Cendyn has acquired Knowland, a data and hospitality technology company that tracks meetings and events. This acquisition positions Cendyn to increase sales prospects, particularly in the meetings, incentives, conferences, and events space.
Knowland’s platform includes data on meetings and events from over 7,500 hotels across the U.S. and a select handful of international markets. Its products connect hotels with market insights to drive more group sales.
“To effectively sell group business, hoteliers need immediate access to data, and Knowland’s event intelligence platform is undoubtedly the market leader in this area. Its sales intelligence complements our Sales CRM, helping hoteliers find their target audience. Then, using our Proposals and Grouprev platforms, hoteliers can complete the booking process,” said Jack Blaha, CEO at Cendyn.
Knowland provides data insights about the state of the meetings and events industry. This information was especially important as the industry recovered after the Covid pandemic.
It publishes the Hospitality Group & Business Performance Index along with Amadeus featuring meeting, event, and corporate market trends. In addition, its U.S. Meetings Recovery Forecast and Monthly Meetings and Event reports feature industry data. Trend alerts, webcasts, interactive forecasts, and industry leader perspectives are also popular with meeting professionals.
Jeff Bzdawka, CEO of Knowland since 2021, will be stepping down in mid-October. In a Skift Meetings podcast featuring Bzdawka in August of 2022, he talked about the importance of leveraging technology to enhance attendee experiences, operational efficiency, and business results. He emphasized that technology is key to elevating an event from good to great, while poorly implemented technology can detract from the experience.
“While it should not be front and center, technology enables an event. Well-intended technology that does not work or is overly complex can actually make a good meeting go bad,” he says during the podcast. You can listen here.