micebook moves towards sharing ideas and identifying trends as it enters second year
Helping planners share their knowledge and benchmarking current industry trends are among the new developments for event planners hub micebook, which is entering its second year.
Over the past 12 months, the online hub has rolled out a supplier directory and built 300 destination guides from Abu Dhabi to Zambia. The micebook team has also unveiled a boards collaboration tool for buyers, who use the facility to connect, collaborate and network with suppliers. More than 400 eventprofs have also been entertained across four events.
Micebook founder and CEO Chetan Shah said: “The past year truly has been the most important for micebook. We have spent our first year ensuring that we deliver and live up to the expectations of our members. I am delighted with the achievements and momentum that micebook has built up, which is the result of many months of hard graft.”
He added: “We now have more than 5,500 event suppliers on the platform and more than 16,000 page views per month and it keeps on growing. I am excited to see how year two develops. The feedback that we’ve had overwhelmingly demonstrates the need for an interactive platform and online community, specifically built for the meetings and events industry. Using micebook saves hours for time-pressed planners and it’s fast becoming the go-to hub for buyers and suppliers to interact, connect and share up-to-the minute, relevant information and ideas.”
Micebook has rolled out its boards feature over the past six months and is in the process of demonstrating the feature to agency planners across the UK. The boards are a ‘Pinterest’ style online space where buyers can collate information and ideas for their personal reference or share them with colleagues. They are now in use more than 20 UK agencies including BI Worldwide, Strata, Pure Events, SevenEvents, Rede2, Black Tomato Agency, Penguins and TFI Group.
Emma North, Head of Incentives at Quintessentially Travel said micebook had helped the agency to cope with the challenges of short lead times and a continuous need to innovate.
“We need a tool that provides quick, streamlined contacts and information from a community that is trusted. For destinations where we don’t have a trusted partner, micebook is our first (and sometimes only) port of call. The boards ensure that we maximise on our collective supplier and destination knowledge and this in turn enables us to collectively learn a lot faster about the destinations we operate in and to ensure we operate to the highest standard possible. Micebook is one of the most relevant and useful communities both online and offline for what we do.”
As well as promoting the board’s feature, micebook will be focusing on its analytics capabilities and SEO for supplier members over the coming year.
Chetan Shah added: “As well as rolling out new features, micebook will continue its mission to become a trusted knowledge source for our industry and as an online community where buyers and suppliers can connect. We’ll also be continuing to help buyers and suppliers to network face-to-face with another of our popular industry events in July.”
“And we will be continuing to use innovative ways to reach out to planners, helping them to learn even more about industry-related topics at a time and place which suits them, with the launch of a new micebook podcast series.”