In a market filled with names like Bizly, Groupize, Groups360 and Hubli, Cvent has been conspicuously absent for a number of years in terms of offering a robust small meetings or, as some are now calling it, self-service meetings tool. From the main stage at its user conference in San Antonio last week, Cvent VP product management McNeel Keenan introduced what the meetings technology giant called 'Cvent Essentials.' But you can't run out to get the solution right now. It's currently in beta, and while Keenan promised and in-year delivery for the product, other Cvent representatives projected Essentials was on track, instead, for a Q1 2025 general rollout.
Essentials is a pared down version of the Cvent platform designed for occasional users that enables corporations to define meeting types by the attributes they present and then set multiple workflows based on those types to gain visibility and manage the associated meeting cost, risk profile and duty of care. It also contributes preset efficiencies, branding consistency and support for registration website designs and templates, invitations and attendee management automation.
To date, the company has had what it terms a small meetings module about which two companies—Louisville-based Humana and Minneapolis-based Medtronic—made presentations at the user conference in San Antonio last week. Both companies presented homegrown workflows and internal websites that guide ad hoc meeting planners in the process of initiating a request for a smaller self-service meetings. In Humana's case, the 'toolkit' consisted of a PDF that offered instructions on how to initiate a meeting request. Once the meeting organizer clicked through, the meeting request form would open new fields based on initial responses to event requirements. Medtronic's site, while more sophisticated visually, similar functions. Both tracked users through the process based on meeting spend. Above a certain budget threshold, the meeting would get centralized support.
The presentations gave a good case study of how two companies structured a bifurcated workflow, one for larger meetings and one for smaller meetings. For Medtronic, the meeting also had to be strictly internal to qualify for self-service routing.
Based on Keenan's mainstage announcement, Essentials will provide much more than a 'small meeting' versus 'large meeting' approach. He talked about "templates" and, specifically, "playbooks" that would support different types of meetings with differentiated support and resources. And said the product would include key artificial intelligence enhancements to support productivity.
The client case studies—though less sophisticated in their configurations in terms of what will be available in the future with Essentials—nonetheless showed how companies may begin to consider more decentralized meetings strategies and processes as new tools become available.
Humana project manager for meetings and events Michelle Passi said her initial program allowed her small team to offload "73 percent of the meeting planning workload and [focus] on that remaining 27 percent that represent the larger 82 percent of the dollars spent annually" on Humana meetings and events.
Platform Similarities Coincidental
Keenan's word choice on the mainstage—and overall descriptions of what would eventually hit the market—sounded similar to Bizly's product offering since 2020, when the company debuted its own playbooks.
A spokesperson for Cvent responded via email to BTN's inquiries to clarify there is no relationship between the two platforms and that "any terminology similarities between us and Bizly (or any other provider
in our space)... are coincidental."
Bizly CEO Ron Shah responded similarly via email that the company "did not collaborate with Cvent on the development of their new
Cvent Essentials offering" and that the company was unaware of the Cvent product prior to the announcement at Cvent Connect.
Cvent accepted Bizly into its App Marketplace last April as the first small meetings app to get in the door. A company representative at the time said the integration allowed "for a
more seamless transition between the Cvent meeting request form and Bizly—both Cvent and Bizly customers can use it."
Shah added in his email comments today that the company recently had implemented a Fortune 50 client using the integration and getting "excellent results." He added that Bizly is concentrating on AI enhancements that will remove the need for what Bizly has considered "playbooks." The smaller company also has made a number of key sales and commercial hires of late, including ex-CWT M&E veteran Amy Rixmann as chief revenue officer.
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This story was updated from a previous version.