BDMetrics Gets New Name, But Loses Its Old Products

In 2002, Rick Geritz and other partners launched BDMetrics, a company that, among other things, was one of the first to introduce the idea of buyers and sellers being matched online before they ever hit the showfloor.

A lot of shows took a liking to what BDMetrics had to offer and signed up for the matchmaking software, as well as other products by the company.

With shows like Intl. CES, ranked No. 2 on the 2009 TSW 200, and BIO Intl. Convention, a multiple TSW Fastest 50 winner, on board – along with three rounds of venture capital financing worth millions of dollars – it seemed like BDMetrics was on a roll.

But, by the end of last year, shifts at the company started to occur, including Geritz stepping down from the top post and Mollie Spilman stepping in. Changes continued with some employees being laid off and BDMetrics deciding to reconsider what it was offering to the tradeshow industry and at what cost.

When the dust settled, Spilman said BDMetrics not only would no longer offer its legacy platform that several shows still used, but also it would have a new name – Three Stage Media – and new offerings.

“The more complex message isn't that we are abandoning these tools,” she added. “We are retiring the platform from six years ago.”

Meanwhile, shows such as BIO Intl. that have come to rely on the old platform have been left in a bit of a lurch. Margaret Core, the Biotechnology Industry Organization's director of sales and marketing, said myBIO, the BDMetrics tool her show uses, “is important to our event from several angles.”

She added, “Our event ... is a (business-to-business) event, and our attendees are 70 percent executive management and 30 percent from outside the U.S. MyBIO is an important service and tool for our attendees to plan their time at our event.”

Core said 60 percent of the show's attendees use myBIO, and each year, “attendees have conducted 40,000 searches, created exhibit routes and scheduled education sessions and activities using the myBIO planner.”

In other words, myBIO is an integral part of the association's show.

Spilman said her company would continue to support myBIO through next year's show, but the new platform the company is building “won't be what myBIO has now.”

Tara Dunion, spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Assn., said BDMetrics also will continue to support their show, Intl. CES, through next year. “We have been told it would not impact this January's Intl. CES,” she added.

As for what CEA will use instead of myCES in the future, Dunion said, “We're focused on January 2010. Then we'll see after that.”

One option for both shows might be to take a look at the other tools BDMetrics, now Three Stage Media, has to offer, such as a Virtual Totebag, an eco-friendly alternative to paper brochures and documents; BiziDocs, an online library where exhibitors can share documents with customers all year long; eventSocial, an online meeting scheduling tool before an event; and eventMobile, a mobile exhibit directory that will help attendees navigate around a showfloor.

Spilman said the entire new platform will be completed in 13 months. Two of the primary reasons for the changes, she added, were that the new products will be less expensive to maintain inhouse and for customers to use, as well as less complicated for both parties to manage overall.

“The manpower and the capital it took to keep the old platform going was significant,” Spilman said. “We couldn't build a profitable business. The legacy platform was too expensive, and it became a problem the minute the economy went down.”

She added, “You don't want to be the most expensive guy in the store, and we're not anymore.”

For now, shows such as BIO Intl. are in wait-and-see mode. “We are open to continuing our great relationship with BDMetrics and trying any of their new products in the future,” Core said.