Lanyon Solutions

Lanyon Solutions was a United States-based software-as-a-service company serving the corporate travel, meetings, events, hospitality, and destination-marketing industries. Its cloud products were designed to coordinate activities that had traditionally depended on fragmented spreadsheets, email, telephone calls, and manual reservation processes. The company supported several sides of the meetings and events ecosystem, including corporations, hotels, associations, exhibitors, convention and visitor bureaus, trade shows, and specialist intermediaries. The Lanyon Solutions identity emerged in early 2014 when Vista Equity Partners combined Lanyon with the Active Network Business Solutions Group. The transaction brought together Lanyon's corporate transient-travel technology and Active's portfolio of meetings-management, event-registration, supplier-sourcing, and conference products. Rather than being a start-up built from a single product, Lanyon Solutions was therefore an operating platform assembled from businesses with different histories and capabilities. The principal Lanyon business dated to 1984, when Nick Lanyon founded the company in Irving, Texas, to develop software for corporate transient travel. Lanyon later expanded its technology and customer-support capabilities after receiving investment from Frontier Capital in 2009. Vista Equity Partners acquired Lanyon in December 2012. The investment firm subsequently paired Lanyon with Active Network's Business Solutions Group after acquiring Active Network in 2013. The Active portfolio supplied important components of the later company. Active had acquired RegOnline and WingateWeb in 2008, and it purchased StarCite in 2012. StarCite brought strategic meetings-management software, supplier sourcing, analytics, attendee tools, and related event applications. Active's resulting Business Solutions Group included products such as StarCite for strategic meetings management, ActiveWorks Conference, RegOnline, and the StarCite Supplier Marketplace. Lanyon Solutions continued to broaden its portfolio through acquisitions. It acquired Passkey International in April 2014, adding group hotel-reservation technology for event organizers, hotels, and destination organizations. In December 2014 it acquired GenieConnect, a United Kingdom-based mobile-event technology provider formerly known as GenieMobile. GenieConnect added mobile applications, audience interaction, behavioral analytics, social-event aggregation, and beacon-enabled engagement capabilities. The company organized its offerings around a cloud-based portfolio that included Lanyon Events, Lanyon Meetings, Lanyon Mobile, RegOnline by Lanyon, Lanyon Travel, Lanyon Passkey, Lanyon Group, and Lanyon Transient. These products addressed registration and check-in, exhibitor and speaker administration, attendee communications, meetings procurement, hotel group blocks, corporate travel requests, venue sourcing, and hotel responses to requests for proposals. The company also marketed integrated functionality through the Smart Events Cloud concept, intended to connect strategic meetings management with event marketing and attendee technologies. Lanyon relocated its headquarters to downtown Dallas and maintained offices in Draper, Utah; London; Philadelphia; Singapore; and Waltham, Massachusetts. Its stated customer base included large enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, associations, hotels, and destination organizations. Reference material describes the business as serving more than 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies, approximately 10,000 small and medium-sized businesses, and more than 100,000 hotels, although these figures are historical company claims rather than current operating metrics. Lanyon Solutions ceased to exist as an independent brand after it was merged into Cvent in 2017. Its history is consequently best understood as the consolidation of several event-management, hotel-reservation, corporate-travel, and mobile-event software businesses under Vista Equity Partners before their subsequent integration into Cvent.

Lanyon Solutions was created in 2014 through Vista Equity Partners' combination of Lanyon and the Active Network Business Solutions Group. The resulting company inherited a collection of software businesses whose origins extended across corporate travel, event registration, strategic meetings management, hotel reservations, venue sourcing, and mobile event technology. The oldest component was Lanyon, founded by Nick Lanyon in 1984 in Irving, Texas. It initially focused on software for corporate transient travel. In 2009, Lanyon received $10 million from Frontier Capital to expand its products, customer support, and sales organization. Vista Equity Partners acquired the company in December 2012. A second major lineage came through Active Network. Active acquired RegOnline, an online registration provider, and WingateWeb, an enterprise event-management company, in 2008. In January 2012, Active acquired StarCite for $57.7 million and used it to form the Business Solutions Group. That group combined strategic meetings-management technology with conference management, online registration, supplier sourcing, and related event applications. StarCite itself had developed through earlier combinations and acquisitions, including RegWeb and b-there, and through the 2006 merger with OnVantage. OnVantage had been formed through the combination of seeUthere Technologies and PlanSoft. Vista acquired Active Network in September 2013 for more than $1 billion. After that transaction, Vista paired Lanyon with Active's Business Solutions Group. The combination was completed under the Lanyon name in early 2014. Lanyon Solutions subsequently pursued an acquisition-led expansion strategy. Passkey International was acquired in April 2014. Founded in 1996 in Waltham, Massachusetts, Passkey supplied hotel reservation technology, including GroupMAX, which helped hotels and destination organizations manage group reservations and room blocks while supporting additional revenue opportunities. In December 2014, Lanyon acquired GenieConnect, a mobile event technology company founded in 2010 with teams in the United States, United Kingdom, and Asia-Pacific. GenieConnect had previously operated as GenieMobile until 2013. Its capabilities included mobile event applications, usage-based content delivery, beacon-enabled audience response, behavioral marketing, surveys, and social-activity aggregation through OmniStream Event Wall. The acquisition expanded Lanyon's ability to link registration and meetings systems with attendee-facing mobile experiences. The company presented these capabilities through the Smart Events Cloud concept, introduced in 2013 and expanded within the combined portfolio. Lanyon Events handled registration, check-in, exhibitor and speaker resources, lead retrieval, and attendee data. Lanyon Meetings, formerly associated with StarCite, supported strategic meetings management, supplier sourcing, request-for-proposal workflows, policy compliance, and cost visibility. Lanyon Mobile, based on GenieConnect technology, supplied event applications, polling, surveys, attendee tracking, and social functions. RegOnline served smaller businesses and associations, while Lanyon Travel addressed corporate transient travel. For hotels and destination organizations, Lanyon Passkey supported group reservations and room blocks. Lanyon Group, formerly MarketView, supported group-meeting requests for proposals, while Lanyon Transient addressed corporate transient-travel requests for proposals. This portfolio gave Lanyon a two-sided position: it sold software to corporate and association event organizers while also helping hotels respond to demand and manage reservations. Lanyon moved its headquarters to downtown Dallas and maintained offices in Draper, Utah; London; Philadelphia; Singapore; and Waltham. The company's historical materials described a customer base spanning major enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, associations, hotels, convention and visitor bureaus, exhibitors, and event intermediaries. It also held patents associated with event marketing automation, event planning, and rate auditing, including patents originally granted to StarCite and Lanyon. The independent Lanyon Solutions organization ended in 2017, when it was merged into Cvent. As a result, its products and corporate history form part of the broader consolidation of meetings and event technology under larger software platforms rather than a continuing standalone brand.

• 2017

  Lanyon was merged into Cvent

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  The independent Lanyon Solutions organization ended when it was merged into Cvent.

• 2014

  Lanyon Solutions was formed

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  Vista combined Lanyon with Active Network's Business Solutions Group under the Lanyon name.

• 2014

  Passkey joined Lanyon

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  Lanyon acquired Passkey in April, adding group hotel-reservation and room-block technology.

• 2014

  GenieConnect joined Lanyon

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  Lanyon acquired GenieConnect in December, adding mobile event and attendee-engagement technology.

• 2012

  Vista acquired Lanyon

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  Vista Equity Partners acquired Lanyon in December, replacing Frontier Capital as the company's private-equity owner.

• 2012

  Active acquired StarCite

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  Active Network acquired StarCite for $57.7 million and used it as a central component of its Business Solutions Group.

• 2009

  Lanyon received growth funding

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  Frontier Capital invested $10 million in Lanyon to support product, customer, and sales expansion.

• 2008

  Active acquired RegOnline and WingateWeb

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  The acquisitions expanded Active Network's event-registration and enterprise event-management capabilities.

• 1999

  StarCite was founded

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  StarCite began as a McGettigan Partners spinoff and later became a major strategic meetings-management technology component.

• 1996

  Passkey International was founded

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  Passkey began in Waltham, Massachusetts, developing hotel reservation technology for group travel and events.

• 1984

  Lanyon was founded

  [1]Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  Nick Lanyon founded Lanyon in Irving, Texas, initially focusing on software for corporate transient travel.

An enterprise-oriented cloud software provider connecting corporate travel, strategic meetings management, event registration, attendee engagement, hotel group reservations, and hospitality request-for-proposal workflows.

• Integrated event and meetings software · 2013

  Lanyon Smart Events Cloud

  Smart Events Cloud was Lanyon's umbrella concept for connecting strategic meetings management, event marketing, registration, mobile engagement, and attendee data. It was intended to reduce fragmentation between planning and execution by combining organizer-facing workflows with attendee and supplier information. The suite incorporated products such as Lanyon Events, Lanyon Meetings, Lanyon Mobile, and RegOnline.

• Event management

  Lanyon Events

  Lanyon Events, formerly associated with the company's conference technology, supported event marketing and operational administration. Functions included online registration, attendee check-in, exhibitor and speaker resource centers, lead retrieval, and management of attendee information. It was aimed at conferences, corporate events, associations, and other organized gatherings requiring a common system for registration and event delivery.

• Strategic meetings management

  Lanyon Meetings

  Lanyon Meetings, formerly based on StarCite technology, provided strategic meetings-management functions for corporations and other organizations. The product helped users create visibility into meetings spend, automate supplier request-for-proposal processes, support venue evaluation, encourage compliance with corporate policy, and improve procurement decisions. Its broader technology lineage included supplier databases, analytics, and tools for managing meetings programs.

• Mobile event technology

  Lanyon Mobile

  Lanyon Mobile incorporated GenieConnect technology to provide branded mobile applications and attendee-engagement tools. Capabilities included event content, interactive maps, polling and surveys, beacon-enabled audience response, behavioral tracking, targeted messaging, and social-activity aggregation. The product could be connected with registration and event-management systems so organizers could communicate with participants before and during an event.

• Online registration

  RegOnline by Lanyon

  RegOnline was an online registration platform serving small and medium-sized businesses, associations, and event organizers. It handled participant registration and related event-administration tasks and formed part of Active Network's Business Solutions Group before the Lanyon combination. Its inclusion gave Lanyon an offering for organizations that needed a more accessible registration system alongside its enterprise meetings and hotel products.

• Corporate travel software

  Lanyon Travel

  Lanyon Travel addressed corporate transient travel management. It grew from Lanyon's original focus and was intended to help organizations manage travel-related data, requests, rates, and supplier interactions. The offering complemented Lanyon's meetings products by covering individual business travel as well as group events.

• Group hotel reservations

  Lanyon Passkey

  Lanyon Passkey was based on Passkey International's group-reservation technology. It helped hotels, event organizers, and destination organizations manage room blocks and group hotel bookings associated with meetings and events. The technology was also positioned to help suppliers promote additional services to meeting guests and to reduce manual administration around group reservations.

• Hotel group request-for-proposal management

  Lanyon Group

  Lanyon Group, formerly known as MarketView, supplied hotels with tools for handling requests for proposals connected with group meetings and events. It supported the hotel-side response process, helping properties organize incoming opportunities, provide information to planners, and manage the commercial workflow associated with group business.

• Hotel corporate-travel software

  Lanyon Transient

  Lanyon Transient supported hotels responding to requests for proposals for corporate transient travel. It complemented Lanyon Group by addressing individual business-travel demand rather than group meetings. The product reflected the company's effort to connect buyer-side corporate travel programs with supplier-side hotel sales and response processes.

• 2017

  Merger into CventM&A

  Background

  Lanyon Solutions operated as a consolidated meetings and events software provider under Vista Equity Partners.

  Action taken

  The company was merged into Cvent.

  Aftermath

  Lanyon ceased to operate as an independent company and its products and capabilities became part of Cvent's broader platform portfolio.

  Source

• 2014

  Consolidation of Lanyon and Active's Business Solutions GroupM&A

  Background

  Vista Equity Partners owned both Lanyon and Active Network after acquiring the two businesses. The combination brought corporate travel, meetings management, event registration, and supplier technology into one operating organization.

  Action taken

  Vista paired Lanyon with Active Network's Business Solutions Group and consolidated the combined business under the Lanyon name.

  Aftermath

  The consolidation established the foundation for a broader Lanyon portfolio and was followed by the acquisitions of Passkey and GenieConnect.

  Source

• 2014

  Acquisition of PasskeyM&A

  Background

  Lanyon sought to strengthen its position in event and hospitality technology with group hotel-reservation capabilities.

  Action taken

  Lanyon acquired Passkey International in April 2014.

  Aftermath

  Passkey's GroupMAX and related reservation capabilities expanded Lanyon's hotel and destination-organization offering.

  Source

• 2014

  Acquisition of GenieConnectM&A

  Background

  Lanyon's event portfolio required attendee-facing mobile functionality and engagement tools.

  Action taken

  Lanyon acquired GenieConnect in December 2014.

  Aftermath

  The acquisition added mobile applications, event analytics, audience interaction, and social-content capabilities that could be integrated with Lanyon's existing systems.

  Source

1. 1Lanyon Solutionsen.wikipedia.org