Swapcard, a leading event and community platform for virtual, hybrid and in-person exhibitions & conferences, has hired events industry leader Julius Solaris as head of engagement.
With more than 15 years of experience in event management, long standing relationships with some of the world’s most respected brands, deep knowledge of the global events industry and as the founder and editor-in-chief of EventMB, a respected resource on event technology, Solaris has been at the forefront of the event app revolution, integrating social media with both live and virtual event management. He has worked with many of the major event technology companies, destinations and venues, delivering high-stake content campaigns to hundreds of thousands of planners.
“The event industry is going to change more in the next three years than it has within the past 10!” says Baptiste Boulard (pictured left), CEO and co-founder of Swapcard. “Content will play a big part of our market evolution. We saw a high demand from the market to learn and share during our Evolve series. We are following our industry evolution, moving towards community, and think Julius is the right person to lead that project at Swapcard.”
He adds, “We have been following EMB closely over the last years and are very excited to have him joining our team.”
It’s no secret that the past year has challenged event planners to reassess their management strategies in light of the global lockdowns and reinvent themselves to embrace virtual.
As Swapcard’s new head of engagement, Solaris will be responsible for leading marketing initiatives such as the popular Evolve event series, Inside Event podcast and Swapcard Academy. In turn, Swapcard will be able to offer customers and the global event professionals community tools to better navigate the challenges of virtual and hybrid events.
Solaris is excited to help Swapcard deliver world-class product and practical insights, usher in a new era of change with event professionals and offer the global events community even more opportunities to connect and share their experiences.
“The next few years are going to be some of the most challenging for the event industry. Whether it is virtual or in-person, I feel that Swapcard is ready to help planners deliver incredible experiences,” Solaris says, adding, “I am honored to be part of this diverse and fast-growing team to be on the planner side, doing our bit to support them with opportunities for connection and learning.”
“While few know what the future holds for events, Julius joins Swapcard as we continue our upward trajectory within the virtual and hybrid events space,” says Baptiste. “Just last year Swapcard’s hosted over 1,500 and attracted the attention of the world’s biggest event venues as they seek to provide integrated virtual events.”
In the last year, Swapcard experienced 400 percent growth, acquired Avolio, secured notable industry awards and emerged as the “most trusted platform for virtual and hybrid events.”
Solaris will make his debut for Swapcard as a speaker at multiple interactive sessions at Evolve 2.0, taking place from Feb. 23-25. Click to register for free.
Swapcard, the Paris-based leading AI-powered engagement and matchmaking platform for premium virtual and hybrid events, has additional offices in Seattle, Bogotá, New Delhi, Montreal and Lisbon. They ran more than 1,570 successful virtual events in 2020, and increased employees from 45 to more than 100 during the global lockdown. Swapcard has a vision to become the leading all-in-one platform for virtual and hybrid events with audience engagement, attendee networking, virtual marketplace, event platform, live streaming services, exhibitor lead retrieval and registration all integrated. For more info, visit www.swapcard.com.
