Arnout Mostert, Founder and CEO of Conference Bay, said, "Conference Bay is a professional and dependable marketing channel which makes visiting, organizing and speaking at conferences a more pleasant experience. We offer an easy and reliable online booking and bidding platform – a first in the industry, which makes Conference Bay the ideal online meeting place for conference stakeholders and audiences."

A Service to Close the Gap
In Europe, Arnout and Frank were frequent visitors of conferences. Arnout chanced upon the business idea when the organizer of a conference entitled him to bring another friend at no charge - nearing the event date. It also meant that they had unfilled capacity and he enjoyed a' 50 percent discount' for two persons based on a single fully paid seat price. The notion of bidding and integrating available conferences into a virtual platform for interested users then started in his mind.

The conference industry is a multimillion industry with lots of different players. In Singapore itself, with key infrastructure in place and great accessibility, she is deemed a suitable and attractive location to host conferences. The heavily fragmented but growing conference market, at times, may face operational challenges in matching the right demand with available supply.

"Bidding is becoming an acceptable business model in other industries but not formally in conferencing. Together with the fact that there was yet a quality portal to bridge the demand and supply, where you could simply search for conferences, compare the options and make your choice, we saw this as an opportunity to capitalize on. The birth of Conference Bay narrows this gap by offering an online service to search, bid, book and pay for desired conference seats," shared Frank, the Managing Director.

Conference operators get to enjoy the marketing mileage to reach potential attendees across regions and place potentially vacant seats for bidding. The portal seeks to be a professional and cost effective online sales channel to organizers. The transparency of the bidding system also empowers them to select desired attendees based on their bids. Conference attendees benefit from the wide selection and central informative overview of the user-friendly portal, plus they have the flexibility to offer a bid price for a seat.

Balancing Ideals and Overcoming Adversities
Both Arnout and Frank left their colourful corporate lives to realize this business potential. Arnout held senior positions over at Fallon Asia, Shell International and Interbrand, while Frank, financially trained brings with him a wealth of management expertise having worked in a Dutch private equity firm and in various big projects. Frank believes that, "There is never a guarantee for success but when you believe in the idea, you have a good team of people and the entrepreneurial spirit, it is the most beautiful thing you can do and…No guts, no glory!"

Being a completely new model, the conference bidding system's success pivots on the buy-in rate by industry players. "Conference Bay is a big challenge because the business model is to be tested and the key issue is to win the trust of organizers and delegates to be the adopters. We are committed to add value in this field and it's up to us to be clear in our communication messages to convince potential users," explained Frank.

He added that, "An old entrepreneurial rule says that everything takes twice as long as you planned. This is kind of true for us. Some things never go fast enough but it is incredibly important to stay focused, patient and positive."

Next Steps
It is indeed pertinent for the team to build its critical mass, persuade even more users of its benefits, ensure the robustness of the portal as well as expand its network and interactive features. Current partners include The Financial Times and The Economist, who will be posting their conferences online.

Users can also look forward to additional features such as allowing for pre and post-event communication and networking platforms, traveling solutions, venue locator and other interactive service extensions. Conference Bay is also a Start-up Enterprise Development Scheme (SEEDS) Enterprise, supported under SEEDS Capital Pte Ltd, the investment arm of SPRING Singapore.