated raised $15M in Private Equity Funding from Trinity Capital, Vestech Partners, NYFF, Magma Venture Partners, and WGG. The company sees the metaverse and Web 3.0 as a $1 trillion market opportunity. Allseated experienced 120% revenue growth in 2021 and has 120 employees worldwide. 3/15/2022
- Netherland-based meetings management platform Meetingselect acquired Germany-based MICE Access, a global meetings distribution technology. 1/13/21
- Tevent raised $2M in Seed Funding from Hudson Ventures, Sheets Smith Wealth Management and Om Investment Partners, 3/10/2022
- Verizon purchased high-end video conferencing company Bluejeans in hopes of expanding professional video conference options for their 5G mobile network. $400 million, t/2020.
- Virtual event company, Touchcast, closed $55 million in Series A funding, 1/2021
- Virtual/hybrid event platform Hubilo raised $4.5M in seed round funding Nov. 2020, Hubilo raised $23.5 million in Series A funding, February 2021 Hubilo received $125M in Series B funding. (Total funding to $153 million secured in less than 18 months.) This new round of funding will “go toward continued growth initiatives, new platform innovations, and global expansion.” October 2021 - 400+ employees in three continents.
- Freeman announced a strategic partnership with Hubilo. 3/2/22
- Socio Labs (originally a social networking app) received $6.7M July 30,2019
- Tech giant Cisco (owners of Webex) acquired Socio Labs and has rebranded as Webex Events, 8/8/2021
- Cisco acquired virtual event company Slido for an undisclosed sum claiming it will make their WebEx product “10x better than in-person meetings.” 2/2021
- Association/member software company Community Brands purchased virtual/hybrid event and mobile event product Pathable, 1/2020 (having previously purchased major mobile event app company Core-Apps in 3/22/2019)
- Intrado Digital Media created its event cloud company Notified 10/19/21 and acquired Portland-based F2F/hybrid/virtual event management platform, Hubb, for an undisclosed sum. Hubb had raised $9.44 million in funding previously. 8/2021
- Intrado partnered with Interprefy, cloud-based remote simultaneous interpretation in up to 26 languages on its Studio platform 8/19/2021
- Intrado Digital Media and Encore enter strategic partnership, 6/29/2021
- Swapcard, an AI-powered engagement/matchmaking platform for virtual/hybrid events, purchased registration platform Avolio to offer a complete end-to-end solution. This was a strategic move to a full-featured platform for virtual, hybrid, and F2F events including attendee management/online registration. Avolio’s creator, Mark Hubrich, formerly created SignUp4, which was acquired by Cvent in 2015. 1/2021
- Symphony Technology Group (STG) unified its recent acquisitions — meetings management platform CadmiumCD, health and medical learning management solution EthosCE, educational-video service provider Warpwire and learning management platform CommPartners for an undisclosed sum. The companies have been combined under the business name: Cadmium, 5/2021
- In addition, Cadmium acquired EventRebels adding a configurable online and onsite event registration, membership authorization for conference and trade show attendees, and lead retrieval to their offerings. Financial details not disclosed, 7/2021
- Cadmium partnered with event production company, Inspire. 1/22
- Cadmium partnered with event staging company IMS Technology Services. 1/25/22
- Cadmium renewed partnership with Cogent Global Solutions, a leading audio/visual and production services provider, provides streamlined event planning experiences. 3/31/2022
- Cadmium partnered with Bear Analytics to strengthen the digital product and service offerings of both organizations in the learning and event technology industry. 7/18/2
- Content firm BroadcastMed acquired pioneering virtual events company Digitell, 1/2022
- Virtual environment platform 6Connex acquired Poland-based event management platform Eventory 11/9/2021
- Brella moved from being an AI matchmaking system to a virtual event platform in 2020. Despite 4x growth in 2020, it opted to take on additional funding in order to build further capabilities. $10 million, Series A financing, 6/2021
- Juno, new player in the virtual event platform space having only been founded in August 2020, secured $3.5M in seed round funding, 8/2021
- LiveControl, a budget-conscious option for live video streaming of events through remotely controlled 4K pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras received Series A financing of $30 million, 7/2021
- Mmhmm, a standalone video communication platform, announced $100 million in Series A financing. 7/2021
- Twine, an online networking voice-only product with the capability to host several people in a networking room, received $3.3 million in venture funding,6/2021
- Twine acquireed Glimpse, focussed on video conversations with your friends. 2/10/22
- Twine, released "twine for Zoom" a new Zoom App designed to bring speed networking to Zoom meetings, 2/22
- Poly, (a subdivision of Plantronics, Inc.) a company with 50+ years of experience in making office-focused audio and video hardware, invested in CLIPr, a video analysis and management (VAM) platform using AI and machine learning to index video content. $4 million, 6/2021
- Bizzabo raised $138M to build out its virtual and hybrid platforms, 12/2020
- Bizzabo acquired Whalebone Crowd technology focused on humanizing digital interactions through both crowd amplification and crowd visualization, 5/2021
- Bizzabo added AI scheduling and matchmaking capabilities - financials undisclosed, 6/2021
- Bizzabo’s partnered with Brightcove to integrate more robust streaming technology into its platform, 8/2021.
- Bizzabo acquired Teevid to release its Ultimate Video Production Suite 10/2021.
- Bizzabo bought wearable tech firm Klik, 11/2021
- Bizzabo was laid-off 120 people – 30 per cent of its 400 employees – in response to what it called the ‘swift economic downturn" 6/2022
- KUDO, a cloud-based video conferencing platform with real-time multilingual interpretation received $21 million Series A financing, 3/2021
- Grip, an AI-based lead/revenue generation, matchmaking system for virtual and F2F events, received $13 million, Series A financing, 2/2021
- Virtual-event platform Delegate Connect, based in Melbourne, Australia, raised AUD$10 million in seed capital, 9/2021
- Vimeo, the large video hosting service, launched its own virtual events platform.
- MeetingPlay, a large virtual/hybrid/F2F platform, received $75 million in investment from private equity firm Sunstone Partners, 6/2021
- Aventri and MeetingPlay merge 1/2022
- Aventri/MeetingPlay acquire high-end registration company Eventcore for an undisclosed price. 6/9/2022
- Aventri/MeetingPlay/Eventcore rebrand under Stova (short for standing oviation), 10/12/2022
- Virtual Events Co. Zuddl raised $13M, 1/7/22
- BroadcastMed, a 27-year-old firm that created and delivers medical content—and was the first to livestream surgical broadcasts over the internet via its ORLive product -- acquired virtual and hybrid-event producer Digitell Inc. 1/2022
- ON24, which provides technology for live and on-demand webinars, virtual conferences, and “always-on” content, announced an integration with Drift, which specializes in chatbots that collect “real-time conversational data.” Drift chatbot data can pass from ON24 events into third-party sales systems such as Marketo, Eloqua, HubSpot, and Zapier.
- Swoogo secured $20M Series B funding from BainCapital
- Event-led engagement platform, Airmeet, raised $35M USD Series B from Prosus Ventures, Sistema, Sequoia Capital India, RingCentral Ventures, and others 2/9/22
- Hong Kong-based virtual events platform, EventX raised another US$8m in a Series B funding, lifting the total amount secured for this round to $18m. 2/25/22
- EventsAIR, an Australian events management software provider for in-person, virtual and hybrid events, gained ‘nearly $100M from global private equity firm, The Riverside Company. 3/30/22
- Airmeet Raises $35M in Series B Funding, 2/82022
- Bevy raised $40M in Series C Funding March 24, 2021
- Event management software company Eventtus acquired Bevy to offer a solution for hybrid and in-person events to its community-minded clients. Eventtus' feature-rich mobile app and other engagement tools for attendees will soon be integrated into Bevy's end-to-end white-labeled community event engine. 7/14/2021
- B2B company Emerald Holdings bougth the assets of Advertising Week from Stillwell Partners. 7/2022
- Brightspot Incentives & Events purchased the corporate event management operations of EventLink International 7/2022
- Switchboard, a virtual room collaboration system, raises $25M Series A round led by Icon Ventures with participation from Sequoia Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, and Spark Capital. 7/272022.
- PCMA acquired CEMA (Corporate Event Marketing Association) and UK-based ELI (Event Marketing Association). Nov, 2022 and Jan. 2023 and established partnerships with the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the National Coalition of Black Meeting Professionals (NCPMP), 1/2023.
This list is far from comprehensive. Please send in your meetings technology milestones to include.
Thanks to the following meetings technology pioneers whose contributions and fact verification made this article possible: Janet Christodoulou, Coleman, Bill Duncan, Doug Fox, Bruce Harris, Deb Huffington, Peggy Lee, Mike Malinchok, Rodman Marymor, John Pino, Jeff Rasco, Elaine Rickman, E.J. Siwek, Bruce Small, Ray Thackery, Ed Tromczynski, Nick Topitzes, Robert Walters, Dick Zeller, Mattthew Donegan-Ryan.
Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP, DES is a speaker and independent consultant focusing on meetings technology. Previously, Corbin ran international citywide technology meetings for 18 years. For the past 21 years, he has helped clients worldwide use technology to save time and improve productivity through his speaking, consulting and writing services. Corbin was inducted into the EIC Hall of Leaders in 2018, the premier recognition program for the events industry. He can be contacted at his extensive web site Corbin Ball & Co. - Meetings Technology Headquarters (www.corbinball.com) and followed at www.twitter.com/corbinball.
