TechCrunch DISRUPT kicked off today in New York City, running thru Wednesday night. This is the first TechCrunch conference to venture East and has a lot of New Yorkers wondering if this will become the norm, since there's been lots of conferences that have both lived and died in New York City!

eVenues is here to compete in the StartUp Alley. We received a FREE ticket after winning The Funded's Founder Showcase event last week in Silicon Valley. The most interesting point about DISRUPT is the actual venue where the event is being held. It's being held in the old Meryl Lynch trading building, 80,000 square feet once used by their traders. It's a little eary...these floors used to hummm...just like the movie with Boilerroom with life and activity. Now, it's sparse and bare...until TechCrunch (Heather) found it and turned it into a national event venue.

Now that's what we at eVenues like to hear and see! The reuse and repurpose of a space for the better-ment of the economy and industry! So far the conference is working in this space, with breakout rooms for VCs (once trading manager offices), eating/networking areas, and long cooridors shoot-out areas.

Stay tuned for more news updates!

eVenues will be 1 of 14 companies to showcase our new service during the Seattle 2.0 Awards on May 19 at Elliot Hall at Bell Harbor starting at 6 PM. Come out and suppor the local entrepreneur community and see who takes home the statues!

By David Jennings, Co-Founder of eVenues

Meeting planners might have one of the toughest jobs this year, especially when it comes to evaluating their future business. Not only did their industry undergo major fallout in 2009, but many corporate planner roles were eliminated altogether. Trying to forecast an industry with still so much uncertainty is hard enough, yet trying to make predictions while out of work…well, that’s darn tough!

Needless to say, the meeting(s) must go on![1] But how is the meeting industry changing in 2010? Who is in control? What exactly do planners need to know?

eVenues, an emerging online service for booking fast and affordable meeting space, has some ideas and would like to share its top five themes for 2010.

1.       Value is king

Today’s meeting organizers are all about more for less. For a corporate sales person, entrepreneur or consumer, meetings in 2010 must be practical, have a definite return on investment (ROI), and deliver affordability and value foremost.Meeting planners can provide clients with good value by reducing unnecessary costs and finding alternative solutions for site selection, catering, food and beverage, décor, etc. 2010 will certainly be a better year than 2009, but it will be a transition year for planners to update the tools in their toolbox, entertain working smaller meetings, and ultimately establish a new niche based on a changing landscape.

2.   Be flexible

In order to jumpstart the multibillion meetings and events industry[2], flexibility is fast becoming a popular term. One of the obvious trends is shrinking the meeting size. Due to the complexity and hidden costs associated with organizing larger meetings, meeting buyers are championing corporate team meetings.[3] Team meetings ultimately can be cheaper, but might require shorter lead times.Therefore, both planners and venues need to stay nimble. Planners need to become better acquainted with more unique, unconventional venues in their markets that can handle the short-term duration and short-lead times. By streamlining the site-selection and booking process, planners can spend more time organizing the content of the meeting or learning how they can add more value to their clients in the future.

3.       Real-time information

With nearly 115 million smartphones in use today, it’s no surprise that mobile devices are forcing consumer’s expectations to change and influencing near real-time availability and accessibility to information.[4] As a result, meeting planners can expect to experience better response times from venues and service providers for meeting room configurations, amenities, quotes, and availability. Venues can’t afford for business to be lost. Meeting planners are best prepared if they adopt key service providers who work in real-time mode.

4.       Public or coworking spaces

As large hotels and conference centers continue to lose business, a new segment of the meeting market is emerging: public or coworking meeting venues. Public or coworking meeting venues are timely as they attract laid-off workers, consultants/freelancers, entrepreneurs, and non-profits. Operating on a time-based model, these facilities are surfacing in all markets to accommodate the influx of corporate team meetings, coupled with the thousands of existing small meetings happening each day.[5]Meeting planners should become familiar with this emerging opportunity because these spaces are affordable, flexible, progressive, and don’t think in long-term ways.

5.       Social media

Finally, one of the ongoing themes for 2010 will try and answer what effect social media will have on meetings or events. Social networking is obviously responsible for bringing lots of people together “virtually” to share ideas online and market important new causes. But, a big question still remains: can online replace face-to-face meetings? Nevertheless, as these events spread and grow, it could spell out an interesting new opportunity for meeting planners to chase.

About David Jennings

David Jennings is co-founder of Seattle-based eVenues, the first online public marketplace for meeting space. He has over 20 years of corporate and start-up development experience having worked at Microsoft, IBM, Yodio, and DiscoverU. eVenues was originally born in 2008 at DiscoverU, an adult learning network, where there was a need for a real-time meeting venue booking solution. Today, eVenues has close to 150 spaces in 30 markets with new venue sign-ups going live every day. For more information on eVenues or to visit the online marketplace to book meeting/event space, visit www.evenues.com. 

Hmmmm...you're probably asking yourself, what does "We support desk space" mean? No, we are not selling nice, ergonomic workspaces. For those, you can visit my friend Roger at www.workspaces.com.

Let's rewind...we're happy to announce that eVenues now supports listing available desk or office space. That means, if you are one of those companies that signed a large and long-term lease, but now don't think you're going to hit your growth plans, why not stage that space and list it on eVenues? It doesn't matter who you are...whether restaurant owner or foil manufacturer. We're beginning to spread the word about our unique work spaces whether they be a single desk space, conference room or open loft. We can now rent most any physical space for you - whether by the hour or day.

To quote one of our TV idols, 

"Spock out"

Coffee shop chains are beginning to "smell the coffee" (NPI). There seems to be a movement developing in busy coffee houses across the land where shops are beginning to ban "laptop loiters" who are preventing customers from pulling up a chair while they drink their jo. Granted, some of the loiters are probably legitimate customers, but many have long overstayed their welcome. Who knows where this will lead, but New York is beginning to get tough. Does anyone know where I might find a room?

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/trends/new_york_coffee_shops_hate_on_laptops_123679.asp

When I worked at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer coined a new phrase internal folks used to use to describe the state of our software. But, somehow, "Eat Your Own Dogfood" slipped out into the press. He didn't mean to imply we were making software that was on the same level as...mere dogfood. Rather, he meant to imply that we needed to sample or test our own wares, just as our customers eventually would.

Well, good lessons never die, and this week I pronouce as eVenues' Official Dogfood Week. We successfully dropped our new site onto our production site, but we're experiencing some intermittent hick-ups and page load delays. This entails us having to tune our Web Server so customers can receive the best performance and experience possible. Our developers are working on this feaverishly and we plan to update our source as soon as it's stable and ready.

Thank you for your patience as we eat our dogfood; we'll be ready to take that walk in the park soon!

David & the eVenues Team

We often get the question, "is there a certain type of space you should post on eVenues?

The answer is a resounding "No"; space is space is space. Case in point. Let's say a photographer dropped by eVenues looking for a venue to do a photo shoot in. Being an agent of short-term, short-notice space, eVenues can provide a bevy of space options all priced and available for a shoot at a moment's notice. Or, let's say a big company like Microsoft was searching for a unique venue for an offsite meeting. eVenues could supply an attractive list of alternative offsite venues, whether outdoor or indoor, with certain amenities available on a certain date.

So, there really is no requirement for space type. Space seekers typically seek different venues for whatever experience they're trying to create. Besides, isn't life's experiences all that really counts?

Do you have that perfect venue experience?

After 6 grueling months of overhauling the calendaring system, improving the overall venue registration, and adding a ton of marketing content...we're happy to announce and launch the Preview Release of eVenues 1.0 to our friends and family!

We've generated a lot of excitement among venue customers and prospective partners over the last several months. We even had our first SALE, despite our system being a prototype! Needless to say, everyone is psyched to try it out! Over the next several weeks we will be visiting 1:1 with venues around the Pacific Northwest to demo the system, educate on how to coexist their availability schedules, and begin to fill up the database. We'll also be optimizing our SEO and starting an aggressive Google PPC campaign to begin to attract users.

So, if you know of any unique venues that are receptive to booking by the hour or day and be flexible to posting their availability (open schedules), please send 'em our way.

Nuff said. I think it's time for a cold refreshment...

Despite the market downfall, we at eVenues would like to wish you a Happy and Most Promissing New Year!

Please be listening and watching for major new improvements to our system and a major launch in the coming months.

Cheers!

Team eVenues

Another good blog post by Max Kalehoff, writer for OnlineSpin, who lays out a good argument for including customers for planning any offsite meeting.

"Bottom line: customers are required to execute the most meaningful and effective management offsite meetings. They are the lifeblood of your business, so be sure to include them and make them central." - Max Kalehoff

Now, we just inspire management to come up with an effective venue!

http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/spin/?p=1376