Interview: How Momentus Technologies is Streamlining Event Management

In an interview with Ministry of Sport, Momentus Technologies chief innovation officer, Steve Mackenzie, explained how the organisation is helping the sports industry streamline their event management.

CAST Partnership:

Commenting on their recently announced partnership with CAST, Mackenzie, said: “We’re pretty excited to announce the partnership with CAST where it’s an opportunity for startups in the event industry or music industry space to be able to get a chance to come in, say their piece and show their wares to a wider audience at the VMA or the venue Management Association Congress that’s happening in Sydney in June.”

Momentus will support CAST during the selection process, which will include creating an innovation hub on the show floor at the conference, where selected startups will be able to showcase their products and/or services.

Applying Momentus to organisations:

Mackenzie also explained what Momentus offers organisations, which includes a couple main platforms to help with event and venue management, however, Momentus also provides help with sustainability and risk management.

“The crux of both of the applications is that they help a venue through the whole process, from the initial lead management and sales side, all the way through to the final financial aspect of billing,” Mackenzie said.

“Think of somebody bringing an artist to a stadium or an arena where they say, we want to book this artist, what have you got available in your space over this time and the person at the stadium, thene on the Arena End, they would open up their calendar to check what they’ve got going on, and that calendar would be what they’re using momentous for.

“From there they would send out a quote, do a hold on the calendar, negotiate with their with their potential client on the created a quote, which hopefully turns into a contract.

“Once that is all put in place the event operational teams will jump into the system and start using it to work out delivery.

“This includes everything that might be needed in terms of making this event take place, which could be room setups, labour required or catering, etc.

“The platform allows those using it to also create work orders for different departments, which are signed off on completion and finishes with invoicing the client booking an event,” he said.

Momentus has grown its operation to include several thousand venues around the world, including large convention centres, performing arts centres, theatres, stadiums, and arenas to name a few.

Due to their large client base, Momentus has kept their platforms configurable as the fundamentals of venue and event management remains similar, from booking a venue to reconciliation with the client.

However, as each venue is booking different types of business and different events, they will ultimately require different setups, resulting in slight differences between each event hosted.

Sustainability:

Momentus has had a concentrated effort on sustainability over the past couple of years, which started by acquiring a company in the UK focusing on incident tracking, including spillages and injuries, where a sustainability module was then added.

This not only has been available for venues, but also sporting rights holders, including the Commonwealth Games, ICC tournaments, Rugby World Cups and FIFA, who although use it in slightly different ways, have the goal of being sustainable.

Mackenzie broke down how the sustainability platform works, where he said: “You’ll be able to track the goals you’ve set for that particular event or in the case of a venue, their goals, and we’ve deliberately kept it very configurable because everybody’s goals can be different.”

“For example, one organisation might be very interested in tracking their electrical consumption, where another might be more focused on the recyclables for their events, so the idea is you add your goals then you can have them updated.

“There are some different tools to automate some of the work, while some of it’s manual where they put that information in periodically so they can see how they’re tracking against their goals.

“We’ve recently taken that a step further where we’ve done it not only in a venue wide aspect, but event wide too, so they’ll be able to see a sustainability profile per event, which is pretty important as people start to be more focused that,” he said.

The platform can also be utilised by both the venue and client, to discuss how sustainable the event can be, where if it’s less sustainable, they’re able to work together using different tools to remedy the issue as more legislation is passed to require higher sustainability of large-scale events.

Development of the Middle East:

Along with providing their platforms to venues, the organisation is also focusing on the growth of sport in different regions, more specifically the Middle East, where they’re attending the Middle East Sport Investment Forum (MESIF), to showcase their platforms to a new player in sport event hosting.

On the Middle East, Mackenzie, said: “It’s no secret that the Middle East, particularly the likes of the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are very interested in becoming known more for being involved in major events.”

“There’s been a big push by all those areas in that region and their governments to make sure that they are at the forefront and putting a lot of these major events together, sporting events.

“So, a conference like this is just another way for them to showcase the area to the world and it’s a great way for people who might not be that aware of some of the changes that have been happening in the in the Middle East region.

“They’ve got a lot more to offer and we’re seeing that with the rise of the different venues that are being built, like the World Cup in Qatar.

“For us to be at an event like this is really good in terms of being able to show some of the players in that area that there’s tools that can help.

Additionally, the Middle East, like a lot of emerging markets, have resources as well as the financial backing.

However, the region lacks the tools and experience and is why Momentus see MESIF as an important event, as they can showcase their platforms, ultimately helping the region grow as a sporting powerhouse.

Partnerships:

Along with CAST, Momentus holds a large partnership portfolio, including, Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH) and NIKE.

On paper both organisations are vastly different, however, it shows that on face value, the same technologies can be used across different areas within the sporting sector.

Mackenzie also said that both companies use the platform for different areas, where DBH uses their tools for risk management, and issue and incident tracking.

Additionally, tracking this information tends to stay rather similar across different region of the USA, but teams under DBH’s ownership also very when it comes to the depth in which their tools are used.

On the other hand, NIKE uses Momentus software in a more traditional sense, where they can manage the different events they host, which includes using the Tiger Woods Conference Center, based at the NIKE headquarters in Oregon.

Development of events:

The development of events has come a long way in recent years, where Mackenzie said people used to go to venue purely for a game or concert, but now there’s many more elements to an event day, which can include activations involving augmented and virtual reality to create an in-depth experience for fans.

There are also venues being constructed, with two so far in Dallas and LA, which are sports bars aimed at creating immersive experiences around different sporting events.

This is a major development in US sports, where Mackenzie anticipates that this number could grow to 100 venues across the country within a short amount of time as venues aim to create a thrilling experience for fans.

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