EventBooking.com was founded in 1998. Based out of Knoxville, TN the company was created as a web interface to enable promoters, booking agents, artists, and venues to communicate with one another.
EventBooking.com has expanded its repertoire to include a top-notch booking program with conflict checking, worldwide tour-routing software, website design and infrastructure, and more features being developed daily.
Company Roots
The roots of the company go back to 1991, when EventBooking.com CEO John Platillero started promoting bands in a small coffee-house out of his church in Knoxville, Tenn. By the mid 90's, he was promoting larger concerts in Knoxville, and produced an annual music festival at the outdoor World's Fair Park with the help of legendary promoter Ashley Capps.
In 1995, Platillero decided to leave his job as an electrical engineer and pursue an MBA at the University of Tennessee where he wrote a business plan of what was to be EventBooking.com. While in graduate school, he approached various friends in the industry (Ashley Capps, John Huie, Frank Roach, Tim Reese, Lise Chamness, Terrie Smith) about the idea of a web-based tour-routing/booking program that could tie the industry together in an online network.
The Rise of the Internet
While the internet was just a concept to most of the friends that Platillero approached, they all encouraged him to pursue the development of anything that would help them be more productive and that would improve how they communicated with each other.
At the IAAM national trade show in early 1998, John approached Pollstar and they forged a partnership. On February 4th, 1999, EventBooking.com was officially launched at the CIC Conference in Los Angeles, Ca.
With the launch of EventBooking.com, real-time venue avails were accessible by promoters and booking agents online. Agents were able to post artist avails, and buyers were able to request dates and communicate with each other through the network. Like many other dot coms at that time, the network failed to fully materialize, however, venues embraced the 24/7 "anywhere" access to their booking calendar.
EventBooking.com survived the "dot com" bust of the early 2000's with a loyal venue base, and expanded into website design and hosting for its venue clients.
Future Directions
After years of steadily building a loyal and comprehensive base of venue users, EventBooking.com is poised to introduce its latest incarnation of the original networking tools and services that have been part of EB all along.
2009 promises to be a record year--with new partnerships being announced and expanded services introduced.