To survive, you must think outside the comfort zone. When the context changes, if stick to the original business framework, it will not survive. Let's hear how to think about how to apply existing core expertise to new markets using data as a navigation compass with Khun Max Phattharaphon Phosuwan, CEO and Co-founder EVENTPOP. Despite how severe the COVID is, Thai startups like EVENTPOP are not going to back off. What concept of adaptation and how to draw on strengths to expand business he has; we will study here.

The starting point of EVENTPOP

Ticket Platform EVENTPOP started five years ago in 2015. Khun Max had a business maker space for inventors to learn. Most of which are children that come to learn things such as 3D printing. He provided workshops when it comes to organizing a workshop, he had to do marketing, sales, and register online. Therefore, found that there is no system that is easy to use and supports Thai behavior. So EVENTPOP was created with the original purpose of being for personal use. After using it himself for a while, he started to let others use it. Until he met Angle Investor, which is Khun Tob Taokaenoi. Khun Tob came in and invited that he should be serious and see that the market needs this kind of system. Khun Max background is a programmer, therefore did not think much about business. But when Khun Tob invited him to do seriously, it is the beginning. After that, he entered a highly competitive industry such as the Music Festival with the first event was WATERZONIC. Therefore, he has seen an opportunity that when there is a good system, it can be done in every job, whether small or large in all industries. Which should be good for Thailand, especially the event industry. Initially, there were about 30-40 jobs until later growing up, with about 3,000 jobs a year. Over the past 5 years, about 8,000 jobs.

What is a Ticket Platform?

Ticket Platform is a channel for selling tickets. Which will take care of

1.  The registration
2.Manage people who are registered
3. Manage finances
4.CRM Manage CRM

It is known as an end to end solution that makes events of all scale more accessible to consumers. Make people see the opportunity that the event can be organized more easily. Causing more and more events to be organized.

Using data to develop events
 

Max said that really Let's start with the organizers' restrictions. From the original, to know which group of people attending the event or how many people join. Before you must do a survey, you must fill out the information before entering to collect the information. But when it comes to online, these data are all contained in the same database bin. Can bring the data to analyze it Information will be filtered out like the participants were more female or male. And able to analyze what things they are interested in. It can be used to plan what points or what topic to say. Even information about spending money on work That made a payment system as a wristband, you can see which restaurants are selling well. Information on spending that occurred in the event can be studied immediately, such as in which stores have the long line or where is the person going to be in any zone. Khun Max gave an example of selling drinks, which is a key factor in the event.

Solving the Covid problem by thinking outside the box

When it comes to the important question of how EVENTPOP is affected by COVID. Khun Max said that in February To April No new events at all. But March and April are very busy. But busy in refunding customers instead. The decline of tourists has led to the disappearance of seminars such as the MICE group that brought foreigners to Thailand. International concerts like EDM were also affected a lot because most of the audience was Chinese. Which began to see the impact since January that the Chinese tourist group disappeared. From before the coronavirus that Max called "Stay in the shell of the event" When faced with a major crisis like COVID, forced him to think outside the box. Start thinking about what to do next. Try to find a backup plan, try to organize an online event. Invited existing customers to do it but failed because the customer decided to stop working because they thought it was not worth it.

Until meeting Penguin Eat Shabu, which is like a person who is in trouble, must find a way to survive. Trying to think outside the box has therefore been applied. Changing from selling event tickets to selling Shabu pot instead. Khun Max compares that "It's like two stalled dogs meet." Trying to find a way to work together to win together. The problem is that the penguins want to sell a lot of Shabu pot products for a limited time. One minute, thousands of people bought Shabu pots. It is the duty of EVENTPOP to make people feel that the product is limited and must buy it in a limited time. Can see the number of people ordering in real-time. After working with penguins, many restaurants contacted him but had to refuse to go to many stores because the system was still unable to accept too many places at the same time. That is possible because the O to O system is fully supported in the past two months, e-vouchers have been sold in bulk and are able to accept customers from various industries. That is possible because the O to O system is fully supported in the past two months, e-vouchers have been sold in bulk and are able to accept customers from various industries.

Deflect to Online Events with Virtual Conference Success Prototype

Khun Max sees hosting events online as an escape. Which is not new overseas are already organized. At first, he admitted that he wasn't 100% sure that he would succeed, but he wasn't afraid to do it. The first month there were no customers at all, despite shooting 2-3 thousand emails to email, everything went silent. Until I met The Standard, who wanted to organize a forum as the first job of countries that are 100% online. The Standard already has ideas, and Khun Max's team helps with technology and live streaming. Which was the first time to do. Everything had a problem. But what he was ready to do was keep the problems and fix them. There was a working time of 3 days to solve the problem. But everyone solved the problem and tried to cope with every problem until the end the work came out very well. Khun Max said that thanks to The Standard, I saw a good example of virtual conferences in Thailand, and after the event, people understood what a virtual conference is and got a lot of contacts.

What is the EVENTPOP core of competence?

Max recalled that after working with the penguins, “We originally thought of events but never thought that someone else could use our system. So, we removed the words' ticket, event. " And see the core competence of the company that can be applied in other industries. The core of EVENTPOP is 1. Specialize in sales. 2. Specialize in crisis management and expectation management. 3. Flexible technology capable of supporting a wide variety of products. 4. Expertise in O to O (offline to online and online to offline)

Hints where to start, what to stop, and what to do next.

Start to see who our customers are. Because if you can't look at the customer image, you won't be able to move on, data and CRM are the points to win online and better online marketing.

Stop being afraid. We are often taught that if we do anything, we must be different. But when we started it all had competitors and nothing was new. If we start out fearing that we have competitors, we close ourselves up. Selling food, people sell it a lot. But in truth, customers just want something better. It doesn't have to be different.

Continue, walking on, even if there is no COVID, something new must be done. Constantly challenged So you must go on. Live in the present and in the future, not in the past. Must pass through, never give up, never stop walking

If you can see your true strengths and abilities not sticking to the same old familiar frame and not afraid to try and do something new. The crisis can become an opportunity to see the potential hidden within us. Including opening new business opportunities that can be a way to survive and to grow your business in the future.

Source: SCBTV Start Never give up: Nothing can stop startups: Eventpop on Facebook SCB Thailand July 7, 2020