Priava marks 20 years of operations

2017 is seeing event management technology experts Priava mark its 20th birthday.

In a Blog, the company has looked back on its achievements over two decades in which it has become a leading provider of cloud-based venue and event management software.

Formerly Parrimark Technology, Priava was founded by Michael Scroop in 1997, who after graduating from a Swiss hotel management school delved into the world of developing software for the hospitality and tourism sector.

As Scroop recalls “from my experience working in the industry and through my studies, I could see that the systems that were available weren’t specialised enough and didn’t provide key functionality that venue and event professionals needed to manage their events and bookings.

“With this in mind, I set out to build a system that was based on my first-hand knowledge of industry best practice standards.”

The initial product, Events Perfect, was an on-premise solution which served a wide range of clients across different industries worldwide for more than 17 years. Events Perfect was regarded as one of the leading software solutions for venue and event management, however, with significant advances in technology and the internet, it was apparent that the system would need to be re-developed to ensure it was future-proof.

In 2007, James Pegum was appointed as the company’s Chief Executive. Coming from a family of hospitality and venue management professionals, Pegum brought with him an acute understanding of what it takes to run a successful venue, together a wealth of professional experience in managing a diverse portfolio of businesses.

Together with Scroop, Pegum made the decision to start from scratch and draw on the experience that had been gained through developing Events Perfect and supporting a diverse client base to build a cloud-based venue and event management system - the first of its kind - which would support users into the future. It was also at this point that the decision was made to re-brand the company.

Pegum explains “making the decision to start building a completely new system from scratch certainly wasn’t the easy option, but it meant that we had a blank canvas to work with. We could draw inspiration from our experience of Events Perfect and include what we already knew worked.

“On the contrary, we also weren’t confined by the foundations of an existing system which meant that we had an opportunity to make significant changes to improve the interface and, most importantly, make it more accessible.”

Priava went live in February 2013, since the launch the product has gone from strength to strength and now helps thousands of users spanning across Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, the United States and Canada.

Pegum states “Priava has been on the market for over four years now and during this time we have continued to make significant improvements to the system based on feedback from our users.

“From the launch of email functionality to advanced API and integration capabilities, we are continuously working to improve the system and to give our users the tools that the need to be able to manage their events and bookings effectively.

“I am extremely proud of what we have achieved in such a short time and am excited for what is to come.”

2017 has also seen Priava launch its latest module, a seamless self-service Online Booking module which can be setup without any technical experience, simply and easily. 

For more information on Priava, click here to view their entry in the Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory.

Lower image: James Pegum.

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