As both customers' and the meetings marketplace's reliance
on technology has advanced rapidly, Cvent guided more than 1,600 planners and
nearly as many suppliers on a road map of its future meetings and events
technology at its recent conference.
The products focused on three technology trends:
consumerization, or easier-to-use technology; the marketing cloud; and attendee
experience, according to Cvent founder and CEO Reggie Aggarwal, who said technology
can amplify the human connection and provide more insights into the business
value of meetings and events. Cvent began reengineering its suite last year
with Cvent Express and is applying the easier, simpler mantra to other areas,
including the CrowdCompass mobile app.
More than 680 Cvent developers are enhancing or building
entirely new modules that will debut from now through 2017, according to
co-founder and chief technology officer David Quattrone. The new platform, he said,
groups products into an execution layer that includes most of the logistical
components of sourcing, venue selection and registration; an engagement layer, or
"why" your attendees come to your events; and an insights layer where
organizations can analyze and improve the effectiveness of their events. "Our
goal is to produce features and functions across every layer of this pyramid to
help you achieve your goals," Quattrone said. At the conference, product
management executives Brett Fitzgerald, Jeannie Griffin, McNeel Keenan and Andy
Rosic presented more detail on Cvent's new and future products.
Cvent's New &
Upcoming Tech
Simplification: Cvent
Express launched last year to streamline event registration and management over
smaller, simpler events. "Today, it's the fastest growing application on
the platform, with adoption doubling every two months, according to Fitzgerald.
The company also plans to "reimagine" the Cvent Supplier Network
search experience.
International: Attendees
have been able to register in multiple languages, and for those who want to
build their sites in other languages, Cvent Express is available in French, German,
Portuguese and Spanish. In July, the professional and enterprise versions also
will be available in those languages, and by year-end, CrowdCompass mobile apps
will debut in those same four languages with others on the road map.
Enhanced Reporting:
A standard interface for full-featured, single-click reports with filters,
grouping controls, visualization and other functions will span all Cvent
products. New products will launch with the new reporting framework, and Cvent
will retrofit existing technology with standardized reporting features within a
year, according to company officials.
RFP Sharing for
Stakeholders: For third parties, for venue selections made by committee or
just for those users with a boss, Cvent's new client portal provides a
dedicated website where stakeholders can view RFP responses and compare bids. Stakeholders
also can review dashboards like spend by category and view hotel pickup reports
to compare against contracted blocks.
Abstract Management:
Tools to automate the collection, review-evaluation and management of content
for presentation topics, references and materials are available now to early
adopters and can be used for speakers, papers or any type of review process,
according to Fitzgerald.
Speaker Resource
Center: This will provide a central hub to collect all speaker bios, photos
and presentations later this year.
Meeting Appointment
Solution: Building on a lightweight networking solution that Cvent
introduced a few years ago, the company has launched a more robust offering that
allows configuration of rules for appointments, attendees and time slots. In the
third quarter, the company plans to expand the product to matchmaking and group-appointment
scheduling, which will be important for tradeshows, according to Griffin. Cvent
also plans to translate all the tools to exhibitor management appointments and
lead capture by the fourth quarter.
RFID Attendee
Tracking: In November 2015, Cvent acquired AllianceTech to leverage its RFID
technology for large events. With RFID tracking, organizers can view dashboards
and reporting in real time to adjust seating, meals, schedules and more. Because
it's integrated with CrowdCompass and appointments, planners can forecast
changes to accommodate larger-than-expected crowds at one session or can message
attendees to change a meeting room.
Webhooks: Available
today for early adopters, it provides data exchanges to other products with
which companies might need to integrate to fully leverage information. In
addition, Cvent has integrated its products with marketing solutions firm Marketo
and plans to integrate with Eloqua by year-end, according to Keenan. Cvent also
integrates with Concur and is open to others, Aggarwal said.
Gamification: In
the third quarter, a robust gamification module will be available in
CrowdCompass, and users can modify as needed. "The idea [with
gamification] is that you're modifying behaviors to provide a greater
experience for attendees," said Griffin. About a dozen employees who work
on CrowdCompass have gaming expertise and applied it to the new module,
according to Rosic.
Event-in-a-Box: Building
on the onsite attendee management tools and expertise options that Cvent has
offered, this simpler version delivers equipment and software in one box to
allow event managers to set up and run an event, check attendees in and print
name badges.
CrowdCompass: In
a June release, CrowdCompass' social media icon moved to a home screen to become
more accessible and encourage more engagement. The company also added 42
features to the app from January through April. Of those, users had requested 18,
according to Rosic. Developers plan to
release a CrowdCompass Express version for simpler events. It will include the
upgraded reporting and localized language by the fourth quarter. Once the upgraded
Meeting Appointment Solutions are turned on for an event, the appointments will
appear in attendees' apps automatically and the current appointments technology
will turn off.
App penetration into smaller events remains limited,
Aggarwal told BTN. "The majority
… still don't have a mobile app," he said.
Some of the enhancements are designed to make it easier for smaller
events to launch mobile and engage more with attendees.
Of those who use Cvent's app today, few actually use the
reporting to glean insights from attendees, Rosic said. The new reporting
framework will make it easier, but Cvent officials also plan to emphasize ways
that companies should be maximizing the information. "Every marketing
channel has been digitized," Aggarwal said. "Marketing automation,
personalization, customer relationship management—all of that has been [automated]
by 20 to 40 companies worth $1B plus in this space. Why is that so important?
When you go to a website, [the site owners] know it. It takes six minutes to
download a white paper and read it, and they know it. But when you come to my
event for three days, I don't know what you do." The new products, he
added, are about "digitizing the physical footprint. I can see that you
went to these sessions, the general session, etc."
The new products also are about driving Cvent's penetration
deeper into an organization: into marketing, the executive suite and other
stakeholders. "We've said the market is $5 billion for event cloud
software—for all of that. So as you can see, there's very little penetration.
Still the biggest competitors out there are manual processes. Over time,
companies will convert over to technology, frankly because companies like us
are building great products," and the widgets they currently use are
getting harder to integrate into increasingly digitized platforms.