Magazine Wereldwijd: Five years ago, VIA FUTURA from Antwerp launched Halito!, an integrated software platform for event websites. The web developers got their inspiration from our northern neighbours.
“While companies in their own country hardly ask questions about privacy or security, this is an important issue in the Netherlands.”
“Six years ago I visited an event fair in Utrecht, the largest in the Benelux”, managing director Bart Van Zele explains. “I was impressed, the Dutch event industry turned out to be at least two years ahead of the Flemish one. For two days I heard from the exhibitors about what we could do for them with VIA FUTURA. I came home with the concept for Halito!, an event site with all the trimmings.”
Return on events
At that time, there were already Dutch providers of registration modules, but an integrated platform with which a fully-fledged event website could be quickly built did not exist. Bart Van Zele: “When we launched Halito!, quite a few Dutch companies agreed. At the same time, they were very demanding, but that only challenged us to keep fine-tuning the concept.” Today the web builder has a sales representation in Amsterdam, and the software development and customer support remain in Antwerp. But competition is not standing still either. That’s why Halito!’s feelers are constantly sticking out to pick up on the latest trends in the event industry. “Companies are more awake than before about the return of their events, so we focus on measurability,” says Bart Van Zele. “And we continue to search the market for partners who can enrich our platform with useful or fun extras, such as a mobile application for during the event or invitations that contain a gift in the form of a drink voucher or promo code.”
Privacy and security
Halito! mainly targets companies, not so many private individuals. “But while customers in their own country hardly ask questions about privacy or security, this is an important issue in the Netherlands,” concludes Bart Van Zele. “What drives us to aim higher and higher in that area too.”
The magazine Wereldwijd (meanwhile Wereldwijs) is an international business magazine published by Flanders Investment & Trade.
