Leading event and hospitality technology company iVvy has announced its entry into the North American market with the opening of an office in New York and the appointment of technology consultants Kathy Misunas and Flo Lugli as U.S. advisors.

Queensland-based iVvy made its mark in the hospitality industry by creating the first global distribution system for meetings and events that provides real-time availability, rates and inventory for function space, catering, group accommodation and event suppliers.

The company now serves over 12,000 users in 13 countries.

Lauren Hall, iVvy cofounder and CEO, said Misunas and Lugli will bring “immense global distribution expertise to support our growth in the U.S. and other markets,” adding: “We are fortunate to add their experience to our team’s capabilities. With their counsel, we look forward to scaling new heights.”

Misunas, who joins iVvy’s Advisory Panel, is cofounder and principal of Essential Ideas, a boutique advisory firm with offices in New York. Lugli, who will serve iVvy as a nonexecutive board member, is principal of Navesink Advisory Group LLC, a strategic business advisory and consulting services firm in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Misunas formerly was CEO of AirTreks Inc., based in San Francisco; cofounder, president and CEO of brandwise LLC in New York; and CEO of the former Reed Travel Group in Secaucus, New Jersey, responsible for OAG, Travel Weekly and Weissmann Travel Reports as well as technology, services and marketing units, including TravelNet, Utell International and ABC Corporate Services.

She started her career with American Airlines as a reservations sales agent and advanced through leadership of the various departments of the Marketing Automation Group. She was named an officer of the company and president of the Sabre Travel Information Network in 1988 and appointed president and CEO of The Sabre Group as well as senior vice president and chief information officer of AMR Corp. in 1993.

Misunas served on the Executive Committee of the World Travel & Tourism Council, is a lifetime member and former trustee of the Institute of Certified Travel Agents, now known as the Travel Institute, and participates in the technology-focused Research Board as an alumni member.

“IVvy has created a dynamic new MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) approach that has already achieved significant progress in aggregating different areas of the hospitality industry into unique platform offerings,” she said. “I look forward to engaging with this winning team.”

In addition to leading Navesink Advisory Group, Lugli is nonexecutive chairman of Dubai-based Global Hotel Alliance, the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands, bringing together 35 hotel brands and more than 550 hotels in 76 countries using a shared technology platform for sales, marketing, distribution, loyalty and customer relationship management services.

From 2009 to 2013, she was executive vice president of marketing for Wyndham Hotel Group in Parsippany, New Jersey. She held multiple executive roles with Travelport, a travel technology and services provider based in Parsippany, from 2001 to 2009.

Lugli was president of Wizcom International, a technology subsidiary of the former Cendant Corporation that provided a technology and distribution platform for the hospitality, car rental and tour industries. She joined Cendant in 1987 and served in various roles, including vice president of worldwide sales & marketing for Cendant Hospitality Division.

She serves on the boards of several travel technology start-ups and a business incubation firm that has launched 10 companies. She has volunteered as a member of many hospitality and technology associations and was recognised as one of the most influential women in hospitality technology by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP).

Calling iVvy “a leading hospitality technology startup with a strong vision and expansion plan,” Lugli noted that the company successfully expanded from its base in Australia to New Zealand, Asia, Europe and now the United States since launching seven years ago.