Planners Should Prepare for the Upcoming Event Tech Apocalypse

[00:00:00] Hey Keith

[00:00:00] Yes Tess

[00:00:01] How are event tech companies like dinosaurs?

[00:00:05] I don't know

[00:00:06] There's an asteroid coming and they don't even know it

[00:00:10] You're listening to The Event Tech Pull Up

[00:00:12] The show that brings you the good, the bad and the ugly of event technology

[00:00:17] With your hosts Tess Vismale of iSocialX and Keith Johnston of i3 Events

[00:00:23] Major things have been happening at the end of the year

[00:00:28] Well beyond the election and chaos and all the, what else is happening?

[00:00:34] There's sinkholes and people falling in sinkholes

[00:00:37] I know, that poor woman

[00:00:38] In the backyard?

[00:00:40] In her backyard, fell right into a sinkhole

[00:00:42] Getting my kitty kitty?

[00:00:45] That's what she was doing

[00:00:46] Oh my gosh

[00:00:48] So it sounds like possibly in our event tech world there's an apocalypse coming

[00:00:54] We got sinkholes and dictators and fires and oh, earthquake in California yesterday

[00:01:02] When I left Puerto Rico, it was an earthquake

[00:01:05] No way

[00:01:06] Yes

[00:01:07] That's because the island was just sad you were leaving

[00:01:09] That's what it was, I have to give back

[00:01:11] But I think there is an event tech apocalypse coming

[00:01:16] Now why do you say that?

[00:01:20] Well, we've been seeing the science for a while

[00:01:23] You know, you and I play in the event tech side of the industry pretty much 24-7

[00:01:29] And again, I don't want to name names

[00:01:31] I don't ever like to do that

[00:01:33] But we do know of a few companies that are probably not long for this world

[00:01:40] And there are a variety of reasons for that

[00:01:43] Which we'll kind of go through on our little list that we're going to speak from

[00:01:49] But there are changes coming

[00:01:51] And they're not all for the good

[00:01:53] And they are not slow changes

[00:01:56] No, some of them will be drastic and fast

[00:02:00] Are we ready for that though?

[00:02:03] I don't know

[00:02:04] So the first part of the apocalypse is going to be the consolidation

[00:02:13] And we've talked about consolidation over a few different episodes

[00:02:17] But you know, you've got private equity buying up a lot of companies

[00:02:21] Then they're buying the smaller competitors

[00:02:23] And so we're getting fewer and fewer event tech products

[00:02:26] Right?

[00:02:27] Which is basically taking things out of the gene pool, if you will

[00:02:32] And introducing bigger risks for planners who are selecting company A

[00:02:39] That gets swallowed by company B

[00:02:41] That gets right

[00:02:44] Consolidation is big and it's happening

[00:02:46] Can I say something that's controversial?

[00:02:49] Oh, please do

[00:02:50] It's almost like when they woke up the next day and say

[00:02:53] What is a tariff?

[00:02:59] I mean, I'm just saying

[00:03:02] I'm just tipped

[00:03:03] Because the concept around that drives prices up, right?

[00:03:08] Yes

[00:03:08] The concept around consolidating

[00:03:10] Drives prices up

[00:03:11] What?

[00:03:13] Which, yes

[00:03:13] So it's kind of like the consolidation tariff

[00:03:16] If you will

[00:03:19] But, well, and then beyond consolidation, right?

[00:03:22] We've got other

[00:03:24] We have other concerns too

[00:03:26] Which are the extinction event of bankruptcy and abrupt closures, right?

[00:03:34] We have seen a couple of the smaller event tech players just disappeared overnight, right?

[00:03:39] Over the past couple of years

[00:03:41] But I can

[00:03:42] I literally would take me two hands right now

[00:03:45] To count off the number of event tech companies that I know are in financial trouble

[00:03:51] Yeah, definitely

[00:03:52] And they're trying all that they can

[00:03:53] Especially the ones who are probably a little bit more bootstrapped

[00:03:57] The ones that

[00:04:00] It really hurts my feelings

[00:04:02] Because a lot of our friends are working for those companies

[00:04:07] As well as they're good people

[00:04:09] Who really truly believe in the mission

[00:04:11] Of trying to help us streamline our processes

[00:04:15] And are doing good work

[00:04:17] But that doesn't mean that they're going to survive

[00:04:19] No, in fact

[00:04:20] One of the ones that I know is in financial trouble

[00:04:25] Is actually one of the best virtual and hybrid platforms

[00:04:32] That I

[00:04:34] That I mean, I love the product

[00:04:36] I think that the product is amazing

[00:04:37] I think that the staff that work there are amazing

[00:04:40] I think everything about the product is perfect

[00:04:43] They are just not getting the user base

[00:04:47] And they've made a couple of bad decisions along the way

[00:04:50] Right?

[00:04:50] Which happens

[00:04:51] Right

[00:04:51] Which, you know, one is

[00:04:53] They went from one pricing model to a different pricing model

[00:04:57] But when they changed the pricing model

[00:04:59] It literally went

[00:05:01] And I'm going to use stupid numbers

[00:05:02] It went from being a dollar to a hundred dollars

[00:05:05] Yeah, that's different

[00:05:06] And so they drove out their existing customer base

[00:05:13] Because it got too expensive

[00:05:14] Yep

[00:05:14] And then now

[00:05:16] They're not bringing in a new customer base

[00:05:18] Because it got too expensive

[00:05:21] And they're going to pay for that

[00:05:23] And it's a shame to say

[00:05:24] But that's a company that

[00:05:26] If they're around in June

[00:05:27] I will be surprised

[00:05:28] Oh wow, that quick, huh?

[00:05:29] Yeah

[00:05:29] Well, we said it was some of these things

[00:05:31] I mean, it's like the asteroid

[00:05:32] And you've got to have some contingency plans in place

[00:05:36] Like, it's two

[00:05:37] There are two things

[00:05:39] Like, I mean, I'm not

[00:05:41] I'm not running a business like that

[00:05:43] But it would kind of think that

[00:05:45] If you needed to go to a hundred dollars

[00:05:47] And you'd create a product within that product

[00:05:49] Or a way in which

[00:05:50] Those people who were paying a dollar

[00:05:52] Could still remain your customers

[00:05:54] And then maybe you would grow them to a hundred dollars

[00:05:57] Because you've made them so successful

[00:05:59] That they're making good revenue

[00:06:01] And they're doing the things that they need to do

[00:06:04] With your tech

[00:06:05] To make them be better

[00:06:07] So then they can afford to give you the hundred dollars

[00:06:09] In a sense

[00:06:10] All right

[00:06:11] So you know AppSumo, right?

[00:06:14] No, I don't

[00:06:16] It's called a drug

[00:06:17] And it's an addiction

[00:06:18] It is

[00:06:19] So AppSumo is a place where you can go

[00:06:21] And you can get software

[00:06:23] For, it's a lifetime deal

[00:06:25] And they're great products, right?

[00:06:28] In fact, Airmeet

[00:06:29] Yeah

[00:06:29] Was one we all got

[00:06:31] Yeah

[00:06:31] So

[00:06:33] So

[00:06:35] And actually Airmeet did a pretty good job with this

[00:06:37] I was actually not going to use them as the example

[00:06:39] But they are

[00:06:39] So, you know

[00:06:40] After a few years

[00:06:41] You know

[00:06:42] You have all those people

[00:06:43] That are on these lifetime deals

[00:06:44] That they paid 49 or 79 or $149 for

[00:06:47] Not a lot of money

[00:06:48] Well, now you're making improvements to the product

[00:06:51] So that doesn't really work out

[00:06:53] When you gain 2,000 customers

[00:06:55] That paid a one-time fee

[00:06:57] So

[00:06:57] They did it in a good way

[00:06:59] Where they reached out to everyone who had an AppSumo plan

[00:07:01] And they said

[00:07:03] Hey, you can stay on that plan

[00:07:06] But it's never going to

[00:07:07] You're not going to see any more improvements

[00:07:09] We're going to have to spin that off

[00:07:10] And it's going to be its own thing

[00:07:12] Or

[00:07:12] You can switch over to this plan

[00:07:14] Here are some benefits we'll give you

[00:07:16] For being a long-time customer

[00:07:17] Yeah

[00:07:18] And everyone that I knew that used Airmeet went

[00:07:20] Oh, yeah, that's great

[00:07:21] And so they moved plans

[00:07:22] Right?

[00:07:23] So to your point

[00:07:24] Yeah

[00:07:24] I mean, if you're going to change your pricing model

[00:07:26] You have to accommodate the people that have been there

[00:07:28] That were your biggest supporters

[00:07:31] Yeah

[00:07:31] Yeah

[00:07:32] It's very, very, very important to do so

[00:07:34] So that kind of leads to our innovation bottlenecks that are happening

[00:07:40] And we're always talking about what that means

[00:07:42] It's just slowing down those tools that are really, truly innovative

[00:07:47] And pushing the envelope

[00:07:49] And, you know, solving the problems for real

[00:07:52] That we probably have had for a long time

[00:07:55] And that doesn't help

[00:07:58] Well, no

[00:08:00] And, you know, the consolidation and the bankruptcies

[00:08:03] Or above closures or sell-offs of these event tech companies

[00:08:06] You know, that does stifle innovation, right?

[00:08:10] It does kill the development of game-changing tools, right?

[00:08:17] And if you really think about it

[00:08:20] With the exception of AI

[00:08:24] What was the last true innovation that happened in the event industry for technology?

[00:08:30] They're really

[00:08:30] People

[00:08:31] You know what?

[00:08:32] If I would have said

[00:08:32] If I were to say the truth

[00:08:35] In terms of what we thought versus what happened

[00:08:37] A fucking mobile app

[00:08:39] Yeah

[00:08:40] That really

[00:08:41] I mean

[00:08:41] Yeah

[00:08:41] That was it

[00:08:42] That was literally the last true innovation

[00:08:46] You know

[00:08:47] There have been some that have kind of come along

[00:08:49] But then got killed off

[00:08:50] A boom set

[00:08:52] You know, doing print-on-demand badges and things like that

[00:08:54] They had a really unique way of

[00:08:56] Of

[00:08:57] A planner being able to implement that on their own

[00:09:00] Right?

[00:09:01] But Hoppin bought them and killed them

[00:09:05] Dead now

[00:09:06] Yeah

[00:09:07] Well, what about surviving that price surge?

[00:09:10] So you talked about Air Me going up

[00:09:11] But they went up in a really nice kind of cool way

[00:09:15] But what is that cost of that monopoly?

[00:09:23] Event tech is getting too expensive

[00:09:26] And I think that the cost of the tech

[00:09:30] Is outpacing the ability of a lot

[00:09:37] Of 90% of events being able to afford it

[00:09:41] I totally agree

[00:09:43] You know, if you look at tools that were developed

[00:09:48] For

[00:09:51] The Bugattis of event tech

[00:09:53] If you will

[00:09:54] Right?

[00:09:55] The Ferraris of event tech

[00:09:56] Bizabo

[00:09:56] Right?

[00:09:57] It's not for everyone

[00:09:59] No

[00:09:59] It has a specific niche

[00:10:00] It is way up high on that totem

[00:10:02] Yeah

[00:10:03] Exactly

[00:10:03] But all of the lower players

[00:10:06] Are trying to

[00:10:07] Be that

[00:10:08] And want that

[00:10:09] And so they're pricing accordingly

[00:10:11] Without the feature sets to match

[00:10:14] And what's happening is

[00:10:16] Regular small medium sized associations

[00:10:19] You know, smaller

[00:10:21] B2B type companies

[00:10:23] Can't utilize the tech anymore

[00:10:25] Because even

[00:10:28] Ridiculous event tech

[00:10:29] You know, like even if you look at

[00:10:31] At some of the awesome low cost players

[00:10:34] That used to be around

[00:10:35] Right?

[00:10:36] Like the Reg Foxes of the world

[00:10:37] Yeah

[00:10:38] Which great

[00:10:39] Which is a great registration product

[00:10:41] They used to charge like 99 cents a registration

[00:10:43] They've now gone up

[00:10:44] If you look at Aventi

[00:10:46] Which was my pick to replace a Tendify

[00:10:49] When Hoppin bought a Tendify

[00:10:51] Aventi was kind of the next logical

[00:10:52] They were kind of in that same price point

[00:10:54] Even they have raised their prices

[00:10:57] In a way that people are starting to step back and go

[00:11:01] Whoa

[00:11:02] Yeah

[00:11:03] And it's

[00:11:04] And it's

[00:11:04] And the thing is

[00:11:05] Is it's not like people are getting more budgets

[00:11:07] To do more things

[00:11:08] Like

[00:11:09] And again

[00:11:10] The way that I look at this

[00:11:12] When we're talking about price surges

[00:11:14] And how to

[00:11:14] And

[00:11:15] Is that

[00:11:16] The example around

[00:11:18] When you're creating blended audiences experiences

[00:11:22] Which

[00:11:22] AKA hybrid

[00:11:23] But I like blended audiences better

[00:11:27] When

[00:11:28] Corona came

[00:11:29] Which is your friend

[00:11:30] Right?

[00:11:31] The Rona

[00:11:31] The Rona

[00:11:32] As you say

[00:11:33] Yeah

[00:11:33] The Rona

[00:11:33] Sorry

[00:11:33] When the Rona came

[00:11:35] And everyone pushed to do it

[00:11:37] Or forced

[00:11:38] In a sense

[00:11:39] Quote unquote

[00:11:39] To do it

[00:11:41] And looking at it

[00:11:43] Virtual became

[00:11:45] Exciting for people

[00:11:46] They were opened up

[00:11:48] To doing the blended audience experiences

[00:11:51] And then all of a sudden

[00:11:53] They used

[00:11:54] In my mind

[00:11:55] The excuse that it was too expensive

[00:11:57] Not to continue to create

[00:12:00] Those type of experiences

[00:12:01] Which were innovative

[00:12:03] So that all could receive the content

[00:12:05] And not just people

[00:12:07] Who could physically

[00:12:07] Walk into a room on site

[00:12:09] And again

[00:12:11] That is how

[00:12:12] Innovation

[00:12:13] Innovation stops

[00:12:15] In our world

[00:12:17] Yeah

[00:12:19] And then

[00:12:20] So there's a kind of a flip side on that

[00:12:22] Is

[00:12:23] One of the things

[00:12:24] Is event registration costs

[00:12:26] Have gotten

[00:12:27] Fucking ridiculous

[00:12:29] Right?

[00:12:30] You have some companies now

[00:12:31] That are charging

[00:12:32] Four

[00:12:32] Eight

[00:12:33] Ten dollars

[00:12:34] For an online registration

[00:12:35] Right?

[00:12:36] And it's like

[00:12:37] Really?

[00:12:37] It's a form

[00:12:38] That somebody clicks submit

[00:12:40] Right?

[00:12:41] They might pay for something

[00:12:42] Right?

[00:12:42] Whatever

[00:12:42] It's not

[00:12:44] Eight dollars worth of service

[00:12:45] Per attendee

[00:12:46] Especially when you're talking about

[00:12:48] Five thousand attendees

[00:12:49] Right?

[00:12:49] Whatever

[00:12:50] So

[00:12:51] The innovation flip side on that

[00:12:54] Is

[00:12:55] With 80% of our clients now

[00:12:57] They've all come and said

[00:12:58] This is ridiculous

[00:12:59] To pay all this money

[00:13:01] And literally

[00:13:02] We have now used

[00:13:03] Other tools

[00:13:04] To build

[00:13:05] I'll use your word

[00:13:07] Bespoke

[00:13:07] Registration systems

[00:13:09] That are

[00:13:10] That literally

[00:13:11] Cost them

[00:13:13] 20 cents a registration

[00:13:15] And they work

[00:13:17] And there's no problem

[00:13:18] And literally

[00:13:20] We're avoiding

[00:13:21] The

[00:13:21] Tech platforms

[00:13:23] With a passion

[00:13:24] Exactly

[00:13:25] And that's not

[00:13:27] Good

[00:13:28] No it isn't good

[00:13:29] And then

[00:13:30] What that can also breed is

[00:13:35] How can I say this?

[00:13:37] The sense of

[00:13:39] Well we can do it ourselves

[00:13:40] And then with the invention

[00:13:42] Of AI

[00:13:44] Educating people on things

[00:13:47] That person

[00:13:48] Who's studying

[00:13:49] How to do those

[00:13:50] Automations

[00:13:50] That way

[00:13:52] They're not gonna

[00:13:53] Pick an event

[00:13:54] Tech tool

[00:13:55] To do that

[00:13:55] They're just gonna

[00:13:56] Create automations

[00:13:57] All day long

[00:13:58] And get it done

[00:13:59] Well

[00:14:01] I'll give you

[00:14:01] The nth degree

[00:14:03] On that

[00:14:03] Is

[00:14:04] So we used

[00:14:06] There's a

[00:14:07] WordPress plugin

[00:14:07] Called Gravity Forms

[00:14:08] The best form plugin

[00:14:09] Out there

[00:14:09] It is great

[00:14:10] To do registration

[00:14:11] So

[00:14:12] So

[00:14:13] There's also

[00:14:14] A no code

[00:14:15] App builder

[00:14:16] Out there

[00:14:18] So we have a client

[00:14:19] That has a pretty robust

[00:14:20] IT department

[00:14:21] And this IT department

[00:14:23] Actually has

[00:14:24] A good free reign

[00:14:27] To play

[00:14:28] They have

[00:14:28] They can

[00:14:29] They can make up

[00:14:30] Their own playground

[00:14:31] And so we actually

[00:14:32] They went and got

[00:14:33] A no code builder

[00:14:34] For

[00:14:35] They

[00:14:35] I think they actually

[00:14:36] Did get it on AppSumo

[00:14:37] Right

[00:14:38] For like $59

[00:14:39] They actually

[00:14:41] Created an event app

[00:14:43] In the no code builder

[00:14:45] Which we were then

[00:14:46] Able to push

[00:14:47] Data from Gravity Forms

[00:14:48] Into that app

[00:14:50] They never

[00:14:52] Touched the event

[00:14:53] Tech ecosystem

[00:14:54] See

[00:14:54] That's exactly

[00:14:55] The example

[00:14:56] I'm talking about

[00:14:56] Exactly

[00:14:57] The example

[00:14:58] So

[00:14:59] Now again

[00:15:00] Can most organizations

[00:15:01] Do that

[00:15:02] No

[00:15:02] Because they don't

[00:15:03] Necessarily have an

[00:15:03] IT department

[00:15:04] That

[00:15:05] Could geek out

[00:15:06] Like that

[00:15:07] It's on its own

[00:15:08] Some do

[00:15:09] But on average

[00:15:10] Don't have the time

[00:15:11] Or you know

[00:15:12] All the things

[00:15:13] But

[00:15:13] But it's just

[00:15:14] The idea

[00:15:15] Around it

[00:15:16] Because

[00:15:17] You are

[00:15:18] What has happened

[00:15:19] Is they have

[00:15:20] Created

[00:15:21] An environment

[00:15:22] That does not

[00:15:24] Support

[00:15:24] And or

[00:15:25] Embrace

[00:15:26] Innovation

[00:15:27] Boom

[00:15:31] Well

[00:15:31] And we do

[00:15:32] Have one more

[00:15:33] Cause

[00:15:33] And it

[00:15:35] Goes right

[00:15:36] From that

[00:15:36] And people

[00:15:38] Need

[00:15:39] To start

[00:15:40] Future proofing

[00:15:42] Their tech stack

[00:15:43] Right

[00:15:44] You need

[00:15:44] With any piece

[00:15:46] Of event tech

[00:15:46] That you have

[00:15:47] You really need

[00:15:49] To know

[00:15:49] What the alternative

[00:15:50] Is

[00:15:51] In case

[00:15:51] Your product

[00:15:52] Goes belly up

[00:15:53] Oh gosh

[00:15:54] We should do

[00:15:55] A whole

[00:15:56] Episode

[00:15:57] Just on that

[00:15:59] We should

[00:15:59] If this

[00:16:00] Then that

[00:16:01] If this happens

[00:16:01] If this registration

[00:16:03] System fails

[00:16:03] We're going

[00:16:04] To use

[00:16:04] This one

[00:16:05] If this app

[00:16:06] Fails

[00:16:06] We're going

[00:16:06] To use

[00:16:07] This one

[00:16:07] I got

[00:16:07] Five on it

[00:16:08] We're going

[00:16:08] To do

[00:16:08] Five of them

[00:16:09] Five episodes

[00:16:10] Or five

[00:16:11] Five systems

[00:16:11] Within

[00:16:12] One episode

[00:16:13] Around

[00:16:14] Or five

[00:16:14] Different solutions

[00:16:15] I should say

[00:16:16] Around

[00:16:17] Yeah

[00:16:17] Let's do that

[00:16:18] Alright

[00:16:18] We'll catch

[00:16:19] Them on the

[00:16:19] Next time

[00:16:20] Thanks for

[00:16:21] Joining us

[00:16:21] This week

[00:16:22] On the

[00:16:22] Event tech

[00:16:23] Pull up

[00:16:23] Make sure

[00:16:24] To visit

[00:16:25] Our website

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