Colloquium wins IAPCO Innovation Award for budgeting technology

Elvire de Chalus of Colloquium was named the winner of the IAPCO Driving Excellence Innovation Award 2019. Collloquium Numbr is a budget management tool the company created for event planners and suppliers. Christophe Painvin accepted the award from IAPCO President Mathias Posch on Elvire’s behalf at the recent IMEX Gala Evening in Frankfurt. Posch said: “Our two finalists this year – Elvire de Chalus, Colloquium, and Veysel Guzel, Kenes Group – were confronting very different problems, be it to co-locate an event that grew to 15,300 delegates in a venue fit for 8,000, or to create a brand-new application that addresses the ongoing issue of financial management in a complex international industry like ours. Both have displayed operational excellence and innovative spirit that showcases the incredible talent that we have in our industry.” Winner Elvire said: “The way you draw up a budget will influence the whole event organisation. As a PCO, we were looking for a digital tool that would allow us to monitor our event’s budget and our event’s data. Although we receive tons of emails about new event tools every day, none of them matched our needs. Most are mainly about either registrations or marketing, which is only a part of our work and so we decided to create our own tool: ‘Colloquium Numbr’. Reviewing a budget on a regular basis is a key tool in managing an event…but it is time-consuming. “From budget creation to the closing process, Colloquium Numbr assists the project manager in each step of the budget. It can just select a budget template (preloaded or customised) and start to manage its budget… At any time, Colloquium Numbr will calculate an accurate evaluation of income and expenses in order to help the project manager to make good decisions. Colloquium Numbr also assists the project manager in selecting suppliers, specifying its needs and analysing proposals. Once it has made its decision, you validate the offer and Colloquium Numbr will automatically update its budget accordingly.” The IAPCO Innovation award is in its fifth year and the two finalists this year presented their concepts to the IAPCO Annual Meeting in Basel for the final vote. IAPCO (International Association of Professional Congress Organisers) today, represents 133 companies comprised of over 9,100 professional congress organisers, meeting planners and managers of international and national congresses, conventions and special events from 40 countries.   Photo L-R: Martin Boyle, CEO, IAPCO; Christophe Painvin, Colloquium; Sezen Elagoz, Kenes Group; Mathias Posch, President, IAPCO