Acquisition of IDEM Hospitality establishes key sales and product development presence
Groups360 recently announced the acquisition of IDEM Hospitality and the addition of senior leadership based in Singapore. Steven Hopkinson will join the company as senior vice president, EMEA & APAC sales and Matthew Howden will become senior vice president, attendee management product development.
Formerly founders and joint CEOs of IDEM, Hopkinson and Howden bring a wealth of sales and entrepreneurship experience to Groups360. At IDEM, they created a platform to help hoteliers maximize revenue from their meetings, events and group business through increased interaction with attendees, while also strengthening the guest experience. The result was increased direct bookings, food and beverage revenue, and loyalty program memberships.
“I’m thrilled to join forces with Groups360 and offer a unique housing solution to the thousands of hotels and major brands in the GroupSync platform. Automation of essential functions will be a crucial component to the recovery of the hospitality industry.”
—Steven Hopkinson, senior vice president, EMEA & APAC sales
“Our unique attendee management solution is a perfect fit with GroupSync. We make managing attendee booking simple and easy for attendees, planners and hotel suppliers. We minimize time required to book and maximize upsell opportunities for suppliers. We are thrilled to be a part of the team.”
—Matthew Howden, senior vice president, attendee management product development
Matthew Howden 
Steven Hopkinson
“Adding IDEM to the Groups360 family brings us a stellar team with a best-in-class product in a strategically important geography. Steven and Matthew add experienced, successful, entrepreneurial leadership for our newly added attendee management and group housing solutions. This is the first investment in a long-term commitment to the region.”
—Kemp Gallineau, CEO, Groups360
About Groups360
With Groups360, your next event starts here. Groups360’s cloud-based technology solutions make booking group business simple for suppliers and planners.
GroupSync Supplier Solutions help hoteliers boost their bottom lines by allocating group inventory through multiple distribution channels at a low cost. Whether integrated to third-party systems or using GroupSync’s proprietary inventory management system, group inventory is distributed through a real-time, enterprise-grade, PCI-compliant, private-labeled booking engine and complemented by attendee management tools. Suppliers also have the ability to engage their sales teams in GroupSync, allowing sales teams to invite planners to collaborate in the platform and even send preapproved RFPs, eliminating much of the planners’ workload during the buying process.
GroupSync Planner Solutions allow event professionals to regain their most valuable resource — time. Using the GroupSync marketplace, planners can search and compare more than 200,000 properties, without ads and pop-ups from unqualified venues, making shopping a quicker, more seamless experience. GroupSync also allows planners to collaborate in the app with other team members involved in the selection process. The time saved allows planners to move from searching and sourcing to the buying process easily and expeditiously. Now, planners can choose to book online immediately or send a prequalified RFP to the hotels that best align with their needs.
Groups360 has offices in Nashville, London and Singapore.
Read the press release on Hospitality Net.
Read additional coverage in Skift, the Nashville Business Journal, and Businesswire.
