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From incubation to growth: Wiz-Team’s entrepreneurial journey
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From incubation to growth: Wiz-Team’s entrepreneurial journey

Article #1: Growing sustainably

The road to building a great company and developing game-changing products is a long and bumpy one. There are challenges and uncertainties to be overcome at every turn, and even rerouting as you navigate around unforeseen roadblocks and ever-changing landscapes. However, as Wiz-Team’s founder and CEO Johann Woringer knows first-hand, it’s also a journey full of growth and rewards.

Following a record-setting year and a special 10th anniversary celebration, we caught up with the Swiss mastermind behind Wiz-Team to talk about what began as an idea just over 10 years ago and turned into an extraordinary decade-long entrepreneurial journey, and give us a hint of what’s to come.

Identifying a gap in the market

“Wiz-Team is the result of at least five jobs I had in the past” begins Johann. Like others before him, the event manager turned tech entrepreneur saw what was missing and built a solution to fill the gap.

“Before starting Wiz-Team, I was working for a professional conference organiser, and they hired me to do data management for corporate events and incentive travel. We were looking for a solution on the market to help us manage the data we collected. We didn’t find anything, so I said, ok, I’m just going to build it myself, and I started building applications on a small database system for our own professional needs.”

Wiz-Team’s founder would soon realise that he was not the only event manager interested in having such a data management tool at hand. Fellow event organisers and professionals were quick to notice and enquire how they too could have access to such a system. Encouraged by the apparent demand for and interest in what he was developing, Johann decided to make the entrepreneurial leap and armed with his ideas, an innovative digital solution in-the-making, and a portfolio of clients, Wiz-Team was born.

“What started as a goal to make my personal day-to-day life easier as an event manager has grown beyond my wildest imagination. Here we are, 10-years later, serving and empowering event managers around the globe.”

Wiz-Team CEO, Johann Woringer

A slow but steady growth

Wiz-Team has come a long way and, ten years on, has established solid foundations and grown to do much more than build smart event management software. It pairs technology with its operational know-how and offers class-defining, highly effectiveservices to some of the world’s largest event organisers, international sport organisations, non-profits, and government institutions. 

“In 2022, we delivered the Commonwealth Games and the FIFA World Cup, which are two of the biggest sport events. In terms of scale, that really elevates us to another level” shares Johann.

This year, Wiz-Team will continue to up its game with a summer calendar filled with major sport events including: the Special Olympics World Games, the ANOC World Beach Games, the FIFA Women’s World Cup, as well as multiple events for European institutions, to list but a few.

From delivering major events and securing long-term partnerships, to developing and releasing new products, growing its team, and doing all it can to help its Ukraine-based colleagues stay safe and well – Wiz-Team is slowly but surely confirming its position as a people-centric company and leader in smart event management solutions.

A strong foundation for a bright future

Today, Wiz-Team is moving into the next chapter of its business. The goal is clear: build “the Wiz-Team of tomorrow”, grow the company, and “still have fun in what we’re doing”.

“We’ve got a lot to continue to learn and build, but we have won several very large projects going from 2026 to 2032 and I am eager and excited for what’s to come!” concludes Wiz-Team’s CEO.

In the business world, there’s a lot of talk about growth accelerators and scaling up as quickly as possible. However, for some start-ups, like Wiz-Team, smart, gradual, and grounded growth has proven to be a great foundation on which to build a strong and profitable future.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing more about Wiz-Team’s entrepreneurial journey from its growth to related learnings and ambitions for the next decade, so stay tuned.

#WizJourney

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to  keep updated of Wiz-Team’s journey, supporting event delivery across the world.

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Stefano

Senior Director - Wiz-Team Italia

Stefano joined Wiz-Team in March of 2022 as the Senior Director of Wiz-Team Italia. He is charged with the oversight, management, and growth of Wiz-Team’s fourth location and second development arm in Torino, Italy.

Previously, Stefano served as a Senior Director at Deltatre where he spent 17 years supporting organisational growth and leading the delivery of their technical solutions for some of the most exciting and challenging sport events in the world including the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro, the Olympic Games, the National Football League, and many more.

When not overseeing complex and challenging technical projects, Stefano is an avid sports enthusiast both as a fan and as a participant.  He also has a knack for music quizzes.

SAAD

Developer / Consultant

Born in India, raised in U.A.E. and currently residing in Toronto, Saad has completed his Bachelor in Applied Science degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from University of Windsor, Canada. He has 10 + years of experience in systems engineering, SDLC, and project management. He has worked as a Project Manager supporting the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Torch Relay. Prior to this he worked as a System Administrator for the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games during which he managed the overall functionality of applications required to successfully execute the Torch Relay. In his role he trained, mentored, and supervised coordinators, partnered across organization on joint projects, and integrated innovative solutions across multi-disciplinary teams.

JOHANN

CEO

As the founder and CEO of Wiz-Team, Johann has been a part of this adventure long before the start of the organisation 10 years ago. This dynamic and fast-growing company was born out of gap in the market Johann and his colleagues experienced as event managers in the early 2000s.  With little tools available to effectively manage the demands and challenges of data management for complex events, they decided to build their own solution. 

Shortly thereafter Johann created Event-Works and later Wiz-Team with the vision to deliver world class digital solutions built by event professionals for event professionals. From Wiz-Team headquarters in his hometown Lausanne, he oversees a global network of developers and experts, who support the organisations mission to empower event professionals through smart, intuitive, and innovative digital solutions. 

Johann’s expertise in event data management is outstanding.  He has delivered innovative event management solutions to every Olympic Games edition since 2004 alongside a range of other international events. Having worked across many sectors, including sports federations, the medical congress industry, corporate companies, and government agencies, he has acquired a wide-ranging background and an exceptional experience in various types and sizes of events. Before he set up Wiz-Team, Johann specialised in web and database development, as well as project management in the luxury industry, and teaching.

Johann holds an MBA in international management and speaks English, French and some German. In his spare time, he enjoys scuba diving, discovering the world on a motorbike, gaming and exploring new technologies.