etouches and Meetingselect strike deal to integrate online event registration and management software with event venue sourcing capability on a global scale
Deal enables Single Sign-On functionality for meeting registration and event venue selection, saving companies time and money and streamlining process for users.
Two fast-track event technology companies have entered a deal to integrate their software allowing users -- through Single Sign-On -- to seamlessly send RFPs and book meetings venues electronically,  as well as manage the actual event from A to Z, including budgeting, project management, marketing, registration, and reporting.
The deal was reached between etouches (www.etouches.com), Ridgefield, CT, which provides comprehensive online event registration and management tools to the corporate, association, media, education and third-party planning markets around the world, and Meetingselect (www.meetingselect.com), Naarden, The Netherlands, which are professionals in meetings management and experts in free venue finding. Meetingselect expedites the process of searching for and booking the perfect meeting venue and holds Meetingselect.com, the best meeting distribution channel with some 64,000 hotels & meeting venues worldwide in its database. For more information, click here.

Visit Meetingselect at the Management Support Event
On the 4th and 5th of November the Management Support Fair will take place again at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht in The Netherlands. This is the fair for secretaries, office managers and personal assistants! Visit the Meetingselect stand and win a free entrance ticket to the Veluwse Bron, the largest wellness resort in The Netherlands with over 9000 m2 of wellness. Register now for the Management Support Fair and receive a free entry ticket.

EIBTM is on its way
EIBTM, the yearly international event for the meeting- and incentive industry, is coming closer. This 3-day during event in the vibrant city of Barcelona is this year taking place on November 30st and December 1st and 2nd. Meetingselect will be attending the fair again this year. For more information or to register, click on EIBTM 2010.

Brigette Johnston – LeasePlan Corporation N.V.
From a perspective of working at a Corporation headquarters, in the Business Information Management Department, with LeasePlan Corporation N.V., there is a need to have a professional partner to assist with the research of finding a location to organise up to two – three conferences annually.

I can not think of a better partner than Meetingselect.
In the last one and a half years, I have been working closely with Meetingselect to locate the right hotel in the right city to be able to effectively run smooth conferences on an annual basis.

My experience with Meetingselect has been of great value, not only in the initial set up of finding a suitable location but also to the very end, once the conference is over, there has always been contact made with me from Meetingselect to give them feedback about locations that have been chosen.

It is so pleasurable to work with a partner that has a level of excellent customer service and is always thinking of the nightmares that go with organising such large events. During the process from start to finish of locating a hotel for conferences, if the person that I have had contact with about the hotels is not in the office and I happen to send a email, asking for further information, my emails are always answered by one of the employees within Meetingselect.

The flexibility of Meetingselect is customer orientated even if you are in the position where you have asked for a location request and two days later, (after receiving the information about possible locations), the workshop / conference has to be cancelled for reasons that are out of your own control, Meetingselect accepts these cancellations with gratitude.

Their major focus of a service orientated business is, I believe, “The Customer is always right”. They are extremely pro-active and are always keeping in touch with their customers even once the event is finished. However, one thing that they also appreciate is feedback about some of the locations that you visited as well. For example, I remember I visiting a hotel in Lisbon, Portugal and the hotel have a one star, I would not even imagine having my own family staying in this hotel. I informed Meetingselect that they need to remove this hotel from their database because of the low quality of this hotel. They were very happy to receive the feedback and they then removed this hotel from their database.

Not only are they pro-active, but they are very quick on requests, within two days, after sending your request to them for a location, they are more than happy to provide you with the information, even it means that they are constantly following up with hotels to receive the request.

If your company has not yet gone into partnership with Meetingselect, I would recommend that they do as soon as possible. The company will not regret this and in fact, it makes the life easier of someone who has the responsibility of organising annual events.