Powerful Tool Delivers Intelligence and Travel Data for Well-Informed and Environmentally Responsible Corporate Events Planning and Spend Management
San Diego, CA —July 12, 2012 — Active Network, Inc. (NYSE: ACTV), the leader in cloud-based activity and participant management™ solutions, today launched Meeting Locator – an intelligent, easy-to-use tool that helps meeting planners and travel managers make well-researched and informed decisions when choosing destinations for any business event. Now available as part of the company’s StarCite® strategic meetings management (SMM) platform, Meeting Locator quickly delivers advice based on global data from the industry’s leading travel and meeting spend platforms.
Active Network has partnered with business travel management leader Carson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) to eliminate the tedious and expensive guesswork from the meeting planning process. Instead of spending hours researching airfare, destinations, hotel room rates and more, meeting planners simply enter the dates of their meeting and the attendees’ departure cities into the Meeting Locator tool. Meeting Locator is integrated within the StarCite Spend Management software and employs information from CWT’s vast travel database to find cost-effective and environmentally friendly destinations, along with their associated costs.
“Traditional approaches to determining meeting locations are inefficient and laborious,” said JR Sherman, SVP of Business Solutions at Active Network. “With increasing scrutiny on spend management and compliance with travel policy requirements, it’s paramount that corporate meeting planners have the best technology at their fingertips. Meeting Locator gives them the robust, integrated, intelligence they need to help make sound business decisions backed by global data from the industry’s leading travel and meeting spend platforms.”
Meeting Locator optimizes its recommendations based on hundreds of thousands of variables, including historical airfare and room rates, carbon emissions and the cost and availability of telepresence for those unable to attend in-person. The powerful tool can easily identify meeting destinations that meet corporate goals for budget or environmental compliance. By leveraging global travel and lodging data, and support for more than 100 currencies, it can help meeting planners organize events anywhere in the world. Furthermore, Meeting Locator is conveniently integrated within the StarCite Spend Management workflow and approval process to help accelerate decision-making.
According to Christopher Dwyer, senior research analyst of Aberdeen Research, “Nine percent of the average organization's total budget is spent on corporate meetings and events. With this figure expected to increase by nearly 20 percent over the next two years (and with more and more organizations perceiving this function as having strategic value), companies across the globe must enhance their existing meetings management programs with next-generation strategies, approaches and solutions.”
Meeting Locator is available immediately to existing worldwide customers using the StarCite SMM platform. StarCite customers can contact their global account manager to get started with the Meeting Locator tool. Prospective customers can contact Joshua.Templeton@activenetwork.com to discuss their overall corporate event management needs and learn how the StarCite SMM platform and tools can help them save time and money while gaining greater insight and efficiencies. Sherman added, “We believe Meeting Locator offers significant benefits to the corporate events industry and are already planning additional capabilities for release later this year. Early adopters will have an opportunity to help influence and shape our next-generation tool based on their evolving needs.” More information on Meeting Locator can be found here.
Active Network is helping the events industry move beyond a focus on meetings logistics and spend management to one that includes community engagement, which helps enable organizations to build value with their customers and employees. The company’s Business Solutions power customers of all sizes—including small and medium-sized businesses, enterprise corporations, associations, tradeshows and expos—with a single technology suite for their entire event management needs. The Business Solutions technology suite includes Conference™ for large flagship conferences, RegOnline™ for attendee management solutions, StarCite® SMM for strategic meetings management and event expense management, and the StarCite Supplier Marketplace to connect events with suppliers. For more information on Active Network Business Solutions please visit www.activeevents.com.
About The Active Network, Inc.
Active Network (NYSE: ACTV) is on a mission to make the world a more active place. With deep expertise in activity and participant management™, our ActiveWorks® cloud technology helps organizations transform and grow their businesses. We do this through technology solutions that power the world’s activities and through online destinations such as Active.com® that connect people with the things they love to do. Serving over 50,000 global business customers and driving over 80 million transactions annually, we help organizations get participants, manage their events and build communities. Active Network is headquartered in San Diego, California and has over 30 offices worldwide. Learn more at ActiveNetwork.com or Active.com and engage with us on Twitter @ActiveNetwork, @Active and on Facebook.
Forward-Looking Statements
The Active Network, Inc. cautions you that the statements included in this press release that are not a description of historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Any such statements are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. More detailed information about The Active Network, Inc. and the risks and uncertainties that may affect the realization of these forward-looking statements is set forth in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These filings may be read free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement and The Active Network, Inc. undertakes no obligation to revise or update this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.
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© 2012 The Active Network, Inc. All rights reserved. Active.com, ActiveWorks and StarCite are registered trademarks of The Active Network, Inc. Active Network, RegOnline and Conference are trademarks of The Active Network, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Media Contact:
Mona Klausing, Active Network
Mona.Klausing@ActiveNetwork.com
1-858-964-3813