Las Vegas - Cvent on Thursday announced a planned complete redesign of the meetings technology company's event-planning platform, promising improved navigation, faster applications, more customization and live editing capability.
With the new platform, dubbed The Blue Release and expected to be available in August for some customers and by October for all clients, Cvent officials said event organizers would be able to select only the elements they need to plan a particular event—for instance, speakers or food and beverage—and use drag-and-drop editing to eliminate unnecessary planning options from the dashboard. Once the elements are chosen, the platform would present a task list, informing organizers of the next steps in the plan process. Meeting managers would be able to customize the data generated, and create specific user groups within the platform.
Speaking here at Cvent's annual Corporate Meetings Summit, Cvent president of product management Pete Floros said other technological features the company expects to add during the next 18 months include more registration flexibility and the incorporation of iBeacon technology, allowing attendees to be automatically checked in to sessions or sent post-session surveys using the iBeacon GPS system. Cvent also plans to launch a request-for-proposals "showcase," which would present meetings RFPs to a wider selection of suppliers, making it possible for venues to bid on business even if the planner did not specifically send the RFP to them; a "call for papers" feature, allowing organizers to solicit speaker or award suggestions through the event platform, and an "opportunity graph," which would combine attendee profiles with event data to provide planners with more specific information about delegates, presenting organizers with more opportunities to tailor their marketing and business strategy.