As Meetings West celebrates its 20th Anniversary, it is a natural time to look back at the meetings technology developments occurring during this time.
1987
It is an understatement to say that the year 1987 was a very different place technologically than today. The Mac Computer had just been released three years previously, Windows 1.0 was two years old, and email and the World Wide Web as we know them had not yet been invented. The fax machine was just entering the marketplace with the number of units doubling to 2.5 million in the next two years. PowerPoint 1.0 (originally call Presenter) was released this year providing only monochrome images, one transition and only available for the Mac.
Yet the wave of computerization was beginning to making changes in the meetings industry. Three meeting management software database programs were available: Amlink, MeetingPro/Peopleware and MeetingTrak. The first room diagramming software had just been invented (MeetingMatrix), and, in 1987, MPI formed the one of the first meeting industry technology groups: the Computer Special Interest Group.
The large registration companies had developed computerized badge production and lead retrieval (via embossed plastic “credit” cards) for the tradeshow industry.
1988
1988 saw the beginnings of hospitality industry digitization. Sixteen hotel chains contributed $100,000 each to fund a start-up company, The Hotel Industry Switch Co., to electronically link the global distribution system companies, such as Sabre, with hotels’ computerized reservation systems. THISCO eventually became Pegasus, and now processes more than 300 million transactions per month.
Also, 1D barcode emerges as the first generation of paper-based automated lead systems for tradeshows appeared in 1988.
1989-1990
As the number of computers in worldwide use surpassed 100 million units (up from 1 million units in 1980), two companies, PCNametag and LasersEdge developed software for laser-printer badges.
1989 is also the year that Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.
1991-1992
As computer manufacturers introduced portable computers (laptop computers) calling them “freedom machines,” PlanSoft began the development of Ajenis, the first attempt to standardize meeting specification communications between meeting planners and hoteliers. The software eventually rolled out in 1995 but is not widely adopted, in part because of rising competition with Web-based tools.
In 1991, School Home Office Products Association is the first group to use smart cards (plastic cards with integrated computer chips) for lead retrieval at its trade show.
1993
1993 was a pivotal year in technology development. America Online and CompuServe connected their proprietary email systems to the Internet, beginning the large scale adoption of Internet email as a global standard.
As an example, MPINet, the first online discussion group for meeting professionals, was created as a forum on CompuServe. The formation committee met in December 1993, and the service came online the following month. It grew to more than 2,500 members before closing in 1997 – for most of the members this was their first experience with email.
At the beginning of 1993, the World Wide Web had a total of 130 sites growing to billions of uniquely addressable pages today.
1994
To keep track of Web sites of interest to them, two Stanford students create “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web,” soon renamed Yahoo!.
The first software product to track meeting spend and sourcing was introduced by McGettigan Partners (now Maritz McGettigan). This evolved into Core Discovery, originally provided only to McGettigan clients. In 1998, the company releases an upgraded version with a Web interface to the general public under the name Real-Planner. In 1999, this evolved into a separate company, StarCite, as a package of Web-based sourcing and consolidation solutions.
The first blog (online journal) was started by Justin Hall. As of November, 2006, Technorati was tracking nearly 60 million blogs with several targeted to the meetings industry.
1995
PlanSoft started work on www.plansoft.com (now www.mpoint.com), the first comprehensive searchable meeting facilities database combined with a request for proposal engine. This was a unique consortium of a privately held company (PlanSoft), two associations (MPI and the American Society of Association Executives), and three hotel companies (Marriott, Sheraton, and Hyatt Hotels). It came online in 1997.
Holiday Inn provided the first hotel Web site with online purchasing of sleeping rooms.
Very significant in their eventual impact, the first online meeting registration tools emerged — all hand-coded by Web programmers.
1996-1997
The San Francisco Miyako (now Radisson) Hotel offered the first online request for proposal, built by Cardinal Communications.
Passkey, one of the original online housing companies, was founded by hotelier Bob Motley and meeting planner Brian Layton. The first Passkey-enabled single property meeting is for Sheraton Corp. in New Orleans for 900 people in 1998.
Cardinal Communications created the Meeting Industry Mall, the first Web-based interactive meeting industry portal.
Most of the major hotel corporations and meeting industry associations developed web sites during this time.
The first template-based meeting registration tool was released: RegWeb by Cardinal Communications. This allowed planners to set up semi-customized registration pages without a Web designer. This was the precursor to the hundreds of application service providers to follow.
1998
Lee Travel provided the first generation of an online integrated housing, registration, and air-booking product that incorporated zone fares.
1999
EventSource (which became ProcurePoint and is now out of business) and StarCite provided online auctions for the sale of meeting space.
HotDatesHotRates.com was one of the first Web sites to offer “distressed inventory” — hotel meeting space and sleeping rooms — usually at short notice and at discounted rates.
September1999 - seeUthere.com launches the first commercial event planning application service provider (ASP) - renting Web-based meeting applications (versus software installed directly onto a computer) for corporations, associations and paid meetings, with online credit card acceptance for registration fees. Evite.com at about the same time launches a consumer-oriented site, which is eventually purchased by Ticketmaster. At this time, there were no other ASP registration systems on the market
Some technology pundits predicted a total computer system collapse because of the Y2K bug (the inability of older computers to distinguish between the year 1900 and the year 2000). Almost no problems are encountered in the New Year.
2000
Application service providers — companies that rent Web-based meeting applications (versus software installed directly onto a computer) — exploded onto the scene, fuelled by enthusiastic venture capitalist funding. Several of these companies did not last past the bust in 2001.
The first virtual trade show, ExpoExchange, was held.
Shockfish’s SpotMe PDA device debuted, with a wireless hand-held networking device allowing attendees to see pictures and contact information of other attendees standing within 20 feet of them.
GetThere Direct Meetings provided the first online group space reservation tool. This was followed in 2003 by other group room block reservation tools such as Groople and Hotel Planner, primarily for small meetings.
APEX (Accepted Practice Exchange) initiative was started by the Convention Industry Council (www.conventionindustry.org) – the first voluntary standards initiative for the meetings industry.
2001
Use of online meeting and collaboration tools such as WebEx and PlaceWare (now LiveMeeting) spiked after September 11.
November 12th: seeUthere.com and TRX ResAssist offer the first online, real-time group air-booking product.
StarCite offered the first Web-based, two-way, real-time RFP tool for meeting space and rooms.
2002
Hyatt rolled out E-mmediate Meetings, an online meeting-booking tool designed for small meetings. From this came E-mmediate Response, the first real-time, two-way connection between an RFP site (in this case StarCite) and a hotel sales system.
Web-based business meetings matchmaking programs were developed this year. The first was Columbia Resource Group’s (www.crgevents.com) Rio product. Others to follow are IntroNetworks (www.intronetworks.com) and ExpoExchange’s Smart Event (www.expoexchange.com/products/rs_smartevent.html). Similar to the widely used social matchmaking programs such as www.match.com, these programs assisted attendees to find people of like interests at meetings.
Mobile web logs (MoBlogs) were first used in a meetings setting with technology companies leading the way.
StarCite working with Outtask, Inc. offered the second online real-time group air booking product.
2003
Intellibadge is the first to use RFID (radio frequency identification) to track attendee movements in the exhibit hall and meeting rooms for IEEE meetings.
Intel incorporated Wi-Fi (wireless internet receiving capability) in their Centrino chip. Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) wireless high speed internet access now widely deployed in hotels, convention centres and airport.
The first product from APEX (the online glossary - http://glossary.conventionindustry.org/) was delivered.
2004
The number of online bookings for Hilton Hotel exceeds those of their call centres.
Two of the major meetings consolidation vendors, PlanSoft and SeeUThere, merge to form OnVantage
The phrase “Web 2.0” the second generation of the web with heavy emphasis on interactivity, was coined by O’Reilly Media with huge potential for the meetings industry.
2005
Further progress is made with the APEX standards initiative. Significant advances are made for recommended voluntary standards including meeting history, request for proposals, housing/registration. The APEX Toolbox 1.0 is released with templates for RFPs and other tools.
The two oldest meeting planning software firms (Peopleware and Amlink) merge.
In May 2005, Travent Ltd., in conjunction with OnVantage and American Express, launched the first integration of a Corporate Meetings Card as a procurement method for online meetings budget and expense management.
2006
The two largest meetings consolidation technology vendors, OnVantage (a merger of PlanSoft and SeeUThere) and StarCite (a merger of StarCite, b-There and RegWeb) merge. This was the meetings industry equivalent of Microsoft and Apple merging.
iTunes downloaded its billionth file in May of 2006 indicating not only a trend in music but in the strengths in Podcasting, an application with great potential for events industry.
APEX and other standards initiative continue to make progress with efforts in developing an XML data map – which will eventually allow for electronic data interchange (EDI) – true data standards for the meetings industry.
Web 2.0 technology is increasingly used by the meetings industry allowing greater interactivity and variety of methods to get online information including blogs, video blogs, Wikis (interactive web sites), and mashup sites (web sites that combine information from other sites).
Mobile phone technology, such as www.log-on.nl, move into the meetings space, providing a variety of tools such as product directories, networking functions, schedules, and audience voting via standard web-enabled cell phones.
The Next 10 Years
It has been an amazing ride in the past twenty years. But hold onto your hats, as the rate of change is accelerating – things will likely change as much in the next ten years as they have in the past twenty. The good news is that as the systems mature, things will get easier with smarter technology. However, an attitude that embraces and thrives on change will be one that should be encouraged, internally nurtured, and considered when making hiring decisions – it will be a key characteristic for success.
