Roovook

THIS ARTICLE IS FROM https://bit.ly/3BVoaTg
 
According to 'Hotel Ancillaries Revenue (2016)', as compiled by the Korea Tourism Organization and the Korea Hotel Association, every year, 237,502 events such as meetings, exhibitions, banquets, birthday parties, and weddings, are held at hotels in Korea, making up a 1.6 trillion won market. However, information of hotel event halls is not conveniently accessible. Organizers and agencies have to make phone calls to hotels one by one and visit the venues in person. Can't we compare the information about rentals, rooms, meals, and other facilities online at a glance?
Roovook, a 'Collaboration Platform for Event Organization,' hits the spot. Roovook is an IT solution company that addresses event organizers' needs. Hangyeol Kim, the CEO of Roovook, with ample experience in the hotel business under his belt, called in IT engineers and built an online booking platform designed around what customers want. For CEO Kim, a hotel is not a luxury lodging or rest area, but a venue where different 'spaces' live and breathe and a destination for MICE. What is the secret behind winning over companies, associations, organizations, and government institutions in the first year of its launch? Early this month, we submitted a written interview questionnaire and received President Kim's reply on the 5th.
 
Attention is drawn to your booking service that allows customers to use luxury hotel rooms as an office, event, or banquet venue, hence improving room utilization.
Roovook launched Korea's first 'Booking Platform for Hotel Event Halls' in 2019 and moved the event venue booking market online, saving the trouble of calling every potential venue for an inquiry. The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic has caused difficulties for face-to-face events. 'Roovook Offsite' redefined the hotel rooms, which were sold as lodging only, as a 'space' for customers who wish to hold safer and more private small events. We are continuously testing the potential of space when viewed as more than just lodging.
 
Who are primary users of the Roovook service?
Currently, at least 90% of Roovook customers are companies, organizations, and associations. They range from a fried chicken franchise (for their company establishment ceremony) to Amazon (for their IT seminars), startups, and the government. Roovook applies IT technologies to the existing way to use the space, facilitating effective and fast event organization. The service made it easier to prepare the event, which used to be done mainly by fixed phone lines and offline measures, and now further identifies potential customers online. To validate the initial service hypothesis, we visited customers who made simple inquiries. We listened to what they found inconvenient in booking a space and tried to find solutions. We are growing by applying improvement iteratively.
 
You are instilling new energy into the hotel space, based on your experiences at hotels in Jeju and Incheon. Recently, global hotel chains have responded to challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by trying out ideas such as 'day packages' or 'office rentals.' Is this the future for hotel space?
We are living in a fast-changing era. Boundaries between the industries have become more blurred, and existing measures no longer support growth. Even large corporations with significant influence in the market must attempt new solutions. More startups like Roovook will emerge armored with different ideas and a challenging spirit. New opportunities are likely to rise through competitions. For startups like us, prompt decision-making and execution capabilities are critical. Roovook plans to pioneer new business opportunities by swiftly testing and validating the market on what large organizations like hotels could not do. You thought of lodging when you heard ‘hotel’ in the past. Now, with Roovok,&nbsp; it will remind you of a niche market or space (platform) where spaces and services are offered. We are preparing to expand into more diverse areas.
 
Young talents with diverse experiences from large IT companies and startups are building Roovook. We expect great growth potential because the talent pool itself is an amalgamation. However, decision-making may not necessarily be smooth since your team members came from different backgrounds. Is there a unique Roovook's way of collaborating?
Roovook's decision-making starts by assessing customers' inconveniences. Team members from different fields gather together under the common objective of 'building a simple booking platform for hotel event halls'. They go through an iterative process of testing solutions for the customers' inconveniences and using the test results for planning and service improvement. Attuning ourselves to customer behavior: that is how we work together.
 
Let's expand from the hotel. How do you see Roovook's venture into MICE, and what is the prospect of it?
The ultimate goal of Roovooks is to become a 'Global MICE platform.' We will first solve the 'Meeting' market issues among the MICE challenges, then expand to overall MICE issues. MICE is a high-value-added industry, and many countries around the world are promoting it as a national strategic industry. The COVID-19 outbreak has placed the MICE industry in a difficult position, but I expect a fast recovery and another leap of the industry.
 
What regulatory improvements do you think are needed to attract, identify and foster more startups in the MICE industry?
More attention and support are needed for more companies to meet new challenges. Currently, many startups spend a considerable amount of time and cost to validate their initial service hypothesis. In order for many young people to jump into this field and challenge themselves, they must not stop at attracting MICE events but also move toward the direction of market growth and innovation. It will be a great help if large incumbent companies, or the government, sets up a MICE fund-type with subsidies to create an environment to encourage new endeavors by startups.
 
What do you expect from SMA and Seoul Tourism Organization this year?
Roovook never stops challenging to create innovation in the global MICE industry. There is always room for improvement, but if Roovook's service infrastructure, SMA, and Seoul Tourism Organization work together, Seoul will rise to the center of&nbsp; global attention. We look to try new initiatives in collaboration with others.
 
Closing comments?
We are faced with the most challenging of times. However, challenges, when overcome, lead to more significant growth. There is always a new opportunity from a&nbsp; crisis, and these opportunities bring about changes and innovation. I hope we all withstand this difficult time to make the most of these opportunities.

[SMA Insider] Roovook_CEO of Roovook, a hotel is more than just accommodation. It is actually a large 'event space'

THIS ARTICLE IS FROM https://boardroom.global/the-new-default/
 
Will the hybrid model become the new go-to in the business events industry post-pandemic? Successful events in Seoul are proving the potential of digitalization.
Words Lane Nieset
 
 
When the pandemic started, many destinations scrambled to integrate technology so that during travel’s temporary halt, delegates could still meet virtually. “Hybrid” became a buzz word as on-site and digital merged to offer a two-fold experience, and now the meetings industry is experiencing its own type of Industrial Revolution. The acceleration toward technical innovation is well underway, and destinations like Seoul, who have spent the last year preparing for the digitalization of events, are paving the way in this new market.
 
A step forward
“Initially, most event organizers postponed or cancelled their scheduled events, believing they could bounce back quickly. However, with the pandemic lasting longer than expected, Seoul began to prepare for the ‘new normal’ by developing support policies to fund online digitalization of MICE events, and set strict guidelines for preventing infectious diseases and responding to crises,”&nbsp;explains&nbsp;Steven Kim, Director of&nbsp;Convention Sales Team, at <a href="https://www.coexcenter.com/">Coex</a>,&nbsp;the largest exhibition and convention promoter in Korea.
Seoul is considering MICE to be a key factor in boosting the industry post-pandemic, and looking to alliances as a way to provide safety measures at future onsite events. The first Asian bureau to join the Hybrid City Alliance, which&nbsp;offers organizers of international events a solution when planning multiple city hub events, Seoul is building connections across the globe and sharing knowledge garnered from the alliance’s collective expertise to offer online and hybrid meeting options, as well as continue advancing the digital solutions it’s currently putting in place.
As&nbsp;Yun, Yu-sik, a professor at Kyung Hee University (Department of Convention and Exhibition Management), stated in a recent newsletter,&nbsp;“The MICE industry needs to bring economic benefits to the local communities by attracting a large number of visitors. If the hybrid model gains ground and the number of inbound business travelers decreases, cities with large convention centers will see their position weaken. In the future, organizers, such as organizations and associations, need to gather ideas on how to evaluate the performance of a MICE event and how to spread those new metrics.”
As part of its futureproofing plan, <a href="http://www.miceseoul.com/">Seoul Convention Bureau (SCB)</a> launched the 3D virtual platform, “Virtual Seoul,” last fall as a way to position the city as a leader in online and hybrid events. Through “Virtual Seoul,” associations can host online or hybrid meetings and take advantage of the platform’s conference hall, workshop rooms, virtual theatre with 360-degree VR videos, and networking lounge. Through Virtual Seoul, the city recently hosted the 8th&nbsp;Union of International Associations Round Table Asia-Pacific,
In the same fashion, the 19th&nbsp;International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) was hosted by Coex in a hybrid format. The&nbsp;opening ceremony and some plenary presentations were held live, while the&nbsp;six-day digital event featured 100 interactive sessions and 500 speakers&nbsp;and brought&nbsp;together thousands of representatives from civil society, governments, multilateral agencies and private sector, along with young activists, musicians, filmmakers and investigative journalists.
As Coex hosts more than 200 exhibitions and 2,500 international meetings and events annually,&nbsp;many of the in-house exhibitions, such as Automation World and Sourcing Fair, are planning on moving forward for the time being as hybrid events. According to Kim, the successful virtual and hybrid events at the city level have persuaded many local organizations to take their conferences and trade shows virtually, or host at a smaller scale at Coex.
“Although physical meetings and offline events are slowly coming back on the agenda, we strongly believe that event organizers will continue with hybrid events. COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation, and the trend to virtual events is not reversible because of the value of big data analytics,”&nbsp;Kim explains.&nbsp;“There are many advantages of online events, and it’s only a matter of time before event organizers and exhibitors fully comprehend how to leverage the platform’s tools to maximize ROI. Therefore, a virtual event is more than just an alternative solution to a face-to-face offline event, and should be valued as an extended form of strategic digital marketing to a global audience.”
In this regard, as a complement to virtual events, <a href="http://www.miceseoul.com/">SCB</a> has launched a digital teambuilding programme that’s the first of its kind called <a href="https://virtualseoul.or.kr/">Virtual Seoul Playground</a>. It offers stimulating teambuilding in a metaverse Seoul. Through the use of avatars, virtual tour experiences, and online games, delegates can learn more about Korean culture while engaging with teammates.
 
Startup solutions
Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.coexcenter.com/">Coex</a> has been transforming its facilities and services to support hybrid and virtual events. Last November, Coex established a partnership with NexTech AR Solutions, a leading provider of virtual and augmented reality (AR) experience technologies and services in Canada. And through COEX LIVE, Coex is working with one of the best streaming companies in Korea to offer in-house webcasting and event streaming services for clients.&nbsp;“With the pandemic accelerating technology development and Korea actively deploying 5G, what we can expect in Korea is embracing technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence,”&nbsp;says Kim, adding that the partnership with NexTech AR Solutions is a move in that direction as a way to offer organizations a high-end, interactive 3D product experience and VR videos.
Not only is technology being used for events, it’s also the crux of startups like venue finding platform Roovook, which joined the <a href="https://www.miceseoul.com/smamember">Seoul MICE Alliance (SMA)</a> last year. Divided in 20 categories, including hotels, convention centers and unique venues, SMA offers its members support for their participation in overseas exhibitions, road shows, conferences and meetings. Through members like Roovook, Seoul is stepping on the global event stage as a pioneer of virtual and hybrid event solutions. Roovook for example, opens up venues virtually through the use of VR, in an effort to serve as something like an Expedia for venues.&nbsp;“Finding the right venue during a pandemic become more difficult due to social distancing and restrictions,”&nbsp;says Roovook CEO/Founder Kyle Kim.&nbsp;“We’re continuing to accelerate the MICE industry through IT solutions so that when the pandemic is over, Seoul will emerge as an easy city to host events by booking venues online, with just a few clicks.”

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