A new brand, a new name in Momentus Technologies – how did this all come about? And why?
With the backing of Cove Hill Partners, over the past two years, we acquired the world’s leading venue and event management solutions, including EventBooking, Priava, ShoWorks, RiskSense and, most recently, WeTrack. By joining forces with other best-of-breed platforms, our goal was to accelerate innovation for the industry and enhance the level of service that we provide our customers.
In bringing together so many different companies, it was important for us to unite our products and our global teams under a single brand. Momentus Technologies was chosen as the name because it evokes huge, impactful occasions and events and speaks to the lasting impact that gathering to learn and share together can have on our lives. Keeping the Ungerboeck blue in the branding creates a connection to the legacy that the brand has carried for decades, while simultaneously representing who we are now and our vision for the future. This change represents a new phase for the company, bringing a renewed energy and passion for the venue and events industry while maintaining and growing our customer-centric mission. As an added bonus, our clients are in the business of creating “moments” and experiences for the people who attend their events, so we feel the play on the word Momentous fits nicely.
How has the new brand been received?
The feedback has been amazing. Everyone we talk to or hear from seems genuinely excited about the new brand!
You mentioned several acquisitions, are these still firmly part of Momentus?
Yes, all the functionality from our recent acquisitions, as well as the Ungerboeck platform, have their place on our product roadmap. We want to be able to offer venues the right venue management solution to solve their unique business requirements, as well as having complementary platforms that address specific pain points for our customers such as risk management, issue and incident tracking, and sustainability.
How does 2023/2024 look in terms of business?
Led by our new CEO, Alex Alexandrov, our new leadership team has already brought considerable change to the organization, and we have big plans for the future. In particular, we will improve both our product and service offering to support our mission to empower our customers globally to create extraordinary moments, and we will be guided by our new core values – passion, speed, focus, innovation and humility.
We are and always have been committed to continuously innovating and evolving our venue and event management platforms to provide access to all the best resources, all in one place. As part of this mission, we will be releasing a new product strategy in 2023. This strategy will include new packaging, and a greater focus on enhancing our API to allow our customers to integrate our platforms with the other applications they use across their organizations.
In my new role as Chief Innovation Officer, I recently launched our Worldwide Innovation Lab initiative, which brings together industry experts from across the globe to explore, test and scale future-ready solutions for venues and events. These experts will not only include our customers, but also our industry partners from key event and venue management associations worldwide.
As part of this initiative, we are hosting an Innovation Summit in Australia in May. This event is the first in-person event where leading venues and events innovators gather to discuss the latest trends and share best practices to drive technology innovation. Further events will be announced in 2024 and beyond.
So, with all these building blocks now firmly in place, the rest of 2023 and 2024 are looking excellent for our clients and our business.
Who or what is your ideal target market? What can you tell us about what Momentus offers as a tech platform? Who is it best suited for?
We provide end-to-end venue and event management solutions for venues worldwide. We currently support convention and exhibition centers, universities and colleges, corporate workplaces, stadiums and arenas, arts and culture centers, and more unique venues, but our solutions can be used to support any organization that needs to manage bookings or coordinate event details for any type of space, facility or room.
We currently have over 50,000 users in more than 50 countries who leverage our platforms to increase end-to-end visibility, optimize efficiency and achieve their business goals. We also offer a range of optional add-on modules that allow our customers to address specific challenges like online space bookings, online payment portals, risk management tools and sustainability tracking functionality.
Sustainability is a key part of the events industry these days, is this something tech companies have to consider? How?
Yes, very much so! Venues and event organizers worldwide are being called to take responsibility for their environmental impact and many are implementing sustainable strategies, including reducing paper waste, eliminating single-use plastics, offering virtual/hybrid event options, promoting sustainable menu choices (i.e., meat-free or plant-based options), and proposing carbon offset packages to compensate for the emissions produced at events. That’s why we recently acquired WeTrack as they are a leader in sustainability, project management incident tracking and control room software. This solution will allow our customers to define and track their goals and measure their performance all in one system so they can provide accurate reports for their clients and stakeholders.
Besides providing software to assist venues in their own sustainability journey, we also have a responsibility as a company to ensure we are following best practices in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR)/environmental, social and governance (ESG). With this in mind, we have formed an internal working committee – of which I am part – who are focused on aligning our company policies and procedures with the United Nations sustainable development goals over the next several years.
What current trends should eventprofs be taking notice of?
In my role as a chief innovation officer, I often get asked what the next “big thing” is in relation to venues, events and technology. So, here are my predictions for the top trends that will emerge in the next half of 2023:
- More venues and event organizers adopting sustainable event practices.
- A bigger focus on event risk management.
- Venues adopting automated processes to manage staffing shortages manage ongoing staffing shortages.
- Increased awareness on the importance of maintaining cutting-edge data security and privacy practices to keep client and company data safe.
- Greater emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusiveness to meet the needs of event attendees.
- Increase in the usage of artificial intelligence at events.
- Increase in the number of events and venues in the metaverse.
What makes an event successful and how do you measure that success?
In my opinion, the success of an event depends on the goals set for each specific event. That said, here are some measures that you can use to determine success:
- What did the attendees take away from it that they deemed valuable?
- Was the event executed in a safe, professional and inclusive manner?
- Did the event meet our attendance and revenue goals?
You work with a lot of event venues, what is the best way to choose an event venue?
I am sure everyone has their own outlook on this, but, in my opinion, the best way to choose an event venue is based on a few factors:
- Does the venue provide the right setting and environment to create the outcome you are looking for?
- Ensure the venue meets your budgetary requirements
- Is the location easy for most of your attendees to travel to?
- Does it offer the services you need (I.e., meeting rooms, catering, AV services, etc.)
- Always do some form of site inspection – Nothing beats seeing the space firsthand!
Can you give some examples of how you adapt to working in a variety of geographical and cultural environments? How mindful do you need to be of changing rules and regulations, as well as the different business etiquette involved?
As a global organization, we must be mindful of the nuances of conducting business in different geographic locations. I believe it is especially important to have local expertise across every aspect of your business as much as possible. Example, customer-facing staff should speak the local language, and you should also engage local specialists who can help you to understand the tax and employment laws in whatever location you are working in.
Culturally, I have found it beneficial to take the time to really understand subtle nuances around etiquette for things like introductions, dining, gift giving and so on. Especially as an American-owned company, where some of these subtilties can be easy overlooked. As I always remind our team, we are not an American company doing business overseas, we are a truly international company.
What’s a key lesson Momentus has learned from the past few years that will stand you in good stead for the next 12-18months?
I think the biggest “lesson” our leadership team has experienced recently is the importance of listening to our clients. At the end of the day, we make software and provide the associated services to help our clients do their jobs as efficiently as possible. The events industry is a service industry, so we need to ensure we are more focused on that service mindset too. We always want to be better, and our clients should hold us accountable.
