"People who have been in the meetings industry for 20
years say there's been more change in the last three years than in the 17 years
before that," Etouches president & CEO Oni Chukwu said. Disparate
technologies have come together quickly in the past year. DoubleDutch, for
example, has pivoted from an isolated mobile app to pursue end-to-end meetings
management; Event Tech Tribe entered the scene as an integrated "collective."
For his part, Chukwu saw the writing on the wall when he joined Etouches four
years ago: "There was a clear need for a thoughtful platform. ... It was a
clear, mapped-out strategy."
In the past 18 months, Etouches debuted an Event ROI
analytics platform that not only collects and crunches data but also helps
define pertinent metrics. The company acquired and integrated sourcing
technology Zentila and on-site data-capture technology Loopd. Chukwu also led
Etouches through an acquisition by private equity firm HGGC. The move brought
more cash and the ability to build and develop even faster as the meetings
industry matures. "We are at the intersection between marketing
automation, customer relationship management and even enterprise resource
planning technology," Chukwu said.
Maturing data practices have brought privacy
responsibilities for meetings tech providers. Etouches was the first U.S.-based
meetings tech provider to be certified for Privacy Shield. It's also ready to
keep compliant under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation,
which will go into effect in May. "We have been at the forefront in making
sure event professionals understand their exposure to GDPR. We are the only
ones who have … built regional data centers in Europe and Asia. It becomes
almost impossible to do business with a European company if you don't have
that," Chukwu said. The industry can expect other meetings companies to
follow in these footsteps, as quickly as they can.