The Housing Connection

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Contact: Shawn Stinson sstinson@saltlake.org 801-534-4913 / cell: 801-245-0106 Salt Lake City (July 2009)— The Housing Connection, LLC, a subsidiary of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, completed the acquisition of Orchid Event Solutions, LLC, effective June 1, 2009, adding to its standing as a leader in registration and housing services within the meeting and events industries. Collectively, The Housing Connection (THC) and Orchid Event Solutions have been providing registration and housing services to the meeting and event industries for over 20 years. For the past four years, Orchid has been providing registration systems and management support to THC under a multi-year operating agreement. “We started combining registration with housing services seven years ago and have used several registration systems,” said Cliff Doner, Chief Operating Office of THC and the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau. "We found Orchid to be the best fit for our customers’ needs and also highly compatible with the industry’s leading reservation software system, Passkey. We have worked closely together for such a long time that the operational aspect of completing the transaction was simple and seamless to our customers." Included with the purchase of Orchid is its highly versatile software and registration expertise that enables THC to provide customized registration processes. “Our customers often have complex and unique requirements for integrating registration results and data with their membership databases, and Orchid consistently delivers superb solutions,” commented Tina Stark, Director of Sales for THC. “Their multilingual capability, including Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish and Russian, are increasingly important part of our success as well." Processing more than 200,000 transactions annually, THC/Orchid is now one of the largest full service registration and housing providers in the US. “Combining resources has made us more competitive as we continue adding system features and developing new products," said Trent Hansen, Vice President of Business Development and founder of Orchid. “With Orchid’s recent self-service product release, we are now providing solutions to those customers who require Orchid’s systems, but prefer to manage their registration internally." "The formalization of our long term partnership with Orchid and THC solidifies the SLCVB's reputation for excellence in the services area of the hospitality industry. We remain committed to our private sector businesses and the manner in which they complement our public funding, a situation that we feel is very beneficial to our mission to strengthen Salt Lake’s economy by attracting and providing support to conventions, leisure travelers, and visitors." commented Scott Beck, President/CEO of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau. THC originated in the Sales Department of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, providing housing services to Salt Lake events. Ten years ago, THC licensed a new online reservation management system called Passkey.

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