Can you name the most popular social media platform? You may never need to, according to Bill McGlade, founder and CEO of Victory Productions and one of the most respected figures in event technology.

Whether you are a user on Reddit — the answer to our opening question — or not, McGlade said the right app could take all of the positives of the many social media channels and eschew the negatives that come with having separate Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Imagine a world where you don’t repost a photo four times, your messages don’t get lost in a fancy algorithm and there is mercifully only one password to remember.

With Hyvve, an event and community-based platform designed for associations, McGlade thinks he has solved many of life’s mundane problems. In doing so, he hopes to have created a roadmap to a seemingly never-ending journey to create year-round engagement between multiple generations.

“It’s a one-stop shop for your members,” said McGlade, who has also signed an association management organization, a Florida-based organization, a health care group and large sports association as clients.

A longtime member of IAEE and former chair of the association’s Washington, D.C., chapter — he recently moved from Alexandria, Virginia to New Jersey — who has served on any industry committees, including at CEIR, McGlade is very familiar with the challenges associations face. He ran the sales department at a2z, an event management platform that was acquired by Personify in 2018.

A well-regarded figure among his client base, McGlade finally made the plunge to go out on his own in 2020. While his experience gives him credibility and a base to start, McGlade is trying to get Hyvve do the talking for him. He is hosting a free event, Sales’d, on April 23 to showcase the technology featuring TED-style talks from industry leaders in marketing, technology, sales and more. 

He’s loath to say the platform is a DIY for fear it could scare some less tech-savvy people away, but is quick to add that it’s as simple as drag-and-drop and even automatically sizes images.

“What I’ve done is taken the best of multiple platforms and made them better,” he said. “It’s very much like LinkedIn and Instagram put together.” 

The idea is an association member can close down all of his or her social media channels at work — if they are even open — and network, ideate or just plain old meet. It’s like a collective — hence the name, Hyvve.

The engagement should then translate to a greater willingness to attend the association’s annual convention, and familiarity with the platform should make it easier to use as events become more technology-based — both in-person and for the lead-up and follow-up to the meeting.

“Associations have been saying we need to extend the life of an event — well, I am giving you the opportunity to do that,” he said.

An all-purpose platform also provides avenues to study analytics and behavior. When do push notifications work? How are exhibitors and buyers communicating outside the booth?

Two advantages to Hyvve are related to its accessibility. It’s a rare option optimized for both iOS and Android and it costs $6,000 per year — important as associations seek to overcome lost revenue from not meeting in-person.

When associations return to gathering, McGlade urges them to retrain their thinking to stop seeking registrations as transactions. 

“When customers stopped being people and became data points, planners lost their ability to respond effectively,” he said. “You have to find that emotional connection. You’ll see what passions are driven through this platform.”

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