Keystone by Brella — The event backend

The shift

Personal attention was always the product. The surface just got bigger.

Attendees, exhibitors and sponsors want more than to be known — they want tools that work for them and results worth paying for, everywhere the event touches them: before the show, on the floor, in the report afterwards. One app screen can't carry that. The purpose-built event technology behind it can.

The personal touch lived in one surface — the networking screens of an event app. Every other touchpoint ran on generic: static agendas, aggregate reports, PDF sponsor decks.

of exhibitors churn every year. Replacing one costs about five times keeping one.

UFI / Explori

of attendees never find the vendors they travelled to meet — and only 11% of organizers noticed.

Freeman 2025

of exhibitors can't say whether a single lead converted. They won't keep renewing what they can't measure.

Integrate

That's what generic costs. And delivering the personal version on every surface runs into two walls — one made of software, one made of people.

The two walls

AI put creativity and development in everyone's hands — but not the foundation that turns a weekend build into a production-grade one.

Wall one — software

The build wall.

AI didn't just democratize development — it democratized creativity. Anyone can realize their own idea now and get the pretty 70% in a weekend, for a few thousand in tokens. The other 30% is the foundation it has to run on — the decade of hard parts below. See who carries what:

seven jobs — all on you

The experience — UI, flows, brand

yours

a sprint at AI speed — this part was never the problem

Infrastructure & scale

on you

months of hardening after the demo works

Security & pen tests

on you

€15–30K per pen test, app-store approvals — on you

GDPR, consent & audit

on you

one mistake costs more than the system

Matchmaking quality

on you

learns at your attendees' expense

Show-day reliability

on you

the 6 a.m. pager is yours

Maintenance — the other 361

on you

a retained developer, indefinitely

The pretty part is genuinely cheap. These six are what it actually costs — and if one of them fumbles live, the loss isn't the build budget. It's trust.

"An event app gets four days to shine — and a year of upkeep."Build the experience in a sprint. Leave the other 361 days to us.

Wall two — people

The meetings wall.

At a few hundred attendees, a sharp team of ten can run personal attention by hand — plenty of our customers do, every year. In the thousands, the arithmetic turns: recruit the buyers, plan hundreds of committed meetings, run them on-site, absorb every reschedule, reconcile which meetings happened and what they were worth. Drag the slider and watch it turn:

5,000 attendees

Industry benchmark ratios · Freeman 2025 expectations

50020,000

Staff to plan, run & reconcile attention (1:12)

417

Staff before quality breaks (1:40)

125

A strong events team

2,150

expect personalized navigation to the right exhibitors (43%)

2,050

expect proactive introductions matched to their goals (41%)

1,800

expect to be matched with the right other attendees (36%)

12.5M

possible pairings to evaluate at this size. It's not a diligence problem — it's arithmetic.

"I want the systems to do 80% of the work — and then I want to go in and finesse the last 20%. Because I really know what good looks like."

Adam Parry · Event Tech Live

The barriers

So why hasn't every event already done this?

The industry's own research measured what actually stops organizers — and it isn't vision. It's operations. Every one of these barriers is a thing we take off your plate. Flip them.

30%

Training staff

The #1 barrier — bigger than cost. The tools exist; the team to run them doesn't.

Flip →

Removed

There's nothing to deploy.

The engines arrive already working — shaped by millions of real meetings — and our team operates them. Your staff's job on show day doesn't change.

← Back

25%

Cost

New platform, new headcount, new line items nobody budgeted for.

Flip →

Removed

One contract, usage-priced.

Usually less than one retained developer. You pay when the engine works — per profile matched, per meeting orchestrated. A number that fits next year's budget.

← Back

20%

Data privacy

Personalization runs on personal data. One GDPR mistake costs more than the system.

Flip →

Removed

Governance is the platform.

Consent travels with every data point. Full audit trail, EU hosting, DPAs ready. We don't train on your data — your events improve your events, nobody else's.

← Back

18%

Integration

Registration, app, scanners, CRM — bought separately, connected never.

Flip →

Removed

Keep your stack.

Workbench connects Cvent, Stova, Swoogo, HubSpot, Salesforce two-way — registrations in, leads and attribution out. Connection, not migration.

← Back

Barriers to AI adoption in events · Event Industry News AI Report 2025

Removing those four barriers is a job description. It's ours. Here's what you actually get.

What you get

Three tightly scoped handles on Brella's engines.

Not "a platform" — specific pieces your team can pick up on day one: the Insights API, MCP 2.0 for agents, and Workbench for the stack you already run. Direct, easy, agent-safe access to the systems we've run for a decade. Click through the stack:

Your surfaces

yours — or ours

apps · dashboards · kiosks · chatbots · sponsor tools · agents

↓ ↑

The access layer

what you get

Insights API · MCP 2.0 · Workbench

↓ ↑

The engines

what we run

event database · matchmaking · meetings · Pulse

↓ ↑

A compliant foundation

why it's safe

access keys · consent · audit · EU

What you get

The access layer

The Insights API — read/write over 28 resource types, with webhooks and SDKs. Everything an event is, queryable and buildable-on.

MCP 2.0 — the connection AI agents speak natively. Agents propose, people approve, everything is logged.

Workbench — managed two-way connectors for Cvent, Stova, Swoogo, HubSpot and Salesforce, with a ledger of every record that moves.

read/write APIwebhooks & SDKsMCP 2.0managed connectorssync ledger

What you can build

Use cases we unlock. Browse them.

Every one of these runs on the same backend, through an access key that opens exactly what it needs — nothing else reachable. Build at AI speed, iterate even faster — and be production-ready in days, not weeks or months.

you

Build a sponsor dashboard: each sponsor sees their booked meetings, scans and pipeline — live.

agent ✓access key requested — read-only · sponsor stats · meetings

keystone ✓key issued · scoped to sponsor-visible fields · logged

agent ✓queries Insights API · subscribes webhooks · ships UI

sponsors.yourevent.comlive

the build flow · an afternoon

Describe the build — your developer, your agency, or an AI agent does the rest. Keystone provides the pieces: a tightly scoped access key, the Insights API, live webhooks. The pretty part was never the hard part. The hard part is ours.

1Describe what you want — to a developer or an agent

2Issue an access key scoped to exactly the data it needs

3Ship on our rails — reliability, consent and audit included

insights api · mcp 2.0 · scoped to the field

sponsors.yourevent.com · live

4,218

registered

74%

mtg acceptance

+18%

vs last year

Sponsor A

Sponsor B

Sponsor C

dashboards · an afternoon

The exact view each sponsor keeps asking for — live, not in week three. Build a one-page web app, or point Looker or Sheets at the key. Same data powers your internal portfolio dashboards.

1Read-only access key: registrations, meetings, sponsor stats

2Point a dashboard at it — BI tool or one-page build

3Live numbers, portfolio-wide — no exports, no copy-paste

read-only access key — the zero-risk first build

attendee's agent

Build my Tuesday — payments sessions, two meetings with infra vendors, nothing before ten.

keystone ✓3 sessions + 2 meeting proposals drafted

attendee

Approve ✓

keystone ✓schedule set · invites sent · logged

sponsor's agent

Find three high-intent buyers · propose Tuesday meetings.

keystone ✓3 proposals drafted · awaiting approval · audit #88412

agents · connect, don't build

Nothing to build — this is a connection, not a project. Attendees and sponsors point the assistant they already use at your event over MCP 2.0. Each agent sees only its key's world; writes arrive as drafts people approve. The first event infrastructure agents can book on — and something your event can advertise.

1Your event exposes an MCP connection — the standard agents speak

2Each agent gets an access key: an attendee's sees their world; a sponsor's sees theirs

3Agents propose, people approve — every action logged, off switch instant

mcp 2.0 · agents propose, you publish

who should I meet today?09:41 ✓✓

Three good options: 1 · Amara (payments infra, mutual interest) · 2 · Jonas (retail, asked to meet fintechs) · 3 · Mei (speaker, your bookmarked session). Reply with a number.09:41

209:42 ✓✓

Meeting proposed with Jonas — Tue 15:15, matchmaking area. I'll confirm when he accepts. ✓09:42

concierge · a week

Meet attendees where they already are. A WhatsApp (or SMS, or WeChat) concierge for recommendations, schedules and meeting booking — no download, no login, huge reach at international events.

1A WhatsApp Business number connected to a small bot

2The bot calls Keystone: recommendations, schedule, meeting proposals

3Each attendee's key shows only their own world — privacy by scope

per-attendee scope · attendees never handle tokens

Amara OseiVIP · hosted buyer✓ checked in

Jonas BergStandard✓ checked in

Mei LinSpeaker✓ checked in

1,847 / 4,218 on site

Now · Hall BInnovation Hub: Unleashing Potential

on-site surfaces · a day

Volunteer check-in in a phone browser. Venue screens reading the live schedule. Kiosks greeting people by their goals. One database behind every surface — change it once, it changes everywhere, instantly.

1Access key per surface: check-in writes one field; screens read three

2Runs in a browser — no app store, no training, any volunteer's phone

3Live counts flow straight to your dashboards — same database

field-level scoping — volunteers never see emails or personal data

workbench · ask

→ 14 registrants · became a re-engagement list · logged, with consent, automatically

plain-language answers · no build at all

Questions become queries, queries become lists, lists trigger automations. The analytics backlog becomes an afternoon — and because visibility is live, you fix things Tuesday afternoon, not in the week-three post-mortem.

1Ask in plain language — no SQL, no data team

2The answer is a live list you can act on

3Wire it to an automation — invitations, alerts, follow-ups

plain-language querying — rolling out with design partners

Head of Payments, Nordics bankmeeting drafted ✓

why: visited booth twice · bookmarked your session

VP Infrastructure, retail grouppropose meeting

why: matches your target list · attending payments track

CTO, logistics scale-uppropose meeting

why: scanned at your side event last year

sponsor tools · their build, your rules

Your biggest sponsors have dev teams and a CRM. Give them an access key instead of a spreadsheet: they build the prospecting view they want, on their budget — seeing only what you've allowed. Meetings they propose arrive as drafts; attendees opt in.

1Sponsor access key: their leads & stats, sponsor-visible fields only

2They build — prospecting list, CRM sync, team leaderboard

3Consent enforced on every request — in our code, not theirs

a sponsor perk you can price — not a data risk

Read the API docs — sandbox to first matched meeting in under 30 minutes →

What changes

Same team. Same event. Better numbers.

Similar resources, a different ceiling: build more at the speed of sound, iterate even faster — and deliver the best numbers your event has ever had, on surfaces you control, with the proof each stakeholder needs at renewal.

0 hrs

Every exhibitor sees their own number.

Before the show: "247 registrants match your ideal customer profile — 89 have buying power."

After it: their own dashboard within 48 hours — not an aggregate PDF in week three. Proof an exhibitor can show their CFO renews itself.

0%+

Renewals start from proof, not price.

Organizers who prove ROI per exhibitor report renewal above 85%, against an industry average of 76% — the difference between defending your pricing and discounting it.

30–50%

Your team works the top, not the queue.

Matching and meeting ops move onto software; 30–50% of staff time comes back — spent on the sponsor and VIP relationships no engine handles. The 80/20 Parry asked for.

Documented results from organizers running connected event data · UFI/Explori · Freeman 2025 · Event Industry News AI Report 2025 · not guarantees — your numbers get measured against your own baseline

Ways in

Extend our apps, or bring your own.

Both doors, one contract. And below them, one add-on: if you'd rather have your hosted-buyer program run for you end to end, we do that too.

The extensible stack

For serial organizers

Run Brella's apps — customized per event brand, maintained by us — and extend them through the API.

Portfolio dashboards, warehouse sync, admin tools on one database
Comparable numbers across every event, for the first time
Customer success as event-success advisory

Fully headless

For flagship organizers & builders

The app is part of the show — or a product of your own. You build the surface; Keystone runs the backend.

One read/write API · SDKs · webhooks · MCP 2.0 for agents
Sandbox to first matched meeting in under 30 minutes
Usage pricing — pay per meeting orchestrated

All Brella appsFully headless

Mix freely — headless on the flagship, Brella apps on the other thirty-nine. Same database, same contract, same numbers.

Wherever you set it, on us: matchmaking · meetings · data · consent · uptime

It's a dial, not a switch — and you can move it later

The add-on · For Real × Brella

The guaranteed program.

A hosted-buyer program end to end: buyers recruited and committed, hundreds of meetings planned and run on-site, outcomes reconciled and reported — results guaranteed in the contract. Service and systems working in tandem. One partner, one invoice.

See the program →

Straight answers

The questions you should be asking.

We're a three-person events team, not a tech company.

So are most of the teams doing this well. 55% of the organizers adopting this kind of system run teams of one to fifty. That's the point of renting the hard parts: one contract, our people embedded until it runs.

We already run registration, an app, and scanners.

Keep them. Workbench connects Cvent, Stova, Swoogo, HubSpot and Salesforce two-way. The fix is connection, not another migration.

Why Brella for this?

Ten years running networking at events like yours, millions of meetings booked. And the all-in-one suites can't sell you their backend without cannibalizing their apps — we already accepted where the surface is going, which is exactly why we can sell you the system.

How is this different from the API or MCP everyone else offers?

Most event "APIs" are export pipes — pull registrants out, push leads in. Keystone hands you the engines themselves: propose and orchestrate meetings, query matchmaking with the reasoning attached, subscribe to live behavior — through access keys scoped down to the field, with consent and audit enforced on our side of the line. Same for MCP 2.0: not a chatbot bolted onto a database, but the full backend, governed, that agents can safely act on. It's the difference between reading about your event and operating it.

Do you train on our data?

No. The engines were built on ten years of Brella's own operating history. What your events generate improves your events — nobody else's. It's in the DPA, not just on this page.

Are we locked in?

No. Your data is exportable from day one — full, structured, yours. Use the whole stack, one API, or anything between, and change your mind later. We intend to be hard to leave because everything works, not because the door is locked.

What's live today, and what's roadmap?

Live: the event database, the read/write API with per-key field-level scoping, Brella's apps, meetings and matchmaking in production, behavioral tracking, audit logging. Rolling out with design partners: the recommendations API with reasons attached, plain-language querying, the Pulse SDK, and the MCP 2.0 connection for agents. We'll always tell you which side of the line a feature is on.

What does it cost?

Platform plus usage — you pay when the engine works, per profile matched and meeting orchestrated. Usually less than one retained developer. And the retention math is blunt: replacing one churned exhibitor costs about five times keeping one.

Personal attention was always the product. The surface just got bigger.

AI put creativity and development in everyone's hands — but not the foundation that turns a weekend build into a production-grade one.

The build wall.

The experience — UI, flows, brand

Infrastructure & scale

Security & pen tests

GDPR, consent & audit

Matchmaking quality

Show-day reliability

Maintenance — the other 361

The meetings wall.

So why hasn't every event already done this?

Training staff

There's nothing to deploy.

Cost

One contract, usage-priced.

Data privacy

Governance is the platform.

Integration

Keep your stack.

Three tightly scoped handles on Brella's engines.

Your surfaces

The access layer

The engines

A compliant foundation

The access layer

Use cases we unlock. Browse them.

Same team. Same event. Better numbers.

Every exhibitor sees their own number.

Renewals start from proof, not price.

Your team works the top, not the queue.

Extend our apps, or bring your own.

For serial organizers

For flagship organizers & builders

The guaranteed program.

Software, plus the people who've done this before.

Docs, sandbox, answers

Our engineers, your build

Your spec, our hands

The questions you should be asking.

We're a three-person events team, not a tech company.

We already run registration, an app, and scanners.

Why Brella for this?

How is this different from the API or MCP everyone else offers?

Do you train on our data?

Are we locked in?

What's live today, and what's roadmap?

What does it cost?

Three slots. Real events. Your fingerprints on the product.