- Technology recognised for boosting productivity of hospitality and events business
Priava, the leading cloud-based venue management software company, is proud to announce that it won ‘Best Venue Booking Solution’ as part of the prestigious Event Technology Awards (ETA) 2017 held earlier this month at the Troxy in London.
The Event Technology Awards (ETA) acknowledge the achievements of companies that deliver innovative digital and technological solutions to the events industry. The awards are judged by an independent panel of industry experts and recognise different types of systems that are used by event and venue management professionals and attendees at events.
This year ETA added 5 new categories to the awards including Best Venue Booking Solution. This brand-new award aims to recognise systems that have been purpose-built to assist event and venue managers to capture their incoming enquiries, check availability and to help them to coordinate all of the details of their bookings in the lead up to the event date.
Mike Jeanes, Head of Sales EMEA for Priava, was in attendance at the event at London’s iconic art-deco, cinema venue, Troxy, “I was {{extremely proud to accept the Best Venue Booking Solution award on behalf of Priava}}. As a company, we are committed to listening to our customers so that we truly understand their needs and we then use this knowledge to create functionality that is intuitive and relevant for our users. Online Bookings is a primary example of this.”
New Online Bookings module increases productivity for venues
He continues, “We recognised from working closely with our customers that we needed to be able to further streamline booking processes. So, our development and support teams set to work on creating a brand-new module that enabled our customers to capture venue bookings via an external site that would be linked back to Priava with the aim of increasing productivity. I believe that this is what sets us apart from our competitors. We are agile and we not only respond to the needs of our customers, but we work to find a holistic solution that is futureproof and easy to use.”
Since it was launched in 2013, Priava has been committed to delivering cutting-edge cloud-based venue and event management solutions. Priava’s CEO, James Pegum, commented “At Priava, we continuously strive to be the leading provider of cloud-based venue and event management software and we are honoured to have received such a prestigious award. I believe that this award is testament to the calibre of staff that we have working across the globe and I would like to acknowledge and thank them for all their hard work and commitment.”
As a Venue Booking Solution, Priava provides venue managers with a number of key benefits including but not limited to:
1. Online Enquiries & Online Bookings Increases Productivity – Allows users to invest more time in coordinating upcoming events and business development activities;
2. Real-time Availability – Users can track venue occupancy and plan sales and marketing activities to boost revenue outside of peak periods;
3. Centralised System Encourages Collaboration – All users work from the same system and they can assign tasks to other users within their team;
4. Better Customer Service – Effective CRM means that users can quickly locate highly detailed client and company records which improves the customer service experience;
5. Greater Accessibility – System can be accessed at any time and from anywhere meaning that users can work away from their desks if/when required.
National Museums Liverpool supports 110% growth in hospitality & events business using Priava
In particular, this award recognised Priava’s work with Museums Liverpool Trading Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Museums Liverpool that boasts a range of venues including World Museum, the Museum of Liverpool, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Sudley House, Walker Art Gallery, and Lady Lever Art Gallery. Head of Events at National Museums Liverpool, Katie Roberts explains, “We have seen a significant rise, approximately 110%, in our commercial hire bookings and we knew that moving forward if we wanted to grow our overall income from event offerings, then the Excel-based system we were using just wouldn’t be conducive.”
In addition to the growth of the business, Katie explains that there are a number of other benefits that Museums Liverpool have also experienced since implementing Priava:
• Massive time-savings - “With the old system with a single booking we would typically have to input the same information 4 or 5 times from conception to completion, but with Priava you can simply pull everything through at the click of a button.”
• More time to meet targets - With the collective time saved, the events team now have more resources to spend with customers and be more proactive with new sales. “The team can now effectively reach more people not only because they have more capacity, but also because the technology assists with more effective marketing.”
• In-depth reporting crucial for sales and marketing - “Not only can we produce sales forecasts to the board in terms of what’s confirmed or provisioned we can also see who our ‘top bookers’ are. In the past, this would have taken 4-5 hours of trawling through every single file for the last few years, but with Priava it takes just a few seconds. We can offer special deals to loyal customers like if they book three times then we can give them a discount. We can also create reports on other key metrics such as what venues are used most and level of conversions which again helps us to understand where to focus our sales efforts.”
• Effectively manage ticketed Christmas party events using Master & Sub Events Event - Users can create a “master” event and attach “sub” bookings so that they are all linked. National Museums Liverpool use this feature to manage their Christmas party night bookings where they have the capacity for 1,000 guests. Using ‘Master and Subs’ they are able to create an overarching event and add mini bookings within the event for tables of 10. In turn, the system enables easy creation of individual contracts, pricing and invoicing for each sub-event. Katie explains, “We can then create reports on the success of various nights and we have all the information at our fingertips to encourage repeat bookings for the following year.”
About Priava’s Technology
Priava is a cloud-based and centralised event management & booking system aimed at venues of all sizes – from meeting rooms through to large stadia. With its familiar and easy-to-use web interface, the software requires minimal training, yet its powerful functionality provides all the complexities involved with multi-venue availability, including event logistics, CRM, sales & marketing, catering, business intelligence, equipment and resource requirements. Unlike other systems, all Priava customers are always on the same version of the software, so venues can always access the latest features and enjoy the benefits of being part of a global community of users.
Offered in the cloud as a service, Priava enables venue managers to arrange and plan future venue availability and review both customer history and ongoing operational trends in real time. The results are to boost the customer experience whilst maximising the venue’s overall efficiency, number of bookings and revenues.
Key modules that form part of Priava’s software include; an easy-to-use CRM system that allows users to add & edit contact, organisation and opportunity records with ease, Events & Bookings which combines the ability to access a sophisticated venue chart together with the ability to find, add & edit event bookings, Online Calendar & Enquiries which has been developed to boost efficiency for organisations that manage venues that need to be booked on a self-service basis such as internal meeting rooms or external facilities that are in high demand (e.g. sporting facilities, community halls etc.) Catering & Inventory allow users to attach food, beverages, resources and equipment to quotes and event bookings with advanced reporting on profits and losses as well as the ability to link to accounting packages, Advanced Permissions which enables administrators to control the information that users have access to, and Priava’s REST API which allows Priava to sync information with 3rd party systems.
Cloud software is being rapidly adopted by the venue and event management industry who demand fast, reliable and secure access to key information, at any time and from anywhere.
With minimal training, the Priava cloud platform enables venue managers to work on multiple events at the same time, rapidly locate any event, contact or account record, manage calendars, and review confirmed events. Using the standards-based REST API, Priava’s system can also be easily and quickly integrated with other complementary third party systems such as accounts or marketing.
About Priava
Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Priava is the World’s leading cloud-based venue management software company that specialises in delivering venue and event management solutions using the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) business model to a wide portfolio of niche markets in the venue and events sector. With additional presence in London, New York and Christchurch, the company supports a diverse range of venues across the globe from single venues through to 100+ multi-site operations.
Jane Moores
TTA Communications
jane.moores@ttacomms.co.uk
T: +44 1225 580214
M: +44 7966 176028
