Business News first on FIR:
LEHI, Utah & NASHVILLE, Tenn.–()–RainFocus and Groups360 today announced a strategic alliance that will combine the unique competitive and technological advantages of each enterprise into a powerful, integrated event life cycle solution for meeting planners. This alliance brings together Groups360’s innovative online marketplace for hotel and venue sourcing with RainFocus’s comprehensive suite of event management technology.
Both companies are pouring their deep expertise across the meetings and events industry into improving the experiences of meeting planners, event professionals and attendees. Through this partnership, the two companies are eliminating the need for complex, outdated products by providing state-of-the-art visibility and powerful tools to boost ROI. Together, Groups360 and RainFocus offer meeting planners a comprehensive event management solution from planning to post-con.
Groups360’s proprietary platform, GroupSyncTM, delivers the first truly transparent, efficient and cost-effective online tool for meeting planners to source and book meetings and events across a wide selection of hotel and venue brands. In August 2019, four major hospitality companies—Accor, Hilton, IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) and Marriott International—invested a combined $50 million to enhance the GroupSync platform and transform the way meetings and events are booked to benefit both sides of the group-events transaction.
RainFocus is additionally transforming the events industry with its innovative technology. The company simplifies event success with a single intuitive platform for all event types, sizes and complexity. Fully integrating with marketing automation systems, RainFocus puts behavioral data to work and eliminates the need for multiple event technologies and vendors to manage events from start to finish.
“This alliance with RainFocus underscores our commitment to solving the needs of our meeting planner clients,” said Kemp Gallineau, CEO of Groups360. “We know that our customers are looking for an end-to-end technology solution that saves time and expense as they plan, manage and execute meetings and events across the country. RainFocus shares our customer-first and best-in-class technology orientation and we are excited about the prospects of our partnership and the impact on the marketplace.”
Event professionals will gain the following benefits:
- Intuitive, worldwide destination and venue sourcing across all hotel brands
- Integrated attendee behavioral insights tied to CRM tools
- Seamless management of attendee registration, housing and badging
- Built-in management of sponsors, speakers and exhibitors
“By joining with Groups360, we modernize the events industry by simplifying success for every event,” says President of RainFocus, Doug Baird. “Up until now, our clients required multiple tools to deliver a full range of events. Adding Groups360’s essential venue sourcing tool to our offering gives our clients a single streamlined experience to manage events of all sizes from one platform – from strategic meetings to marquee events.”
About RainFocus
RainFocus simplifies event marketing success by uniting conferences, meetings, strategic events, and trade shows with one insight-driven platform. By blending offline and online efforts, RainFocus eliminates the disjointed nature of traditional event marketing, empowering organizations to both measure and maximize success. Learn more at RainFocus.com.
About Groups360
Groups360 is simplifying and transforming the ways meetings are booked. The company’s online marketplace, GroupSync, using proprietary matching algorithms designed specifically for meeting planners, has helped place thousands of events at the right venue, saving planners time and money. GroupSync’s price predictor tool improves transparency, reducing time and effort required to book meetings for both the hotel and the planner. Groups360’s management team brings the right mix of innovative technology and industry expertise culled from decades of experience running the country’s largest convention hotels. Using GroupSync, planners can search for more than 177,000 properties in 225 countries and territories. Learn more at Groups360.com.