Out of the Box Use of Cvent Event Management, but everything has its quirks!
Updated July 24, 2023
Out of the Box Use of Cvent Event Management, but everything has its quirks!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Overall Satisfaction with Cvent Event Management
We are an enterprise user, therefore, we use quite a few of the Cvent product modules. We currently use Event Registration, Sourcing, Abstract Management, SMM, Membership Management, and Email Marketing. The Event Registration Module allows us to be fairly flexibly with our event setups for each of our clients as well as internally. We pride ourselves on thinking outside the box where Cvent Representatives would have not gone. We have currently implemented the product 80% in our Meetings & Conferences, Group Travel and Association Management team--services not fully utilized are SMM and Email Marketing. The rest of our company utilizes mostly the Sourcing Module, however, there are times when the Event Registration Module is used accordingly. It has really helped streamline a lot of our previously manual processes--ie. Paper registrations, manually processing credit card payments, manually sending/mailing paper receipts to registrants are just a few.
- Sourcing - Love how the system allows you to create one lead and it sends it to as many hotels/locations you wish to send it to. Additionally, it provides instant feedback on whether or not a hotel/location can accommodate your request. If you receive a submission, these are reportable from the system, not manually collated by a staff member.
- Event Registration - Love the ability to create an online process to allow registrants the easy on registering online.
- Surveys - Integrates an event survey automatically to easily track and remind attendees
- Reporting - this can be somewhat difficult to use and clunky. It doesn't always pull all the information the first time you run it, and sometimes requires more than two times of running the report to get all the data needed. There is no way to report on Session Groups and this has been frustrating for over 11 years!
- Membership Management - seriously lacks an update or the functionality needed for most associations. Was created more for corporate membership programs not association membership programs. Very clunky and difficult to use. We have had to use custom questions to help with the reporting side of membership as the standard reports are limited and do not represent the requested or needed data.
- Abstract Management - has improved the most over the last year, but still doesn't allow a review to see more than 100 submissions at a time.
- Account Management
- User Management
- Strategic Meetings Management
- While it is unfortunate, we have eliminated the need for about 3 positions that managed the manual processing of registration forms, payments, and invoicing/receipts.
- We have cut the overall time of creation of a registration website for a simple setup to a few days were in the past it was taking about 2 weeks.
- While it has gave us efficiencies, it has hindered our process for Association/Membership Management. The ROI we get from the Event Management, Sourcing, and Abstract Management is completely off-set by the lack of efficiencies from the Membership Management side.
I like how this integrates with the Cvent Registration setup for each event. It allows you to push most of the content from your website, workshop descriptions, speakers bios, schedule, etc over to the app so that you do not have to build these sections of the app, only make slight modifications.
Do you think Cvent Event Management delivers good value for the price?
Not sure
Are you happy with Cvent Event Management's feature set?
Yes
Did Cvent Event Management live up to sales and marketing promises?
I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process
Did implementation of Cvent Event Management go as expected?
No
Would you buy Cvent Event Management again?
Yes
Cvent Event Management Feature Ratings
Using Cvent Event Management
12 - Meetings and Events, Group Travel, Business Travel, and Accounting
2 - Two of our staff are Certified Event Management Professionals in the Advanced Level.
- Event Registration
- Sourcing
- Membership Management
- Abstract Management
- Exhibit Hall Management
- Advertising/Sponsorship Package Sales & Management
- To be determined as we are currently an enterprise user.
Evaluating Cvent Event Management and Competitors
Yes - Isis Gold
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
We needed a complete system to help in all areas of our processes with registration, sourcing, etc.
Unfortunately I was not in the selection process as this was the product the company used prior to my involvement with the team and company.
Cvent Event Management Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Cvent Event Management Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Problems get solved | Slow Resolution Poor followup Less knowledgeable Escalation required Difficult to get immediate help Need to explain problems multiple times |
It was included and doesn't offer any better support representatives or help route your calls to more seasoned representatives. While it might help expedite the call waiting process, it doesn't help resolve the problems experienced.
Yes - Too many times to count. Most of the time they are due to improperly tested system updates that have an adverse effect on other areas of the system. Unfortunately, Cvent has never utilized power users to test updates as I have suggested for years as the testing scripts that a created by the product teams traditionally only address potential issues with the new updates.
Using Cvent Event Management
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
None | None |
Yes, but I don't use it