OneLobby on Thursday will launch – or maybe christen is a better verb – the first version of its event management software, which it has adoringly named Alana.

The Fredericton startup, which last year moved its headquarters from Halifax, pivoted, and raised $500,000 in angel funding, said it the launch will take place at the Canadian Society of Professional Event Planners annual meeting, being held at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Fredericton.

The company has decided to name each version of its software after someone who supported its development, and named Version No. 1 after early adopter Alana Hirtle, Event Manager at White Point Beach Resorts in Nova Scotia.

In an interview yesterday, CEO Jordan Smith said the company has signed up about 50 early adopters from the U.S. and Canada to beta-test the product, and that the second version will probably be released in the autumn.  Each gets a 30-day free trial and then will begin paying a monthly subscription fee.

“These are relationships we’ve been building up since Day 1,” said Smith, who operated the company out of a coffee shop in Halifax until joining up with a development team in Fredericton last summer.

He had originally proposed a sort of social network for conference attendees, but the team pivoted on the belief that event organizers will be more willing to pay for a product that solved their pain.

The new OneLobby software is a single solution that takes care of all the major tasks of an event organizer: logistics, task management, team communication and budgeting. Smith described it as a “virtual office” that gives users phone and fax numbers and email addresses so they can communicate with everyone from a single platform. All the features are designed specifically for event organizers, from wedding planners to leading conference promoters, so the software is more focused than competitors that bring in features from mass-market products.

“This is probably the best user experience available,” said Smith. “Dealing with so many tasks is always going to be a headache, but we try to make it easier for you.”

Alana includes a basic budgeting program that allows users to key in the expected and actual costs of major expenditures. Smith said the second version will feature a deeper budgeting feature.

OneLobby closed its $500,000 seed round in September, after it pivoted to become an event management application. The team has undergone a few changes and now comprises: Smith; Brian Dunphy, CTO; Jason Misener, COO; and Megan MacKeigan, VP Business Development.