Artificial intelligence enhancements to its buyer and
supplier platforms took center stage at Cvent Connect user conference in San
Antonio this week. The meetings and event technology giant, which will mark its 25th anniversary this year, featured two roadmap
sessions—one for buyers and one for suppliers—that reviewed a host of new
offerings to facilitate event request for proposal activities on both sides of
the negotiation table, event registration and website builds, attendee
experience and unstructured data analysis.
Cvent CEO Reggie Aggarwal, speaking from stage on Tuesday, highlighted AI as one of the major trends driving event transformation today and told the audience that the company has devoted 200 people on the tech team to pursue AI innovation across the platform.
"We're in an era of a technological innovation that has accelerated over the past five years," Aggarwal said. "Everywhere we look we see signs of transformation... AI has been quietly reshaping our world for years, but today it's no longer behind the scenes. It's now front and center for every major company, corporation and organization. AI is more accessible than ever and has potential to revolutionize every single industry, including ours. At Cvent we embrace this new reality."
Event Lifecycle Enhancements
A number of Cvent's AI enhancements used large language models to streamline
time-consuming tasks.
A new venue search uses natural language functionality built
within the Cvent Supplier Network that allows meeting organizers to describe in
simple terms their preferred venue attributes. AI-enabled matching returns aligned
options that can be fine-tuned as the organizer offers more detail. Once the user
identifies the prospective venues, they can initiate an AI-enhanced request for
proposal, with AI-assisted agenda builds that offer venues the right
information around which to build their proposals. On the supplier side, AI in
the coming months will begin to mine a venue’s Cvent Supplier Network profile
along with past RFP responses to build new responses to custom questions that
may be included in an RFP. Cvent will also use large language models for
AI-assisted floorplan and room layout diagrams—again offering speed and detail
for RFP responses.
Cvent has applied LLM features across the event website and
registration building process, as well. The tech provider introduced the AI Writing
Assistant last year but has improved it with context-awareness that removes the
need for users to orient the tool on the details of each new event. Instead,
users can use conversational prompts to produce and fine-tune copy for event
promotion, attendee communications, email marketing and app content. Once the
site and app content is built out, users will also now be able to embed
attendee-facing chatbots that will mine content from that event only to act as
a ‘concierge’ to assist attendees with questions and build personalized event
agendas.
During and after an event, large language model-powered AI
features will summarize sessions for the attendee and soon Cvent will offer
what the company is calling ‘Event Summaries’ which will highlight key moments
across an individual’s entire event experience to offer actionable takeaways
and help justify the value of attending the event.
Data Insights Advance
Cvent’s AI announcements weren’t entirely constructed on
large language models; among the most powerful enhancements were new levels of
data intelligence on the tech provider’s roadmap.
Cvent VP product management McNeel Keenan introduced
Audience Segments, a new level of personalization insights layered on top of the
dynamic attendee profiles that accumulate data as event guests move through
registration and onsite activities, building a more complete data picture of
an attendee's interests and objectives. “They are more flexible than registration types,”
said Keenan, noting that meeting organizers can build different segments or attendee
‘personas’ at any time and then design different user journeys or send more
personalized in-event messaging and follow up communications to everyone who
fits that particular attendee profile. The segmentation capability is in the
solution set today, but is still getting visual improvements to make it easier
for users.
Finally, Cvent also announced predictive modeling for
meeting and attendee management. Using machine learning applied to data across Cvent’s
millions of historical event data patterns, proprietary AI will allow platform
users to predict registration and attendance counts based on current data compared to pickup trends across the Cvent platform. With better insights,
meeting organizers can proactively adjust room block commitments and food and
beverage minimums with venues and other suppliers. Or, adjust marketing and
promotion efforts to gain more event traction.