Alon Alroy from event networking platform Bizzabo on social media
Social Media Portal (SMP) What is your name and what do you do there or Bizzabo?
Bizzabo: I?m Alon Alroy, Co-Founder, CMO and BizDev of
Bizzabo. I manage the U.S. operations and devise all aspects related to marketing, business development, strategy and sales.
SMP: Briefly, tell us about Bizzabo, what is it and what does the company do?Bizzabo: Bizzabo is an event networking platform and mobile app, supporting the meetings and events industry with technologies that improve the conference experience for attendees, and help conference organizers achieve their goals. Our technology integrates social media to build highly-interactive event communities, helping organisers increase engagement, sponsorship revenue and brand awareness.
We?ve streamlined all the online activity a professional event may have to each attendee?s phone, desktop or tablet. Whether it is seeing who will be there in advance, scheduling the right meetings with relevant business partners, having access to a real-time event agenda for better time management, or taking part in the social buzz surrounding an event; attendees can now have a totally unique and more valuable experience.
SMP: When was the company founded, how many people work there and how is it funded?Bizzabo: Bizzabo was founded in 2011 by myself, Eran Ben-Shushan, CEO, and Boaz Katz, Chief Product Officer. We now we have around 20 employees.
We have been funded by an outstanding group of investors, and our products have various package levels generating revenue.
SMP: Who are your target audience and why?Bizzabo: Our target audience is medium sized professional events. We specifically sought out this market because we saw how challenging it is for them to run an event or a conference and provide an amazing and engaging experience. We wanted to give them the tools to focus more on event success and less on event planning and management.
SMP: Where are your clients based and how do you attract them?Bizzabo: We have organizers from more than 100 countries that use our platform.
Our main marketing efforts consist of building brand awareness, encouraging word of mouth, and sharing great content. We encourage our event organisers to give us feedback on our product to increase the functionalities they ask for and provide the best experience possible for their attendees.
SMP: What are the challenges that you?ve encountered and how are you overcoming them in what you have been doing so far at Bizzabo?Bizzabo: The market for event technology and apps is quite saturated; from the start we knew we had to learn how to differentiate ourselves. We?ve had the privilege of working with many fantastic events and organizers, and through their diligent feedback and input, we?ve been able to evolve our product into something that organizers find truly valuable. It?s always challenging to focus on just one thing at a time as we get many great ideas and requests for all sorts of features. However, being able to prioritize and just focus on making our offering the best it can be rather than snap up any feature idea has pushed us forward in our industry.
SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far?Bizzabo: Last summer we hit the milestone of partnering with over 4,000 professional conferences (and counting) from around the world. Reaching such a significant growth milestone was a very exciting point in our journey.
Our benchmark demonstrates an even greater capacity for our industry. Through technology we are helping event organizers and the industry as a whole reach its maximum potential.
SMP: What do you see as your biggest challenges and opportunities for your sector and the competition that you have in the event space?Bizzabo: Technologies like Bizzabo disrupt and innovate an industry that hasn?t been changed in years. For an industry that?s remained stagnant with many still relying on generating communication via excel spreadsheets, the growth potential is through the roof for companies like ours. The industry may be aching for tools to make event planning and conferences more efficient yet many organizers are still wary and shy away from the advances unknown technology can deliver.
SMP: What is the most challenging part of building upon your brand presence in digital environments?Bizzabo: We?ve always made sure to be ahead of the curve when it comes to digital media. We adopt new technologies and make great efforts to educate our customer base on new trends. The pace of new developments in the social and digital worlds means we need to stay alert and be on top of the game, acting quickly. We make sure to be innovators and early adopters rather than laggards.
SMP: What do you think is going to be the most interesting aspect regarding event management technology 12 to 18-months and why?Bizzabo:The advent of the ?all-in-one? platform. Event organizers may be hesitant to change, however the fact of the matter is, the current state of the industry is simply inefficient in today?s digital age. The age of silos, where event organizers are using upwards of 5-7 different technologies to power their event will soon be over. Companies will condense these tools into one integrated platform, bringing maximum efficiency and customer management to its fullest potential. This also means that organizers will receive a much more cohesive picture of their event?s success since data won?t be collected and stored in a wide range of tools, but rather, in a single, streamlined dashboard.
SMP: What are your top five predictions for event technology and what impact may social media have upon this for the next 12 to 18-months?Bizzabo replies with:- Integrated platforms. There is currently inflation in event tech products. In order to keep the simplicity we?re going to see more integrated products to make the overall experience more streamlined.
- Data, data, data. So much data exists and it can be easily obtained on any deliverable the event organizer chooses. Organizers will find ways to measure the ROI for their event spend using data-rich information.
- Wearables. Wearables will change events forever, as we?ve already started to see with the Apple Watch. Whether it be push notifications, or making payments and thus event-ticketing easier, tech wearables like the Apple Watch will make event technology ever more accessible.
- Event tech in the cloud. Event planners? binders and notebooks will begin to disappear as everything will be managed from device to device, all from the lovely cloud.
- Beacons. The popularity of beacons have been on the rise and will continue to be. In the event space they are and will increasingly be valuable to the attendee engagement process and monetization for events.
SMP: What are your top overall five tips for business event organisers?Bizzabo replies with:- Set goals. Events typically make up around 25% of marketing budgets. That?s a significant investment particularly for SMBs and ones just starting their journey; make sure you know what that investment is yielding the company. This requires giving your event measurable goals and having the ability to analyse said goals. No matter what the calculations say in the end, you?ll have rich data insights into how to improve for the future.
- Engage. Meaningful engagement with attendees. Your attendees are taking time away from their offices and family in order to attend, learn and network at your event. Invest time and thought into providing an inspiring, engaging and memorable experience
- Make Data Driven Decisions. The range of technology and analytical tools available to event planners means it?s absolutely necessary to be collecting data and feedback from attendees, sponsors, etc. and then making informed decisions based on these insights.
- Build a community. Creating communities where attendees can connect not only gives them the opportunity to create real business relationships, but it, in turn, can boost the social prowess of your event through organic word of mouth.
- Increase ROI for sponsors. Sponsor don?t pay big bucks for the fun of it- they expect to see results that prove their budget was well spent. This means giving sponsors the opportunity to truly engage with your attendees is essential- incorporating them into networking or other engagement platforms can help accomplish this.
SMP: Best way to contact you and Bizzabo? Bizzabo: @alonalroy and @bizzabo on Twitter.
Or our PR contact ? Sarah Warshawsky, sarah@headline-media.com
Now some questions for fun
SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?Bizzabo: Cereal. We have a nice collection of them in the office. We call them BizzaCereal ☺
SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?
Bizzabo: Today I made several introductions that I hope will create new exciting opportunities for people I care about. I enjoy connecting people, especially if it will help them in the long run.
SMP: If you weren?t working at Bizzabo what would you be doing?Bizzabo: I?d probably be working on building another big company, which has impact on people?s lives if I wasn?t working at Bizzabo.
SMP: When / where did you go on your last holiday and why?
Bizzabo: On my last holiday, I went to Tulum, Mexico. I went because I consider it a little slice of heaven.
SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?Bizzabo: Ask Bizzaboers how they?re doing, and then have my coffee.
SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?Bizzabo: I would want the superpower of making people happy.
Interview conducted in December 2014. See
@Bizzabo for the latest.