Amiando
| Corporation | |
| Industry | Event management, online registration, ticketing |
| Founded | Munich, Germany (2006) |
| Founder | Felix Haas, Dennis von Ferenczy, Sebastian Bärhold, Armin Bauer, Marc P. Bernegger, Markus Eichinger |
| Headquarters | Munich, Germany |
Key people |
Felix Haas (Chief Executive Officer) Dennis von Ferenczy (Chief Marketing Officer) Sebastian Bärhold (Chief Finance Officer) Armin Bauer (Chief Technical Officer) Marc P. Bernegger (Chief Customer Officer) |
| Website | www.xing-events.com |
amiando is a startup company for online event management, headquartered in Munich, Germany. amiando was founded by Felix Haas, Dennis von Ferenczy, Sebastian Bärhold, Armin Bauer, Marc P. Bernegger and Markus Eichinger in Munich in 2006. The company targets two main segments of events: Business events (conferences, seminars, corporate events and networking events) and entertainment events (concerts, sports tournaments and parties). Clients are both event organizers as well as event agencies.
All services are available in English, Spanish, German and French. In July 2012, amiando had 75 employees.[1] amiando has been awarded numerous prizes for its innovative products, among them the “Technology Pioneer of 2010” at the World Economic Forum, and the “eco Internet Award” as the best business client portal. [2] Since January 2011 amiando has been part of XING AG, an operator of the business network XING.[3] Its headquarters are based in Munich, additional offices are located in London, Paris and Hong Kong.
History
2006
In July, the idea of an online platform for guest list management and payment management is developed. The activator is a big party during the Soccer World Cup 2006, which took place in Germany. The party is really big, but payment handling and guest list management turns out to be chaotic - so the idea of amiando is born. In August, the first prototype of the platform is created, amiando is still limited to private invitations and the first temporary company holding is incorporated in Munich. In October, the founders attract seed funding from renowned business angels like Lukasz Gadowski, Rodrigo Sepulveda Schulz and Stefan Glaenzer. In December, amiando 1.0 launches.[4]
2007
In January, first prototypes for ticketing are created. One month later, Wellington Partners Venture Capital joins the amiando family. Next Conference in Hamburg becomes the first professional customer of amiando. In April, amiando moves into its first real office in Munich. In May, the sixth co-founder, Marc P. Bernegger, joins the team full-time. One month later, amiando 2.0 launches officially as the first on-demand event ticketing service in Europe. In September, amiando 3.0 launches and makes amiando international by supporting English, Spanish, French and German. LeWeb3 Conference in Paris becomes the first international customer of amiando. In October, amiando becomes an official launch partner of Google Opensocial and moves the complete IT department to Googleplex in Mountain View for two weeks. Google founder Sergey Brin and Google CEO Eric Schmidt review first amiando Opensocial prototypes.[5]
2008
In January, amiando turns down a first acquisition offer, Techcrunch.com uses amiando for the annual Techcrunch Crunchies event in Silicon Valley. One month later amiando organizes its one-year birthday party. In April the angels return, Wellington Partners and AdInvest join a multi-million Series A financing to support growth of amiando. In June, amiando has grown and moved to the new and current headquarters in Munich. In July, amiando 4.0 launches with ViralTickets (the possibility to offer participants a bonus system if they spread an event within their network and thus help selling more tickets for the event). In August, Urs Haeusler, former CEO of Ticketonline Switzerland joins amiando as senior manager. One month later, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally visits the amiando office for the European launch of Facebook Connect. In December, amiando 5.0 launches with amiandoEVENTS (fully customizable online registration forms).
2009
In January amiando is awarded Innovation leader of the year 2008. In February, amiando becomes global partner of Twestivals. BMW decides to use amiando for the official online ticketing for BMW events. In June the World Economic Forum pre-nominates amiando to be a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.[6] amiando wins at the Techcrunch Europe awards: Highly Commended as Best Webservice/Application EMEA and finalist as Best Startup Founders. Publicis Live uses amiando for the prestigious Monaco Media Forum. July: amiando's numbers are significantly better than plan. One month later the amiando Poker tournament reaches record attendance of 35 players. In October amiando wins the Bavarian Online Prize 2009 at the IT innovation days in Munich. A donation-tool specially developed for UNESCO allows event organizers not just to collect the entry fees but also to easily raise funds online. In December the World Economic Forum chooses amiando, aside from Twitter and Playfish, and as the only German company as a Technology Pioneer 2010.
2010
In January, amiando is initiating a large online raffle for the benefit of the victims of the earthquake in Haiti and raises, together with numerous German and Swiss internet-based companies, 50,000 €. In April amiando becomes official launch partner of the Facebook Social Plugins and integrates them into the event websites. In August amiando 6.0 launches. amiando comes with a new look and improvements in usability. Further, a new pricing scheme is introduced. the heart of the relaunch is new email tool which is especially tailored to the needs of event organizers.[7]
2011
Since January 2011 amiando is a part of XING. The global Social Media Week is exclusively organized with amiando. Hundreds of events with tens of thousands of attendees benefit from the innovative tools amiando has to offer. amiando opens an office in Hong Kong, China to offer the Asian customers a better on-site service. The company decided to open its representation office in Hong Kong due to the city’s strategic location within Asia and its reputation as an international event management and meeting hub. In February amiando launches the first ticketing integration within the XING platform. More than 10 million XING members are now able to organize ticketing events on XING. In September amiando launches the Facebook ticket shop! This makes amiando the world’s first event organization tool that offers ticket sales via XING and Facebook. In November amiando opens its first inner-European office in Paris, France. Three employees take special care of the French customers.
2012
In January the second branch office is opened in London, UK. On January 19, amiando launched an exclusive event to celebrate the new office based in London’s Fetter Lane. In February amiando launched the conference2go App for iPhone. conference2go gives attendees easy mobile access to all relevant information surrounding an event. It also offers event organizers numerous opportunities to better portray conferences. In June Green Ticketing with amiando is possible. amiando offers its customers the innovative opportunity of a climate neutral event participation in cooperation with the climate protection solution provider ClimatePartner. Each participant can choose to support a forest protection project in Mozambique to offset the carbon emissions caused by their event participation.
See also
References
- ↑ "press release". Amiando.com. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
- ↑ "Official Homepage". Amiando.com. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
- ↑ Kaczmarek, Joel (2010) on
- ↑ "Official amiando homepage". De.amiando.com. Retrieved 2010-09-08.
- ↑ Oelke, Torsten (2009) in Stars des Internets: Erfolgreiche Web-Unternehmer und ihre Geschichte, Redline Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86881-001-1
- ↑ World Economic Forum (2009)
- ↑ Schonfeld, Erick (2010) on TechCrunch