Findavenue.ie & Zoomparty.ie

Sean GleesonFind A Venue   Zoom Party Logo 

Findavenue.ie is the one-stop solution for corporate events organisers. For 10 years their venue finding service has been the go-to solution for company parties and event organisers when looking for suitable Dublin venues. Find A Venues unique selling point is that they are 100% free to use and also that we do the searching for you, with a goal is to save busy people time & money. FindAVenue.ie enables users to find the perfect venue for corporate and private events, all at the click of a mouse.

Sean has over 18 years of sales and marketing experience and an additional 15 years within the events industry. Working for numerous Dublin venues, he came up with the concept of a free venue finding service. Sean’s strengths are building relationships and networking. Over the years he has built solid relationships with his clients and has created a strong network of excellent Dublin venues, corporate clients and conference organisers. He is now in the unique position to advise both corporate clients and venue owners by offering a free and impartial venue finding service and expert local advice to meeting planners, associations and incentive organisers seeking to host an event in Ireland.

Sean is also the founder of zoomparty.ie, a virtual event platform for private and corporate parties.

Inspiration

“I worked for numerous Dublin party venues for 7 years from 2004 until 2011 filling these venues with private parties and company events. I had built up relationships with thousands of corporate clients in hundreds of companies and it made total sense to go out on my own freelance and bring business to other Dublin venues “ explains Sean.

Research

I had 7 years’ experience of working with just corporate client’s requests- organising so many different types of events. Everything from company summer BBQ events, Christmas party nights, after work parties, private parties, birthdays, company conferences and sports and social events.

On the other side I had approached a few key Dublin party and hotel venues about working with me exclusively. They agreed to give me a chance! This was back when placing bookings in Dublin bar venues and being paid commission was unheard of. Sure, it was a thing for agents and hotels but not in the bars so I had to persuade Dublin bar owners to try this new way of doing things.” 

Making the leap to become self employed

Sean made the decision to become self- employed in 2011, as soon as he began his new venture.

Sean had built up incredible relationships with fantastic corporate clients, who agreed to work with him and trust his recommendations for new Dublin venues.

“Once they backed me I knew it would work. I had the sales to bring to venue owners so with that knowledge I could back myself.” Sean tells us.

Challenges and Opportunities

“Firstly, getting the “buy in” from Dublin bar owners was a challenge especially at the start. Dealing with agreements with venues was tough and working out a system to protect, myself and my clients was also a challenge.”  Sean remembers.

With the Covid 19 crisis, in person events were not permitted. Numerous corporate clients of Find a Party contacted the company to enquire if there was a virtual event equivalent. Sean knew that there was an opportunity for him to pivot his business into the virtual world and out of this, Zoom Party was born.

Zoom Party offers virtual team building events as well as activities. Companies can choose from a range of packages including “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” quiz packages as well as wine tasting events and even family packages, which includes comedy shows and virtual magicians.

Recently Zoomparty.ie was the Regional winner in the 2020 Start-up awards for COVID-19 Pivot Response category and went on to be shortlisted and to represent Dublin in the National Startup Awards.

Sean explains; “The Covid 19 pandemic was the biggest challenge and also the biggest opportunity for me, as things panned out. By March 15th 2020 my entire calendar of events was wiped out instantly. I was left with nothing. The opportunity that arose from this was acting fast and starting zoomparty.ie within a few weeks of this point. “

“With such loyal corporate clients I had a great base to go with a brand new offering to a market that was hungry to look after their employees. With the right approach and the right people we managed to turn a situation that was a disaster into our biggest success in 2020. To date we have hosted over 500 corporate online parties and virtual events . We employed over 30 people in 2020 to take part in our shows. Everyone from out of work actors, comedians, magicians, singers, dancers, djs and even famous artists were very grateful for the work and we were so proud to be able to help out so many good people".         

LEO Supports

Find a Venue has availed of numerous LEO Training and financial supports over the past 5 years including;

  • Mentoring with Aisling Hurley
  • Training Sales & Selling
  • Smartphone Video and Photography for the Web
  • Grow your business with Google Ads
  • Free Library Talks Managing your Online presence, Financial Supports for Enterpreneurs
  • Search Engine Optimisation

2020

  • Pivot Your Business - Finding New Business Opportunities during COVID 19
  • Facebook & Instagram Intermediate
  • Digital Marketing
  • Twitter & Linkedin for Business (Intermediate)
  • Trading online voucher online seminar
  • Online Mentoring Clinics

We received the Trading Online Voucher in 2016 for findavenue.ie  and again in 2020 for Zoomparty.ie. In my greatest need this voucher gave me the comfort to go for Zoom Party and not to be bogged down about any financial worries. We were able to put together amazing and high performing websites using these vouchers. All of which helped massively and I am very thankful for.”  

Adapting to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sean launched zoomparty.ie as a business pivot on Findavenue.ie in March 2020. It is a virtual events offering that has over 20 different products and gameshows all of which started with their comedy gameshow zoom party.

“We have the best hosts worldwide and that’s what makes us different from all other online companies. Our hosts are incredible and can adjust to anyone on a call, whether they be young or old, introverted or extroverted or whole families on zoom calls- we always make people feel extremely comfortable and relaxed.” Sean says.

The companies have a number of rules they follow, which makes them trustworthy for companies and private parties.

“We host all types of events from virtual company Christmas parties, company virtual parties, awards shows, Global company events from  conferences to virtual team building events. We have partnered with numerous cocktail delivery, gifts suppliers and catering companies to provide home delivery solutions for our clients and continue to do so.”

Next steps: 2022 and beyond

“Due to the success of our Zoom Party shows and in particular the hosts and entertainment acts, we are now in the position to actually organise live events for corporate clients. We feel the hosted experience is a huge game changer- it brings an event together brilliantly right from the start. From the live event right through to the interactive and fun part of a corporate events evening.

Adding in the fact that we now can event manage a company event, covering everything from the audio and visual aspects, dressing & theming a room and of course providing brilliant entertainment acts. Now, we are a one stop solution for all your corporate event needs!

We went into the pandemic with Find A Venue & came out of it as a free venue finder service,yes but now we are also an events company  covering  all your virtual, hybrid and live events needs.” Sean explains

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