Event Management Made Manageable | Kasper Larsen

“Hundreds of millions of events are being organized every year, linking people together socially and professionally.  However, organizing an event is inefficient!” he says. “Finding and booking the right experiences and products across various suppliers and making all the loose ends add up is time-consuming and frustrating (for both organizers and suppliers). If this were as easy as booking a hotel, more and better events would be made.”

In 2018, the global events industry was valued at $1.100 billion and was expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.3% to reach $2.330 billion by 2026. Team events with less than 100 participants, such as Teambuilding for companies or Bachelor parties in the private sphere, make up 57% of all events. Evendo is disrupting this market by providing the world’s first Online Event Agency (OEA) – offering a “Booking.com-like experience” in an otherwise analog industry.

Evendo invested significant resources in mapping the optimum inventory composition during the early phases, figuring out which product categories are typically involved in a smaller event. “With this knowledge, we adjust for cultural differences between countries, enabling us to profile the ideal composition for each market. We then source such inventory in a mix of direct partnerships with unique and high-profile suppliers as well as indirectly through local, regional and global partnerships – i.e. with companies such as TripAdvisor,” says Kasper. “This approach allows us to be agile in our efforts to enter new markets, while still accommodating for the specific wishes of the customers.”

For example, during the pandemic, Kasper and his team have worked closely with a selected group of suppliers to develop a unique suite of Virtual Experiences, which allows them to empower people to maintain social relations while still complying with social distancing measures. Kasper feels it is important to constantly ensure their customers have the right options at the right time. Evendo is working in a niche still highly neglected by many players. This has allowed Evendo to build a dominant position before significant competition enters. As such, Evendo has an important “head start,” – and while keeping a high pace in scaling, we expect a leading position can be maintained.

In contrast to the bigger events, where a group of people typically does planning and organizing over a longer period – or outsourced to professionals – Team events are typically organized by a single person. This could be the PA in a company doing teambuilding for a department – or the person organizing a stag night for a group of friends. And since these things are not part of their official job description – or they have other things to do in their private life – spending significant time on analog interactions with many suppliers and making all the loose ends up is frustrating and increases the risk of failure.

With Evendo, the organizers can provide information such as them looking to do a “Teambuilding” for “25 people” within “5 miles from Trafalgar Square” on “June 22nd 2021”. Evendo will then provide them with products and services matching those specific requirements from across 50.000 suppliers – and filter out all those not being available, not matching the group size, or being in another geographical location. Evendo even offers a corresponding planning tool, where organizers can structure their day – and then easily populate it with products and services from the vast inventory. Evendo Planner automatically calculates transportation times between venues and locations – to ensure sufficient time is left for this – and helps the organizer keep track of the budget.

Evendo acknowledges that for them to support their customers’ changing demands, they are dependent on helping suppliers succeed with providing relevant products and experiences. However, many of the suppliers are suffering financially due to restrictions and lockdowns – which are especially tough for the hospitality sector. Many of them have limited options to secure working capital from traditional sources, i.e., banks. “To support them in transforming and expanding their businesses and offerings to meet the customers’ new demands, we are launching the unique “Evendo Working Capital” program,” adds Kasper. “This provides working capital for suppliers – which is then repaid through the future revenue they generate on Evendo.”