John Platallero, EventBooking

We stayed in our classroom again this week and had John Platallero of eventbooking.com as our speaker.

John's first job was at Alcoa. During that time, he worked some on the side promoting concerts and became familiar with the concert industry. In 1993 or 1994, John saw a website for the first time, and thought it was amazing. He remembers that day vividly, and it played a major role in his ultimate career path. At one point, John missed an opportunity to book a concert because of calls back and forth. He thought to himself, "What if we can put calendars on the internet?" He thought that if he could get a calendar on the internet, then agents and venues would have a common place to look, and could book concerts more easily. He ran the idea by a friend, who agreed with him. He then began to run the idea by many people, trying to get honest opinions.

Through a unique set of circumstances, John was able to go back to school and get an MBA from UT. In a class, he wrote the business plan for eventbooking.com. When he started the company, he needed money for software developers. He warned that it is easy to look desperate when asking for money, which can give the wrong impression to investors. He got a few people involved in the company (two salesmen, one programmer), and went to speak with venues. The most consistent problem was that the venue managers were unfamiliar with the internet, the basis of his company.

They made the decision to deal with top-tier venues only. John advises that you should pick your market and stay focused on it. He also said that things take longer that you expect them to; it took five years to really get things going with eventbooking.com. He eventually got agents to back him up, and used them to get venues. There are approximately 450 top-tier venues in the US, and John had 200 of them signed up. However, there was a flaw in their business. There was too much customer work. The venues didn't update their online calendars because it was too much of a hassle to do.

At this point, John spoke with his customers about what they could do to improve the current system. He decided that instead of a portal for communication, it would be best to build an online application to improve "today value" for venues. They spent years winning one customer at a time and figuring how to change their company. They decided to focus only on the venues and let the agents continue their old ways.

Now, eventbooking.com is thriving. They get lots of calls from people that need web-based software. They have 80% of the arenas in the US using their software, as well as most of Canada, some in Chile, some in China, and plans to start in Europe. They are going back to working with agents again, telling them that they will book more shows with eventbooking. They recently booked Disney, and now are getting more calls than ever. They have applications for the iPhone, Droid, and Blackberry.

He says he has wonderful people working with him. His programmer never turns down an assignment or idea. He says that with enough time and money, we can do anything.

Eventbooking is a very customer-centered company. They have no automated answering machines, and work to interact closely with the clients.

They have no legal protection of their software; their only protection is constant improvement and trying to stay ahead of the curve.

John says that during his time with eventbooking, a scripture has led him. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart... lean not on your own understanding."

Eventbooking has been profitable for five years and currently has ten employees.