Mobile and web application specialist Goomeo, a company equally committed to in-person, hybrid and virtual events, is pulling out of the market as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Goomeo developed apps, solutions, for numerous trade shows and conferences, helping to increase engagement for attendees and improve their experience, Comexposium, GL Events, Reed Expositions and other major players among its clients.
Despite the assumption that tech firms, with conferences and exhibitions pivoting online, would be spared the coronavirus cull, and could even get busier, Goomeo was unable to move fast enough.
‘Trade show cancellations are just the top of the iceberg, masking a multitude of unsustainable situations for all those whose activity is closely or remotely linked to the organisation of events’, the company said in a statement.
“Our offer is dedicated to major national and international events and they were the first to be cancelled or postponed due to the inability of Asian or American participants to attend,” Franck Auzanneau, CEO and co-founder of Goomeo explained.
“As a result, our applications, which largely rely on face-to-face participation, lost their usefulness.”
“In June/July, the prospects for a return to some sort of normality were good and we noticed an improvement,” Florian Courgenouil, marketing and sales director, added. “But government measures limiting the number of participants to 5,000, then 1,000, then zero made it a much tougher mountain to climb.”
Goomeo persevered, helping French trade show Space organise its videoconferences in September, but that couldn’t compensate for the company’s losses linked to the demise of face-to-face events in 2020.
Goomeo’s event arm will cease trading in December with the loss of 13 jobs.
Author: Adam Parry
Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.
