Supporting Event Venue Search: "VENUE LINK" – Dentsu Live Inc.'s Vision and Expertise Behind Its Development
As COVID-19 restrictions ease, attention is returning to in-person events. Many companies are likely considering hosting business-related events.
One key to event success is venue selection. Whether organizers and production companies can find venues perfectly aligned with their event goals and vision is a major concern.
Dentsu Live Inc. has developed and launched " VENUE LINK," a venue information search service for corporate event planners. The service incorporates the unique perspective and ingenuity of Dentsu Live Inc., which has handled numerous events, featuring capabilities like "narrowing down venues based on usage scenarios" and "searching via map to list venues."
In this article, we spoke with Masashi Noda and Erika Komata from Dentsu Live Inc.'s Business Creation Unit, who played central roles in developing VENUE LINK. They discussed the development background, specific features and characteristics, and future prospects.
*This article is based on content originally published in Transformation SHOWCASE, with additional interviews and re-editing.
Three Parties, Three Sets of Challenges: Organizers, Venues, and Operators
──First, could you tell us about the "Business Creation Unit" organization you belong to?
Noda: The sharp decline in demand for "real events" during the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a surge in momentum to "explore new, timely business domains and break away from traditional, passive contracting models to build Dentsu Live Inc.'s unique front-end model." This led to the establishment of the Business Creation Office in January 2022. While maintaining our event and space professionalism, we started as an organization tackling new business, project creation, and developing direct business relationships with advertisers. In 2023, the IP Business and Kansai teams merged, evolving into the further advanced organization known as the Business Creation Unit.
Komata: I believe the way events are conducted has changed significantly, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. To respond to this major shift, the Business Creation Office was born and evolved into the Business Creation Unit. One of its major challenges is "VENUE LINK."
──What challenges existed in the event industry that led to the development of "VENUE LINK"?
Komata: Through interviews with organizers, venue operators, and event management teams, we discovered that each group faced distinct challenges from their unique perspectives.
Organizers expressed concerns and uncertainties about finding and matching venues, such as "We don't know how to effectively search for venues" and "We can't tell if a venue truly fits our event." While departments or companies with existing relationships with advertising or event agencies can seek advice, others without such connections struggle to find venues themselves, rent equipment, and execute events under significant strain. Reducing the burden on these individuals is one key challenge.
On the other hand, while venues ideally want their calendars filled year-round, they inevitably experience slow periods. Even when venues want to reach out to organizers or planners, current opportunities and methods are limited. Their approach is largely passive—relying on internet searches or word-of-mouth—leading to a desire to "actively reach out to those planning or executing events."
Additionally, there was feedback stating, "We want to carefully analyze the information users are seeking and post well-presented, needs-aligned information items, but we struggle to do this effectively on our own website." Organizing information for a site viewed by diverse stakeholders—such as event company representatives seeking detailed information and organizers wanting simple basic details—is challenging.
From the operational side, the most common request is "to streamline research tasks." Finding venues is actually a very time-consuming task, and more clients are placing greater importance on selecting the right event venue—what are often called unique venues. On the other hand, many event companies face the reality that the venue information they provide for each proposal varies significantly. This stems from the challenge of venue information not being centralized. To improve this situation even slightly, it was necessary to centralize the information and make it easier to find venues that meet specific criteria.
A service packed with Dentsu Live Inc.'s vision, insights, and know-how
──Please tell us about the design philosophy and specific features of "VENUE LINK".
Komata: At the core of this service is Dentsu Live Inc.'s desire to "create opportunities for as many moving experiences as possible in the world." The aim is to match clients and production companies considering events with the most suitable venue information, enabling them to host better events for more people.
While venue search services for events and meetings already exist, VENUE LINK focuses primarily on business use, narrowing down to venues suitable for that purpose. From venue selection to search methods, we've incorporated Dentsu Live Inc.'s expertise and know-how. This design aims to create a search service that is easy to use and understand, even for first-time event planners, while also helping them visualize their event.
Specifically, it introduces a "Use Case Search" style. This connects the user's desired event concept—such as "suitable for vehicle displays," "experienced with online streaming events," or "capable of hosting long-term events"—with the venue's unique characteristics. By using this feature to pick venues and then applying necessary conditions from there, significant mismatches can be avoided.
When searching for venues, narrowing down options based on event-specific criteria can easily become overly systematic. However, the "Search by Image" tool allows users to simply browse various usage scenarios. This helps expand their vision for the event and sparks ideas continuously. We believe this ultimately leads to creating truly memorable events. Therefore, when building the site, we researched not only venue search sites but various information search sites. We incorporated elements like "enjoyable just to browse" and "exciting search" into our site.
Second, we set more effective criteria for users, enabling searches tailored to their purpose and execution style. When actually hosting an event, information from a production and operational perspective is crucial—beyond venue size and facilities—such as whether setup and dismantling can be done 24 hours a day, the availability of a loading dock, and routes for guiding guests. We believe that having these search criteria available during the venue search phase enables users to find venues that match their desired event style. Therefore, we have incorporated them into the advanced search options.
Noda: In the site's design, we strongly prioritized high convenience and practicality for users. For example, area search results can also be viewed on a map. When listing venues by broad categories like "Shinjuku Area" or "Shibuya Area," venues just outside the immediate vicinity often get missed. However, searching via the map prevents overlooking venues slightly outside your intended area. It also enables searches like "inside the Yamanote Line loop," which are difficult using addresses alone. We believe this helps users consider venues not just based on the venue itself, but also its surrounding location, to find the best fit for their event.
Furthermore, when evaluating venues, it's common to compare several candidates. VENUE LINK allows you to easily create comparison tables for multiple venue search results directly within the site. Drawing from our experience in venue searches and proposal material creation, we've implemented practical features we believe are useful and convenient.
Komata: If users encounter challenges they can't resolve or want to make more elevated proposals, we've included a "Consult a Pro" portal on the site where they can request planning assistance with a single click. Dentsu Live Inc. staff, as event professionals, can also provide consultation.
Noda: Beyond search, the site will also feature the latest topic articles and venue spotlight articles curated from an event professional's perspective. We hope this content provides inspiration for creating memorable experiences, starting with events.
Additionally, while not yet implemented, we plan to enable searching based on actual event case studies at venues. Being able to search by case study will make it easier for users unfamiliar with event hosting to hold events that match their vision. By considering not just system usability but also what users need to achieve their goals, and adding features accordingly, our ultimate aim is for users to feel satisfied, thinking, "I'm glad I held my event at this venue." We also hope to build a system where venues themselves feel, "We're glad this event chose us."
We want to contribute to revitalizing the entire event industry.
──The target users are corporate representatives or production company staff considering business-use events. What scale of events are you envisioning?
Noda: While "business use" often conjures images of large-scale events, we also envision smaller, internal company events—like a development department wanting to hold a new product showcase, or a sales department wanting to host a networking event for clients. We really want people who don't typically work with advertising agencies or event production companies to use it and find it helpful for venue searches.
Komata: While organizers are our primary target, we also strongly encourage advertising agencies and event production companies to use it. By reducing the effort and cost involved in finding venues—a crucial part of event planning—we want to enable more people to host events. We also want event production professionals to propose events more actively. We want to support them in this. We hope VENUE LINK contributes to revitalizing the entire event industry.
──How do you envision monetizing "VENUE LINK"?
Noda: While this aspect may not be immediately apparent to users, VENUE LINK does not charge any listing fees to the venues featured. Driven by our desire to list as many venues as possible that we believe are suitable for events, we've created a system that's easy for venue operators to participate in. In fact, some facilities that had previously refused listings on search sites granted permission based on their usage history with Dentsu Live Inc. and the trust built with our staff. VENUE LINK is a service for better event hosting that offers advantages to both users and venue operators.
As Komata mentioned earlier, the core principle of this service is to simplify the significant hurdle of finding venues for events, driven by our desire to "create opportunities for more moving experiences in the world." We don't see value in monetization models like charging venues listing fees or users usage fees. Instead, we believe it's crucial for our company to help as many people as possible create moving experiences. VENUE LINK is simply one gateway to achieving that goal.
As stated in our company's external announcement, "Dentsu Live Inc. aims to become a platform provider in the event space, centered on venue matching that fully leverages our accumulated experience, track record, and data." Our role is to meet the needs of users seeking to host better events and the needs of venues seeking users who can properly evaluate their value. That is precisely why we believe "VENUE LINK" is a service Dentsu Live Inc., as a facilitator of moving experiences, should widely provide.
──Finally, how do you now perceive the value of events in the post-pandemic era?
Komata: While the pandemic accelerated the shift to online events, I've observed through interactions with various clients that the value of real-world spaces and experiences is being reevaluated, leading to a growing demand for in-person events.
I feel the value of events has become clearer and more articulated after the pandemic. Personally, I believe events are "places that create new encounters" and can "provide core experiences that strengthen those connections." While this value hasn't fundamentally changed from before the pandemic, articulating it anew through various client projects and my own experiences has deepened my awareness of what only events can achieve, guiding how I plan them.
A physical space is indispensable for real-world experiences. By leveraging Dentsu Live Inc.'s accumulated experience and event planning perspective, we aim to provide truly valuable information and services regarding event venues – essential for event planning. This will help match the aspirations and needs of venue operators, event organizers, and users, thereby revitalizing the entire event industry.
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Author
Masashi Noda
Dentsu Live Inc.
Since joining Dentsu Live Inc. (formerly Dentsu Tech), I have been involved in production work within the event and space sector. I have produced numerous brand promotions primarily for the automotive, information and communications, and beverage industries. I also have extensive experience as an executive producer for large-scale international events involving diverse stakeholders.
Erika Komata
Dentsu Live Inc.
Since joining Dentsu Live Inc. (formerly Dentsu Tech), I have been involved in event and space design. Focusing primarily on brand promotions for foreign and luxury clients, I have handled large-scale promotional events and store development across various industries, including automotive and beverages. My strength lies in providing comprehensive production capabilities spanning planning, production, implementation, and operations.