Pat Pathade advocates for the integration of open-source software into the meetings and trade show industry, noting its success in other sectors despite the industry's slow adoption. He highlights the benefits of open-source for cost reduction, innovation, and data standardization, while calling for collaboration among industry leaders to drive this change. Currently, Pathade leverages existing open-source platforms to address challenges in event technology, emphasizing the need for community support to realize the full potential of open-source solutions.

1. Sponsored
by
ShowCycle

2. Pat
Pathade
has
built
his
career
and
two
companies
based
on
the
philosophy
of
the
open-­‐source
so7ware
movement.
Outside
of
the
mee;ngs
industry,
open-­‐
source
ini;a;ves
are
huge,
programmers
are
prolific,
and
companies
are
profitable.
Inside
the
industry,
there
is
li@le
to
no
support,
and
nothing
that
could
be
characterized
as
a
movement.
Pathade
is
working
to
change
that
scenario,
one
solu;on
at
a
;me.

3. Open
Source
is
a
framework
for
programmers
to
build
so7ware
itera;vely
and
collabora;vely
with
the
understanding
that
their
code
will
be
shared.
The
resul;ng
so7ware
becomes
the
building
blocks
(Drupal
and
Linux
are
two
examples)
for
new
product
offshoots
that
can
be
brought
to
market
much
more
quickly
and
inexpensively.
Par;cipants
form
communi;es
around
their
efforts
to
support
developers,
collec;vely
solve
problems,
and
share
updates.

4. There
was
a
;me
when
open-­‐source
prac;ces
were
frowned
upon.
In
the
past,
says
Pathade,
even
Fortune-­‐500
companies
cau;oned
customers
against
using
so7ware
that
was
built
on
open-­‐source
code
because
they
believed
it
to
be
a
threat
to
their
own
proprietary
offerings
and
because
much
of
the
early
open-­‐source
products
were
unstable
and
unsupported.

5. That
belief
has
largely
disappeared.
“There’s
been
a
drama;c
shi7
toward
accep;ng
open-­‐source
so7ware.
The
no;on
of
hiding
behind
proprietary
code
is
gone
and
an
industry
of
open-­‐source
service
providers
has
emerged,”
Pathade
explains.
As
a
result,
there
are
hundreds
of
companies
being
built
using
open-­‐source
code,
including
Dropbox,
Salesforce,
and
Twi@er
—all
big
names
with
millions
of
users
and
strong
mone;za;on
models.

6. Despite
the
poten;al
to
drive
the
cost
of
event
so7ware
down
and
push
the
envelope
on
innova;on,
the
mee;ngs
and
trade
show
industry
has
been
slow
to
embrace
open-­‐source
ini;a;ves.
There
is
no
open-­‐source
community
to
create
the
building
blocks,
support
development,
or
provide
financial
support.
Event
technology
is
s;ll
dominated
by
legacy
plaUorm
providers
in
registra;on
and
event
management,
for
example,
with
li@le
incen;ve
to
reveal
their
code
to
third-­‐party
developers.

7. In
lieu
of
a
community
to
drive
open
source
within
the
mee;ngs
industry
(event
organizers
aren’t
leading
the
charge
either),
Pathade
leverages
the
communi;es
that
have
emerged
outside
the
industry.
Through
his
companies,
he
uses
non-­‐event-­‐specific
open-­‐source
plaUorms,
such
as
Drupal
and
Salesforce,
to
address
event-­‐
industry
challenges,
including
data
integra;on
across
disparate
legacy
systems,
web
site
op;miza;on,
and
most
recently,
trade
show
sales
produc;vity.

8. Pathade
believes
one
huge
opportunity
that
can
be
developed
through
open-­‐source
strategies
is
in
the
data
field.
“The
industry’s
data
is
not
perfectly
organized.
[Registra;on
records,
exhibitor
profiles,
and
contact
records]
can
be
standardized
so
they
can
be
used
by
mul;ple
organiza;ons.
Data
can
be
contributed
by
groups
and
anonymized
so
that
trends
can
be
observed
and
shared
with
everyone.
Open
Government
and
Open
City
ini;a;ves
are
two
examples
of
what
is
possible,”
he
explains.

9. For
any
true
benefits
to
be
realized
in
the
event
industry,
Pathade
says,
leading
industry
organiza;ons
have
to
come
together.
“Founda;ons
that
are
serious
can
put
together
a
task
force
and
sponsor
some
ac;vi;es,
such
as
an
IT
internship
in
open-­‐source
methodologies.
Organiza;ons
can
donate
employees’
;me
to
work
on
projects,”
he
suggests.
Un;l
then,
he
will
con;nue
to
evangelize
open
source
and
develop
solu;ons
with
the
tools
that
are
available.
He
may
be
an
army
of
one
now,
but
every
movement
starts
somewhere.