Two of Canada's biggest music festival producers will be using Meetingmax Systems' online accommodation platform to house thousands of festivalgoers this summer. Union Events and Wet Ape Productions have contracted Meetingmax to handle hotel reservations for the Chasing Summer festival in Calgary and the Center of Gravity festival in Kelowna respectively. Meetingmax will manage more than 2,000 hotel nights across 16 hotels in Alberta and BC.

Vancouver-based Meetingmax is the provider of the travel industry's most flexible online housing reservation system. Its technology has gained popularity amongst meeting planners, conference organizers, and convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs).

Providing accommodation for live music events presents different challenges to providing hotel rooms to conference delegates, namely in terms of demographics, requirements, and availability. The target demographic is generally younger and affordability and proximity to the venue are more of a priority. For such events the request rate for double rooms is also higher. Sourcing and securing blocks of accommodation in popular tourist hubs during peak summer months, when such events generally take place, can be a challenge for organizers.

Center of Gravity, the Okanagan's biggest sports and music festival, takes place July 24-26 in Kelowna's City Park. Now in its eighth year, it is produced by Wet Ape Productions and Union Events. Meetingmax is contracted to fill 725 rooms this weekend across seven hotels compared with 400 rooms across four hotels in 2014.

"Nurturing new relationships with hotel partners in Kelowna and maximizing pre-existing ones in Calgary has been paramount for the success of both events," says Jeff Duncan, CEO and Founder of Meetingmax. "While Kelowna is a busy city in the summer months, the city is not accustomed to large events that require housing. Center of Gravity has significant impact on the quantity of guests coming into the city during August and is important to the local economy."

"Meetingmax has streamlined the accommodations program for Center of Gravity guests and saved us the additional work of managing all of these requests internally," says Scott Emslie, owner of Wet Ape Productions. "They have also been extremely proactive and helpful in securing large blocks of rooms at discounted prices and even travelled to Kelowna to meet with a number of the hotels to negotiate better rates."

Chasing Summer, the largest outdoor electronic music dance event in Western Canada, takes place August 7-8 in Calgary. The two-day festival has grown in popularity since 2013 when 9,000 people attended to an estimated 18,000 visitors/guests this year. This year Meetingmax is managing more than 1,600 hotel room nights at nine hotels in the Calgary area. As occupancy in Calgary is less seasonal, and the city is well-equipped to provide housing for larger events Meetingmax was able to leverage existing relationships to provide the best possible rates and locations for Union Events.

"Working with Meetingmax has been a great experience for Union Events, our patrons, and our hotel partners," says Harvey Cohen, Managing Partner, Union Events. "Before working with Meetingmax, we had to negotiate deals with each hotel and reconcile each deal individually. Now we have a unified system for festivalgoers to use and streamlined reconciliation."

About Union Events

Founded in 2000, Union Events (The Union Ltd) has rapidly grown to become one of Canada's leaders in live entertainment, producing hundreds of shows annually across North America at venues of all sizes. Innovative, nimble, and fiercely independent, Union Events develops connections with fans and artist alike, ensuring a 'fan first' experience at each event. These core principles have secured long-term relationships with artists, venues, and fans, forming lasting bonds across every genre. With offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton, Union Events also offers the most comprehensive regional expertise within the Canadian concert industry.

Under its UnionElectronic brand, Union Events has led the charge over the past decade, producing the best of established and emerging talent in electronic dance music (EDM), and has a proven track record as an integral contributor to the growth of EDM in Canada. Union Events is also Canada's leading festival producer, featuring signature festival brands Sonic Boom (Edmonton), X-Fest (Calgary), Chasing Summer (Calgary), One Love (Calgary), Riot Fest (Toronto), and Center of Gravity (Kelowna). Union Events is also the exclusive talent buyer for Concorde Entertainment Group, which owns and operates numerous venues in Calgary, including Flames Central. http://www.unionevents.com

About Wet Ape Productions

Wet Ape was established in 2007 for the purpose of creating and developing unique sport, music, and cultural events across Western Canada. Best known for founding the outdoor festivals Center of Gravity, the Keloha Music and Arts Festival, and Harvest Haus, Wet Ape creates people's favourite moments by producing innovative event experiences. The company has produced large-scale arena shows with some of the biggest names in electronic dance music, including Deadmau5, Calvin Harris, Hardwell, Skrillex, and Tiesto and has now branched to manage a great portfolio of client events including Diner en Blanc, Muck MS, and the Great Okanagan Beer Festival. Wet Ape is also a part-owner of The Imperial, a mid-sized special events venue in Vancouver, BC. Wet Ape Productions http://www.wetape.com

Meetingmax Systems provides the travel industry with the most flexible online housing reservation

system. Developed internally and tailored to meet the needs of convention and visitors" bureaus, event planners, and organizations, the system provides users with a simple, yet powerful, means to efficiently manage conference and event room bookings. The software is used by travel organizations in dozens of North American destinations and by organizers of high profile events including South by Southwest, the World Police and Fire Games, Ironman Triathlons, the World AIDS Conference, and various USA National Sports Championships. The company is based in Vancouver, BC and can be found online at http://meetingmax.cc.