Our reference
The history of the company
TheMerode is an innovative private members' club located in the heart of Brussels, housed in a listed 16th-century townhouse. Since its opening in November 2021, the club has brought together more than 2,000 members from diverse backgrounds, including entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders, creatives, artists, and members of civil society.
The club embodies a unique vision that unites business and culture, offering much more than just a workspace or a private lounge. TheMerode positions itself as a contemporary agora where culture, dialogue, and civic reflection blend with networking and professional development. With women making up 40-45% of its membership, 50% international nationalities, and 30% under the age of 35, the club reflects Brussels' exceptional diversity.
Cultural programming lies at the heart of the experience, with more than 150 annual events covering arts, music, literature, design, new technologies, leadership, and sustainability. The club features coworking spaces, private lounges, two restaurants, a library, meeting and event rooms, as well as an outdoor terrace—all housed within a fully renovated 6,000m² historic building.
Their needs
TheMerode had sophisticated digitalization needs, stemming from its unique positioning at the intersection of a private club, a cultural space, and a professional hub.
Managing a diverse and exclusive community: With over 2,000 members with varied profiles (individuals, corporate, and young leaders through the "40 under 40" partnership), the club required a solution capable of managing complex memberships, differentiated benefits, and both physical and digital access control.
Orchestrating an intensive events program: Organizing over 150 events per year required a robust platform to manage registrations, tiered ticketing based on membership status, waiting lists, notifications, and attendance tracking. The wide variety of formats (conferences, workshops, concerts, exhibitions, trips) called for maximum flexibility.
Premium member experience and engagement: To justify its high-end positioning, TheMerode needed to offer a seamless digital experience featuring a sophisticated member portal, a mobile app, and 24/7 access to services (bookings, exclusive content, billing). These tools had to be linked to the Odoo x Smart Membership platform to ensure data consistency.
Physical-digital integration: The club required a connection between physical building access (badging system), room bookings, event registrations, and member management within a cohesive ecosystem.
Multichannel and personalized communication: The fine segmentation of the community required marketing automation tools capable of sending hyper-targeted communications via email, SMS, push notifications, and social media, based on the interests, status, and history of each member.
Monetization and financial management: Beyond membership fees, TheMerode generates revenue through catering, room rentals, paid events, and a loyalty program, all of which require full accounting and financial integration.
La solution
Our team installed and configured our vertical Membership solution. This plug-and-play solution, which is adapted to a business circle, met all their requirements. Our team loaded the data and trained the users on several modules (Odoo Sales, Odoo e-Invoicing, Odoo CRM, Odoo Marketing, Odoo Planning, Odoo Events, Odoo Surveys).
We also integrated our solution with their current website, as well as their existing restaurant cash register management tool. We also integrated the solution with devices for scanning member cards.
Their benefits
For the company
Full automation of the member journey: From initial sign-up to annual renewal, all processes are automated (billing, reminders, access to benefits), freeing up the team to focus on cultural programming and community engagement.
Seamless event management: The organization of 150+ annual events is streamlined through centralized registrations, waiting list management, automated sending of badges and reminders, and real-time attendance tracking.
360° Community Vision: BI dashboards offer an in-depth understanding of the member base (demographics, engagement, yield per member, participation trends), allowing for the continuous optimization of programming and services.
Optimized monetization: Beyond memberships, the system facilitates the monetization of spaces (room rentals), paid events, and the loyalty program, with precise financial tracking of MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) and turnover.
Operational efficiency: Data centralization eliminates duplicate entries and ensures consistency across teams (reception, events, finance, marketing), reducing errors and accelerating processes.
For members
Premium digital experience: The web portal and mobile app provide 24/7 access to the club's services with a sleek and intuitive interface, aligned with its high-end positioning.
Autonomy and self-service: Members manage their membership, register for events, book rooms, view their billing, and update their profiles without staff intervention, improving both satisfaction and responsiveness.
Ultra-personalized communications: Thanks to advanced segmentation, each member receives invitations and content aligned with their interests (art, tech, business, leadership), their status (individual, corporate, or young leader), and their participation history.
Smart push notifications: The mobile app sends personalized alerts for events that match the member's profile, creating a proactive and engaging experience.
Seamless physical access: The integration of the badging system with Odoo ensures quick and secure access to the historic building and exclusive events, reinforcing the sense of belonging to an elite community.
Business and community impact
Managed growth: The scalable platform supports the community's expansion (currently 2,000+ members) with the ability to add new features as needs evolve.
Enhanced engagement: Precise tracking of event participation, combined with loyalty tools, makes it possible to identify and re-engage inactive members, maximizing the retention rate.
Amplified cultural reach: The digital platform facilitates communication regarding the exceptional cultural programming (150+ events/year), positioning TheMerode as Brussels' intellectual and social agora.
Facilitated international partnerships: The professional digital solution bolsters TheMerode’s credibility with international partner clubs (Arts Club London/Dubai, Core Club New York/Milan, Matador Madrid), facilitating reciprocity agreements.
Our other client cases
Agoria
We digitized the processes through the implementation of a dedicated solution based on the Odoo ERP. A significant effort was made to conceptualize the new processes in close collaboration with internal teams.
Cercle du Lac
We have been working with the CERCLE DU LAC team since 2016. Idealis has installed and configured various Odoo modules to meet their needs. All of this is integrated into a single management tool.
Sirris
SIRRIS was looking for a platform for Flemish companies to organize events and manage the budget allocated by the Vlaio organization.