Quint, a hospitality and travel services provider for sports and entertainment brands such as Formula 1 and the NBA, kicked off 2024 with some big changes, including a rebrand and its acquisition by Liberty Media. As the company works to expand its services, CEO Brian Ruede spoke with senior editor Nicole Edenedo about the changes and what lies ahead for Quint as competition in the market increases.
Brian Ruede
Q: What led to the rebrand, from QuintEvents to Quint? And why now?
A: We've been focused on expanding what we offer for a long time. We felt like it was a good time to rebrand, to broaden the scope beyond just events. We're putting together the experience for the client from the time that they start searching for an event they want to attend to the time that they arrive, all the way to the time that they are on site, and everything in between. The rebrand really sets the tone, the direction and our focus outside of just the four walls of the event.
Q: How has Quint expanded its portfolio, and what do offerings look like now for travelers and clients?
A: There's tremendous opportunity to improve the customer experience by putting together a complete and comprehensive travel experience. We acquired a rooms coordinator back in 2019, an integrated way for us to easily provide room services to end users. This past year, we acquired GoHammerhead out of the Netherlands, which is a transportation and logistics provider.
What's interesting is that events travel seems to be an emerging market, and though we've been in it for some time, there's a competitive set now. It's evolving and becoming more comprehensive, and organizers have recognized the need and desire for customers to have more than just the ticket when they arrive on site. If you back up to 10 years, five years ago, this space was very generationally defined, as in millennials who were into this experience marketplace. But over the last five years, it's really been cross-generational: Everyone is looking to experience and spend money on experiences vs. things.
Q: How might Quint's offerings for Formula 1, also owned by Liberty Media, change now that both companies are under one roof?
A: It presents the opportunity for us to have a much more integrated solution for F1 customers. Doing it as a partner and a vendor, we've seen great success and have built a great product, but now the integration and the conversations are a lot more direct. How do we work more closely to build a better customer experience and continue to expand the marketplace?
We continue to see incredible growth inside of Formula 1. The Las Vegas Grand Prix was spectacular, and the management team has a lot to be proud of for the first-year event. It was a huge driver for us and became the largest single event in our F1 portfolio.
Q: How is Quint staying competitive within the events travel space as the market grows?
A: The biggest challenge we're facing at this point is managing growth and making sure to maintain the integrity of the partnerships, product and delivery. The focus has to be fulfilling that customer experience and expectation. We've done that successfully today, but I want to make sure we continue that.
We feel good about our ability to grow within our existing partnerships. And there is opportunity for us to expand our business, whether it's in hotels or the production of our own events. There is a lot of growth potential, not just customer-facing but facing the organizers, as well.