New markets

15 Jul 2022

Despite specialising in software for events, the company is increasingly marketing its expertise in the form of consultancy. The team often goes to meet the end customer, listens to their needs, and offers a solution to meet them.

“If we only sold software, we would be a startup, but now we are more than that. A lot of clients are not willing to pay for software only,” says Lauris Morics, co-founder of MittoEvents.com.

Instead, clients want to buy expertise and technical support, which often results in outsourced project management. “As technology evolves, even the best employee who organises a company conference once a year can’t keep up with all the changes – even if it’s just in payment methods,” he adds.

Morics believes that an event starts with the organisers having to decide on the categories of participants and the ticket prices to cover the costs.  They need to understand what information will be needed from participants to successfully register them, send them an invoice, or allow them to buy a ticket. “We need to decide what the ticket prices will be, what payments we will accept (invoice, card, bank payment) and what is the delivery method – email or elsewhere. We also need to work out what volume we need more security guards at, how many ticket scanners and entry staff we will need. It can take weeks to put all this together for a 300-person conference,” says Morics.

Two Different Worlds

Morics says that face-to-face and virtual events are two different worlds.  The only thing they have in common is the word “event” in their name. Both are quite technical and require registration. Everything else is different. A hybrid event, where some participants and attendees are face-to-face and others log on to their computers from all over the world, is another level of complexity.

“We are working on making it easy for organisers to manage both what happens in person and what happens online,” says Morics. This includes registering participants, printing business cards, a scanner system for checking tickets, etc. The organisers can also see on the platform’s dashboard what time visitors came, how long they were at the event. Face-to-face participants can listen to translation on headphones and take part in surveys. Organisers do not have to look for two different solutions, such as Slido on-site and something else for use on the platform for remote participants.

Asked what features the platform does not yet have, Morics says that it does not yet offer classic ticket sales like, for example, Biļešu serviss or Eventbrite.

Can Also Organise Scientific Conferences

A large part of the events that MittoEvents.com helps to organise are scientific conferences. These have specific requirements, such as submission of theses, their review, publication in stands and printed conference material.

“The biggest advantage for the organisers is that everything related to the conference is on one platform instead of several separate ones,” says Morics.

The company came up with the idea of uploading scientific theses to the platform because one of its clients had such a need. Similar solutions offering just that already exist. But MittoEvents.com also provides the possibility for multiple experts to assess papers at the same time, edit them and then prepare the files for print.

New Name Helps Communicate More Clearly

This year, the company changed its name from Mitto.me to MittoEvents.com.

“The platform has slowly become an environment where everything you need for an event is available. So we decided to rename it MittoEvents.com, which brings together everything we do and better explains the essence of our business. In addition, the “.me” domain was technically incomprehensible for many European countries, especially for public authorities. The current “.com” domain is much more understandable. “Mitto.me was a startup name – with MittoEvents.com we want to say that we are stronger and more serious,” says Morics.

The company has been in the events business since 2018. In 2020, it suddenly had no more work, as no live events took place during the pandemic. The team had a good cooperation with 3K Management and together they came up with the idea to create a virtual platform for the 5G Techritory conference. Initially MittoEvents.com was a platform for virtual events only, but over time it also supports the organisers for face-to-face events.

“Our biggest achievement so far is that we are still alive. It’s a big challenge to guess what will happen next and how to proceed. Of course, we haven’t discovered that and at the moment we can’t definitively know if the live events will happen at all in the coming winters. So, we decided to offer the most convenient product for both types of events,” says Morics.

He is convinced that it is necessary to develop outside Latvia as well. This year, the company has started to expand into the Baltic States and the UK. It is working with an agency that helps with marketing activities, identifying contacts, and attracting potential clients. “It’s hard to say how we will do. But if we are successful, we have enough capacity. We’ve been working on automation over the years. If volumes grow, we are ready to expand at any time,” says Morics.

Source: https://labsoflatvia.com