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24 May 2022

Events Industry Council and VSef confirm collaboration

Amy Calvert, Events Industry Council
NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: The Events Industry Council (EIC) has today announced its support for VSef, the global data format for the digital events industry.

Coming at a critical moment for the industry, the collaboration between the EIC and VSef is hugely significant. With more than 30 member organisations representing over 103,500 individuals and 19,500 firms and properties in the events industry, the EIC’s mission is to support the sector through the setting of professional standards across the entirety of the international events community.

Amy Calvert, CEO of the EIC, commented,

“As the global voice of the business events industry, the EIC works to establish international industry standards through the CMP Programme, EIC Sustainable Event Standards as well as the long standing APEX initiative. The global VSef initiative, founded by Explori, has focused on the area of digital event data standards, and developed a comprehensive solution on a not-for-profit basis. We are delighted to bring our APEX Commission and VSef together to further develop and establish these essential data standards.”

Mark Brewster, Founder of Explori and VSef, commented,

“We are delighted to be working with the EIC and their APEX Commission. We have formed this alliance to further the cause of data standardisation. Ultimately, it is vital for event organisers to keep a firm grip on their data assets.  In terms of digital event data, the events industry has become a challenge to navigate effectively with every platform operating in their own data silo. This leaves event organisers with the unenviable task of operating in an incomparable, opaque, and inconsistent landscape. This presents significant barriers to multi-platform integration, consistent measurement, and the essential insights that event planners need to develop strategy.

It isn’t currently clear where the lines will be drawn between today’s event technologies and the rapidly evolving metaverse, which in my opinion, will be a huge channel for the events industry. What is clear is that data is an essential asset for all event organisers and unless they can gain control, access and ownership of their digital event data, I fear that huge opportunities for growth and innovation will be missed. VSef is an important step in eliminating silos and putting the control of data back in organisers’ hands. It also offers enormous benefits to the platforms themselves”.

Stephen Rose, Head of Global Communication Services, Siemens, commented:

“To create the right analytics and insights along the entire customer journey, we need to be able to integrate consistent data from a plethora of event technologies into our data lake and blend it with data from other marketing and communication channels. It is not realistic for every individual platform to manage the unique data requirements of every corporate; and equally, it is not viable for every corporate to work around each platform’s unique data format. The solution is to have a robust industry data standard, and this is why I am a supporter of the VSef initiative”.

VSef was launched in early 2021, with the aim of creating a global standardised data format which can be used to simplify the process of moving data between event platforms, sales and marketing systems and business intelligence tools. Using a universal data format and API makes the process easy for organisers, as well as offering access to a better range of event metrics and engagement KPIs. This will inevitably lead to events improving their digital experiences benefiting their brands and the customers and stakeholders they serve.

 VSef has recently launched the second iteration of the standards - VSef 2.0 which includes a range of new features, allowing it to better meet the needs of international audiences as well as allowing for the unique data variables each platform captures.

Since its inception, VSef has received backing from many world-leading organisers and platforms including Informa Markets, Reed Exhibitions, Tarsus Group, Emerald Expositions, Clarion Events, Grip, Balluun, Notified, Swapcard, Accelevents, ExpoPlatform and many more. Today’s announcement with the Events Industry Council is the next move in the organisation’s mission to support the future development of the events industry.

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For more details and to get involved contact Stephen Knowles - s.knowles@vsef.io

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Testimonials

  • “The silver lining in the pivot to digital has been the data-rich environment we organisers now find ourselves in. But, we have a huge standardisation job at hand if we’re to benefit from this newly found trove of data. VSef/RSDE has been designed to solve this problem; to provide a single standard. I for one am looking forward to receiving data from different platforms in one format!”
    Dr Bariş Onay
    Chair of VSef
  • “As the global trade association for our sector, we know about the importance of unified and aligned data sets, and we are working to promote globally accepted metrics and terminologies. We recommend that every business events association joins us in supporting and promoting VSef/RSDE to their members as a collaborative way forward for our industry.”
    Anbu Varathan
    President, UFI
  • "At Grip, data democratization is at the core of our strategy in supporting organisers to move markets forward faster and providing greater value to exhibitors and visitors. We’re excited about being part of the VSef/RSDE initiative from the very beginning and making it easier for organisers to move data between solutions in the event technology stack will be crucial for gaining greater insight into events and their success."
    Warith Nassor
    Product Owner - Data, Integrations and Insight. Grip
  • "Data is the key to growth in the event industry. It helps organizers better serve their communities, create brand loyalty and create logical, long-term strategies. VSef/RSDE will make it much easier for organizers to collect the data used in making critical decisions without having to sacrifice customer experience and their technology stack."
    Robyn Duda
    Founder, RDC
  • "Our position on data is and always has been that it should be accessible, freely available, and owned by organisers, which is reflected in our Data Manifesto. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with Mark and the wider Explori team and we are proud to be early adopters of the VSef/RSDE initiative, which is an important step in standardising metrics and in allowing organisers to easily compare these metrics across platforms."
    Mykyta Fastovets
    CTO, Expoplatform
  • "We reside at an inflection point in the global events industry. Our immediate embrace of normalized data is going to decide the extent to which we define our value and fuel our growth. VSef/RSDE is an ambitious project that deserves universal support across platforms, organizers, and industry organizations. We are pleased to take these first steps with the VSef team and their growing partner community."
    Tony Lorenz
    SVP Strategy, Intrado
  • "The need to unite event data has been a topic of conversation at Event Tech Live and within the community for many years. It's fantastic to see the experts and advisors behind VSef/RSDE taking the mantle and moving this forward for the benefit of the whole industry. I am proud for Event Tech Live to be a founding member and look forward to helping drive this initiative too."
    Adam Parry
    Co-founder, Event Tech Live
  • "Data is a crucial issue in digital events and setting a framework for data standardisation and industry collaboration is key to future industry success. We are excited to be partnering with VSef/RSDE on this important initiative."
    Sophie Ahmed
    CEO and Co-Founder, Virtual Events Institute
  • “Now more than ever it is important to collaborate, share and connects minds for a better future of the exhibition industry. VSef/RSDE is a perfect example of collaborative knowledge!”
    Enrico Gallorini
    CEO, GRS Research & Strategy