When Shoflo LLC CEO Stephen Bowles was part of Orlando business accelerator Starter Studio, the pitch deck for his company listed events tech firm Cvent Inc. as a potential partner.
Seven years later, Orlando-based Shoflo will do much more than partner with Cvent. The Tyson, Virginia-based company with thousands of employees bought Shoflo, the company announced earlier this month.
As a result, Shoflo’s web-based virtual events technology will become a key part of the offerings of fast-growing Cvent, which will go public in this year's fourth quarter.
The acquisition also turned Shoflo from a small, “hustling” startup into a Central Florida success story, Bowles told Orlando Inno. “We’re thankful we came out on this side of the story. Orlando needs good tech stories.”
From potential customer to owner
When Shoflo and Cvent first connected in the spring, Bowles thought his startup may be able to land Cvent as a customer. In 2020, Shoflo adapted its live event production software into a broadcasting tool for the production of virtual events and webinars.
After the Covid-19 pandemic forced nearly all events to become virtual, Cvent was working on similar technology. However, Cvent needed to offer a way to produce virtual content, which pushed it to connect with Shoflo, Cvent Vice President of Product Management McNeel Keenan told Orlando Inno. Talks about a partnership eventually led to Cvent acquiring Shofo. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Now, Shoflo goes from a startup of 30 employees to part of Cvent’s team of 4,000 workers. Shoflo’s team and technology is now “Cvent Studio,” and the solution already is being made available to existing Cvent customers, Keenan said. The technology will spread across the events industry much faster than possible when Shoflo was independent, Bowles said. “Just bringing it to Cvent’s existing customers alone would have taken us a long time otherwise.”
Meanwhile, Bowles’ team gets access to Cvent’s expansive resources and customer base. Plus, Cvent has given Bowles the “green light” to hire, including in Orlando, Bowles added.
Old meetings 'dead forever'
The popularity of virtual events skyrocketed last year, but many in the industry expect virtual components to remain key parts of events even as they return to being held in-person. That includes leadership at Cvent, Keenan said. “We’re not investing in virtual events or video tech as if this is a temporary, pandemic-only situation. We think this is going to have profound impacts on the long term.”
Established companies in the events industry are trying to embrace the accelerated adoption of hybrid and virtual events to recoup the billions of dollars the industry lost in 2020. That is spurring large companies like Cvent to consider buying the companies building more innovative technologies, said Spencer Elliott, CEO of Orlando-based virtual events startup ViewStub. “Shoflo is our role model for how to run a business and successfully exit.”
Event management firm network Global DMC Partners in November 2020 released a study that found 72% of event planners expected their events to be virtual or hybrid in 2021. Likewise, Les Goldberg, CEO of Orlando-based conventions technology firm LMG Inc., previously told Orlando Business Journal he expects events to retain a virtual component going forward.
"The single meeting event is kind of dead forever. It's just going to be a joint hybrid live/virtual, in my opinion."
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