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April 16, 2008
By Allan Maurer
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL-At a casual lunch in 2006, Mark Thomason,
co-founder and CEO of iConvene and co-founder David Krinker,
both self-described "geeks," discussed how time-consuming
it was to plan, book and manage meetings for their respective
non-profit organizations. "We scheduled travels worldwide online,
but to set up a meeting down the street required a lot of work,
driving around, and phone calls," Thomason says. They looked
and looked for something that would help, and finding nothing,
created a solution.
Thomason was completing his MBA at the time and did and
used his iConvene concept as a business case study that
turned out well. When he and Krinker later interviewed
people who might be potential vendors or users, "We heard a market need," he
says.
They founded and self-funded iConvene in November 2006 to solve
the problem. The company, which is seeking $1.5 million in new
funding, books meeting rooms, arranges for food, speakers, AV
and professional speakers for meetings.
The four-employee company's vision is to be the best one-stop-shop
for planning, booking, and managing small meeting places and
services on the Internet.
The potential market is huge. Market research firm Phocuswright
estimates the meetings market at $80 billion a year, not counting
travel and hotel costs.
The gift of time
The company's Web site explains, "If we do our job right,
we'll enable almost anyone to efficiently find and book
a meeting place, catering, A/V, and several other meeting
related services in just a few minutes...all while providing
a focused marketplace and eCommerce portal for businesses
selling these types of services."
Thomason says, "With iConvene, it will be like Travelocity.
You go to the site, find what you want, book it, and you're
done."
It would also help meeting planners select a motivational speaker
on a given topic.
The company is looking at providing entertainment appropriate
to business meetings such as upscale music (harp and flute,
a small jazz group). It currently works with a company that
will provide meet and greet mascots or something to break up
a meeting in a good way (such as Keystone Cops bursting in and
hauling someone out of the room).
"We're just testing the concept," says Thomason. "Our core
products are the room, food, and AV. We'll create packages."
A focus group the company convened with administrative
assistants determined that many spend from three hours
to three weeks planning and setting up a small meeting. "We ran through the iConvene
scenario and they accomplished it in 20 minutes counting the
preliminary questions and answers about iConvene," says
Thomason.
"We give them the gift of time," he says.
The service just went live last week and has yet to acquire
its first customers. While limited to Central Florida at the
moment, Thomason tells TechJournal South iConvene expects to
spread to other areas within a year. The company is hiring and
looking for people in development, marketing, sales and customer
service.
"We plan to start in Central Florida, learn, scale up operations
and spread nationwide in a focused way," says Thomason. "We'll
focus on certain metros," he adds, but declined to name
which might be next.
The company will present its business plan at the Florida Venture
Forum in Orlando, May 16.
On the Web: www.iconvene.com
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