Spacebase, a new online booking platform that’s giving a fresh lick of paint to the rather stale meetings and events industry, could be on to something

Ever been locked into a desperately dull meeting venue for hours at a stretch? If so then help is at hand.  

Spacebase, an online booking platform for event spaces and meeting locations and winner of a recent EyeforTravel competition, aims to provide businesses and private customers with interesting alternatives to generic event spaces. 

“What sets us apart from the rest is our focus on diverse and unusual spaces,” says Julian Jost, the company’s chief executive and founder.

Jost believes that that for too long the meeting industry has been complacent in settling for the “same old uninspiring meeting locations”.

They are also missing an opportunity, as this is a lucrative sector. A report last year by the Business Visits and Events Partnership (BVEP) says the UK industry alone is worth 39bn.

When working for a top German consultancy firm earlier in his career, Jost spotted an opportunity. An opportunity that investor Stephan Ekbergh, a pioneer in the field of online travel and tourism and founder of Travelstart.com, was willing to stump up six-figures in seed funding for early stage business development.

What Jost had realised was “how frequently these uninspiring and costly meetings were being organised” and how they could be improved.

So he set to conducting his own meetings, applying new and creative approaches in interesting locations.

“It quickly became clear that people’s creativity flourishes when challenged outside of the same dull surroundings - something which in fact can actually hamper new ideas,” he says.

That in itself is not good for business, and this understanding is something that Spacebase is hoping will shift the whole meetings and events industry into another gear.

Among Spacebase’s unique selling points are:

• Ease of use: Users can integrate all event services into the same transaction; the result is that a venue, DJ, catering and stage equipment can all be organised at the click of a button, replacing the need for complicated quotes and multiple service providers.
   
• Local knowledge. A team of freelance location scouts, with a background in events and hospitality and local knowledge, maintain the evolving portfolio of spaces. They are based in their target cities and make face-to-face meetings with possible suppliers. 
  “This gives us access to a relevant network of interesting locations, some of which are undiscovered and not present online,” says Jost. 

• Self-sign-ups: A very simple listing process makes this easy to do.
   
• Spaces list on the website for free: Then the team of online marketers professionally curate their profiles and space providers pay a small commission of the total booking value when a booking is successfully completed.
   
• A ready-to-book user base: Spaces can profit from increased exposure and from advertising their venue to a dependable and ready-to-book user-base, without any upfront costs or risks.
   
• A diverse team: Spacebasers hail from eight different countries, which allows them to target users, directly and through professional online marketing, to create a meaningful community for the industry across different international markets.

The fledgling startup went live fairly recently and customer numbers are still in their infancy but the early signs are encouraging.

“Within the first weeks of operations we were able to generate multiple booking requests in all our European core markets with significant signs of growth in both traffic and conversions,” he says.

Our guess is that this is one space to watch.