INVENT 2024 Finalist Profile: The Switchboard Network

Founders name: Rebecca McEvoy

What is your background?

With over ten years experience in the events industry and in venue management, Rebecca has seen first hand the current 'pen & paper' booking process that is in place and how tedious it is for not only the customer but for the organisations. Rebecca works with entrepreneurs daily through her role as Programme Manager for Young Enterprise so she is well equipped in understanding how businesses run successfully!

What problem are you solving?

Our aim is to make finding and booking a venue more straightforward by equipping venues with an easy to use booking platform that streamlines operations and provides secure transactions and analytics!

Who and where are your potential customers?

Our primary customers to start are the creative sector & hospitality sector, as this is where Rebecca has the most experience and will target venues that have spaces that are available to hire. With our built in map function we can go UK & Ireland wide as soon as possible so there is alot of scope for venues beyond Belfast NI.

What do you think is the potential for your business?

I believe the platform has tremendous potential in initially solving the issue of room hire and making the process more straightforward. Then with venues onboard, the expansion into custom building events gives the company a clear unique selling point that allows customers to get creative and explore local services in their area. There are no other platforms like this available and so, we aim to dominate the market with our new approach to venue booking and event building!

Where do you hope to be 5 years from now?

Five years from now, we will have developed a complete bespoke event platform that not only covers venue booking but event creation such as catering and additional add-ons such as entertainment. This will make the process of event planning much simpler and allow customers to build their own event custom.

Check out The Switchboard Network’s website and connect with Rebecca on LinkedIn.