DOME Appoints Amlink as Technology Partner

DOME Chairman, Gary Grimmer, has announced that Amlink Technologies, of Brisbane, Australia, the developers of EVENTS conference management software, has been chosen as DOME’s new technology partner.

DOME, the acronym for Data on Meetings and Events, is an international not-for-profit research foundation. One of its key projects is to provide accurate, real time data on conventions, including hotel rooms used by  property and night, and air seats used by airline, flight segments and class of  service.

Grimmer said that taking on Amlink as a partner is a significant step in the development of the system.

"Our past testing has proven that the DOME Group History Measurement system is viable, but we know that we need to make some changes,”  Grimmer said. “We felt that we needed a strong technology partner to take it to the next generation.”

DOME conducted a formal tendering process while seeking a technology partner. Grimmer said that DOME’s Board felt that Amlink had submitted the strongest response, and is an ideally suited partner.

“Amlink brings a lot of expertise to the project in terms of software development and registration processes, both on-line and on-site. Their EVENTS PRO system is one of the most successful and widely utilised  registration software products in the marketplace. As an example, EVENTS PRO is the system of choice for five out of the top ten conference and events organisers in the UK, the largest organisers in France and for a number of  other organisers throughout the world. In total, Amlink has over 1,300 users in 41 countries.”

Grimmer said that the fact that Amlink had recently provided housing and registration services to over 65,000 attendees at the United Nation’s World  Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg demonstrated the company’s capabilities. He said that Amlink’s “EVENTS Interactive’ web  interface program won the “Best New Technology” award at EIBTM in 2001, which illustrated the company’s leading edge innovation.

“We are delighted to be working with Amlink,” Grimmer said, “because it is generally recognised as a leading company in this field. We believe that  Amlink will help us bring the DOME Group History Measurement process to market faster, and that they will help us continuously improve the product  for the benefit of the international meetings industry.”

Amlink Technologies Managing Director, Trevor Gardiner, said “Amlink has always had a strong commitment to the global meetings industry and we are thrilled to be working with DOME on such an exciting project. The DOME  software being developed is expected to collect travel and accommodation statistics from hundreds of thousands of delegates per year and has been based on our robust EVENTS Interactive product.”

Once the DOME measurement system is released, it will be available for use by any interested conventions and meetings, meeting planners, professional congress organisers or registration service providers. It is anticipated that a  nominal user fee will be charged by DOME to offset the costs of providing back of house support to the event in question.

“Future users will find that DOME is highly automated, and doesn’t require a lot of time or attention on their part.” Grimmer said, “It will be easy to use, and the DOME system will do most of the work. Users will simply register their events and upload delegate names and email addresses to DOME, and  once their event is over, they will get an accurate, real time report on hotel and airline use.”

The DOME measurement system has been successfully trialled at three major industry events. Work has already begun to further enhance the system, to make it more efficient, user friendly and accurate. Grimmer feels  that the experience that DOME has gained during the initial test phase will allow it to work with Amlink to further refine the system over the coming months, with a goal of providing a general market release of the system  during the third quarter of 2003.