Passkey.com Lines Up with Conferon, EventSource.com Dot-com alliances are happening fast and furiously, and the latest to unfold is a partnership between Twinsburg, Ohio-based Conferon, one of the largest independent meeting planning companies in the U.S., and Passkey.com Inc. (www.passkey.com), a provider of Internet-based group hotel reservations and related services for meetings and conventions.
David Peckinpaugh, vice president of sales for Conferon, says the Passkey agreement dovetails with his company's own registration and housing division, which services more than 80 events annually, but Conferon is still determining the events for which Passkey's technology will be used.
At almost the same time, Passkey President and CEO Roger Paradis announced his company and EventSource (www.eventsource.com) have formed a marketing alliance in which Passkey will provide space on its meeting planner Web site from which EventSource can be launched, and vice versa. If you're keeping track, the Quincy, Mass.-based Passkey.com also has partnerships with Sabre, McCord Group Travel Services, Pegasus Solutions, and PlanSoft.com.
CORRECTIONS Walter Mathews, director of marketing for iConvention.com, says his company's fees are based on the number of exhibitors, with show producers paying a minimum (not an average, as we reported in the June issue of AM, p.22) of $2,500 per show.