Our Founding CEO, Ms Val Sanders, has returned home from the ‘Entrepreneurship Development Program’ at Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA with a new perspective on international business sales and services. Val was one of 136 people attending the program from around the world and was one of only 5 people from Queensland to be awarded the scholarship by the Queensland State Government and Department of State Development.

The “Entrepreneurship Development Program” (EDP) leverages the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s culture of high tech entrepreneurship to help entrepreneurs, corporate venturing executives, and others involved in entrepreneurial environments to learn to develop ideas into successful businesses, and what it takes to increase entrepreneurial opportunities in their corporations, institutions, and regions. The course introduces participants to MIT’s technology transfer system, entrepreneurial educational programs, and entrepreneurial networks that have created more than 5,000 firms (so far) with combined annual sales of over $200 billion, an annual turnover equivalent to the 30th largest economy in the world.

Val embarked on the program to increase her knowledge of taking an IT company to market in the USA. She gained experience working with an international team of entrepreneurs in capturing an idea of a product from inception through to a successful presentation to Venture Capitalists. “The experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity where every member of the team was able to contribute equally to a project. The pressure on each and every one of us was enormous as we all knew we could not let our team down” said Ms Sanders.

During her stay, Val had the opportunity to network with fellow students, numerous USA Venture Capitalists, Professors, Worldwide Entrepreneurs and Founding Directors of start-up IT companies where she managed to build strong relationships and secure business appointments. Since returning to Australia, Val has continued to build relationships with Universities and prospective distributors and is more advanced to confidently expand her business in the US market and beyond.

With the ever changing global venue management process, keeping up with technology is extremely important. Conference Online has embraced this global shift with development to update our accommodation booking engine. With the introduction of dynamic pricing around the world, Conference Online has now completed redevelopment of its online management system to accommodate this global change. We can now provide venues and organisers with the latest technology allowing multiple hotels with different pricing each night and also a different number of rooms each night in your room block. The system now has the capability of showing single and double room rates on the same accommodation as well as charging any surcharges including guests. The system still continues to give the organiser the option of taking all the accommodation money, just the 1st night or allowing the venue to take all nights or one’s night’s deposit. We have extended our reporting to include this new development showing individual day rates with daily allotments and breakfasts.

Emma has a background in the hospitality and legal industries and is currently in the process of completing a Bachelor of Business in Convention and Event Management.

“I’m eager to put what I have learnt in my studies into practice and Conference Online will provide the perfect platform for me to achieve my career goals. I’m amazed at how easy the online registration system is to use and what a remarkable product it can be for event organisers. I’m proud to be part of a professional group of people in a company that is unique and successful and growing in the global events market” says Emma.