Case Study

The Event Site

Design, development and launch of the UK’s biggest marketplace for event hire
The Event Site is a subscription-based website allowing event suppliers to register their services and to be able to receive requests for quotes from event organisers, who in turn can post requirements on the service.
All types and size of events are catered for, with organisers able to benefit from a database of more than 70,000 suppliers. This marketplace was born out of a “frustration” that there was not a quicker way to find suitable suppliers than often unproductive web searches and multiple calls.
levels.digital worked closely with the founder, James Cooke-Priest, to build The Event Site, and enable the event organisers to find the most suitable supplier for their event in just a few clicks. The Event Site was launched using a two-phased approach. It was first unveiled to the event suppliers at International Confex 2020 allowing them the sign up and populate their profiles prior to The Event Site [publicly launching] in May 2020. This ensured an optimal user experience for the event organisers, as they were able to begin procuring services for their events right away.

WHAT WE DID

Two-sided marketplace mechanics
Website design and development
Stripe payment integration
Promo code management system
Value-based upsell features
Transactional email flows
Custom CMS development

OUTCOMES

11
weeks from kickoff to launch
70,000+
suppliers

THE JOURNEY

The project was kickstarted with a full-day product workshop where we defined the key problems that this marketplace aimed to solve, as well as the user personas for the marketplace participants. We then outlined the primary and secondary user journeys that would allow The Event Site to spark maximum engagement between the event organisers and suppliers. This led to a well-defined feature set that was prioritised appropriately to ensure the timely two-phased launch.
A two-phased launch was used to ensure the quickest time-to-market and to allow each side of this marketplace to be market-tested independently. The Event Site is monetised by offering paid subscriptions to the event suppliers. Hence it was essential to deliver the platform in front of the suppliers first to test the product-market fit. This also ensured that the event organisers were able to benefit from a vast directory of suppliers immediately upon visiting the marketplace, hence avoiding the “chicken and egg” problem that so many two-sided marketplaces face.
Our design and development teams worked in tandem deliver these features, allowing us to move fast and ship the primary user journeys early on, and minimise the project risk. Each user journey was thoroughly QA-tested upon its completion to lock-in the platform value in the initial stages.
The Event Site was first launched at International Confex 2020 in front of the largest event suppliers in the UK. This product proved to be popular among the target audience, which helped us to obtain the buy-in from the key stakeholders and build the outstanding user journeys aimed at the event organisers – the demand side of the marketplace.
The site was then publicly launched in May 2020, instantly disrupting the events industry and receiving favourable appraisal in the media.
01
Marketplace mechanics
02
Design
03
Supply-side launch
04
Full launch

TECHNOLOGIES USED