From Eventbrite to Talkbase: Going back to the basics with classic features and a clean user interface

A case study on how the Mews Tech Community Team found relief from the convoluted intricacies of Eventbrite.

Eventbrite, complex with too many configurations

Mews focuses on simplifying and automating hotel operations for both hoteliers and their guests, including everything from the booking engine to revenue management. Established in 2012, they now have over 3,200 hotels in their portfolio across 70 countries and have approximately 750 employees.

The Mews Tech Community was launched in 2019, geared towards the internal engineering team and a wider community of technology professionals, and they began hosting events with Eventbrite. However, they encountered problems and recurring issues with Eventbrite. “Eventbrite has obviously been around for a long time and tons of people use them for events, but it’s really not user friendly,” Jan Meissner, Mews Community Manager said. “It was also difficult to get certain reports from it, and then we still had to export attendees and import them into Mailchimp to be able to send them emails. It was all too much work.”

The Tech Community Team was then introduced to Talkbase through mutual connections in Prague, where both companies are headquartered, and it sparked immediate potential. “Talkbase made sense for us because even though it’s still early stage, it’s still so good. The editing is very simple, the UI is clean, and it’s so easy for people to register. With Eventbrite, for example, it was quite difficult - people had to make an account, login, and jump through a bunch of hoops just to register for an event.”

“I use Talkbase on a daily basis - I’m in it all the time, especially before an event where I’m constantly looking at the attendee list. It’s so easy and intuitive… seriously.”

Making the jump over to Talkbase

The Mews Tech Community Team decided to migrate to Talkbase in June 2022, working with the Talkbase team to import their existing event data from Eventbrite to maintain their historical data. Eventually, they hope to also replace Mailchimp for their event emails and solely rely on Talkbase. “I love the automated event emails that Talkbase has right now, like the options to send the one-day and one-hour event reminder emails, and the registration confirmation email. It’s so much simpler and nicer to use than Eventbrite’s. There are a few more other emails that we like to send out to our members, and so we’re really looking forward to the more advanced email capabilities Talkbase is working on. I can’t wait to be able to run everything in Talkbase,” Meissner said.

Being able to link the community CRM directly with event registrations and attendance was also a primary reason the Mews Tech Community made the call to switch to Talkbase. “With Eventbrite, there was no easy way to view all of our community members, what events they registered for and attended, how many events, the data was missing,” Meissner said. “With our Talkbase CRM, we have a complete database of all members, what events they registered for or even spoke at. I use Talkbase on a daily basis - it’s so easy and intuitive, and it saves me so much time.”

“It’s important for me that the platform looks good and that it’s very user friendly for both my team and event planners, as well for our community members. Talkbase is a refreshing tool to work with. It’s something that event organizers and community builders will want to use. It’s clear that it’s been built by community builders, and it’s made my life so much easier.”

The Mews Tech Community is also utilizing templates and duplicating events to make the event planning process even easier. By storing resources and links within the event project boards, they get a jump start on the planning phases for every event they do. “Having all of the setup and steps in the event project board, if my team ever needs the info, it’s all right there. It’s great having everything set up like that for future reference and use.”

Looking forward to adopting other Talkbase features

Since launching with Talkbase, The Mews Tech Community Team has held 10 hybrid events with an average event attendance of 80+ in-person attendees and many more via livestreaming, and they’re still going strong.

“We’re currently working on updating all of our speaker profiles in Talkbase,” Meissner said. “This way we have a complete repository and profiles for all of the people who have spoken at past events.”

They are also working on using Talkbase’s other features, like project boards and eventually advocate programs as well. As their team continues to grow, they’re excited that Talkbase will grow with them. “Talkbase is so user friendly that it makes my job easier when onboarding new team members. I don’t have to spend tons of time with them walking through how to use Talkbase. Oftentimes I just give them access and they’re able to figure everything out by themselves because it’s so intuitive and easy to use.”