Meeting planning platform Troop is broadening its scope to handle additional functions including booking, the company has announced.
The wider platform, Troop One, can serve as an "all-in-one, end-to-end meetings planning solution," said CEO and co-founder Dennis Vilovic.
"We're helping the planner to manage the whole process in one platform … and giving the information to the companies to understand their impact in terms of cost and their commitment to their CO2 impact," he explained.
Troop's original key function of helping planners determine the best locations for their events now has an AI-powered destination search that can scan data to help them make that decision.
Such data points include cost estimates, travel time for attendees and projected carbon emissions. Troop One is also building a network of event planners, suppliers and others with local expertise who can help with planning and executing events.
"It's hand-picked planners which we are managing from our end and working with existing networks, connecting them to the platform," said Vilovic.
For booking, Troop One is directly integrating with Spotnana to enable attendees to book within policy on the platform. Both Troop and Spotnana have received investment from Concur co-founder Steve Singh's Madrona Venture Group.
That integration has been under way for a while, and Vilovic said there will be more integrations in the future with other booking tools.
Troop One also features an attendee dashboard where planners can monitor such logistics as invitations, itineraries and information including whether attendees have applied for necessary visas.
In addition, the platform provides advanced cost estimations during the planning phase for budgeting and enables planners to issue virtual cards to attendees and track expenses, the company added.
Troop One is planning for future integrations as well and has introduced a new API toolkit for developers who wish to integrate with the platform, added Vilovic.
Troop was named as the winner at the BTN Group's Innovate conference last year, with the judging panel noting that a key need was "further integration with the rest of the planning cycle."