Item: Cvent Event Management
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cvent Event Management is used by our Global Travel Meetings & Events team to manage registration and onsite experiences for our firm events. We use the tool to capture registration information, hotel reservations requests and travel information and are also using some of their other solutions like travel integrations (Passkey and GetThere), OnArrival and CrowdCompass to further improve the meeting experience for our attendees.

Pros and Cons

The platform is easy to use. Without much training or experience you can easily figure out how to create registration sites, set up reports, and manage meeting requests.
Cvent does a good job keeping up with the latest technology. They are constantly updating their system based on feedback they've received (enhancement requests) or industry changes.
Cvent is able to manage events from start to finish - from RFPs and budgeting, to event registration and feedback surveys.

We have had some challenges with reporting. It isn't always as flexible as you would want and sometimes we are unable to pull the information in the format we need. They are currently in the process of revamping reports so this may improve.
Customer support is great when you first start using Cvent, but the more advanced you are, the less helpful this becomes. If you need an "out of the box" solution or a workaround, they are not much help at all.
The account address book feature does not work for our group and caused us a lot of issues. There is no way to turn this feature off, so we had to use a workaround which has been mostly successful, but does not eliminate all the problems we face with the shared address book.
We were not aware of some system limitations - like library storage size, until much later in our usage of Cvent. If we would have known ahead of time, we could have better planned on how to organize and manage certain aspects of our account instead of trying to clean up and streamline after the fact.

Return on Investment

Cvent has allowed us to consolidate meeting-related finances in one place and run quarterly and annual reports that are shared with leadership. These reports note spend and savings.
Cvent integrations (particularly Passkey) have generated a considerable time savings for our team; eliminating the manual work we used to do and automating more of the process for us.
We have hesitated with adding more Cvent products to our portfolio because each one incurs a sizable cost. It's hard for us to estimate the usage of the new products to determine if they are worth the additional expense so we usually err on the side of not purchasing.

Alternatives Considered

Aventri (formerly etouches)

I used eTouches a long time ago, but I don't remember it having the same functionality and features. We used it for basic registration and hotel request capture. If there was a way to track budget, sourcing, mobile apps, etc. I wasn't aware of it. Prior to Cvent we also used StarCite to manage event registration & hotel requests.

Support Rating

For advanced issues, the support team doesn't seem able to offer work arounds or alternative ideas. They often refer you to the support center and articles there, which is somewhere I typically check before reaching out to them in the first place. I understand how Cvent functions and how to set up typical sites, when I need out of the box thinking the support center and personnel is often disappointing. We've also had trouble with our account reps not following up on questions or issues that we have and it takes repeated follow up on our end to get any answers.

Key Insights

Do you think Cvent Event Management delivers good value for the price?

Yes

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?

Yes

Would you buy Cvent Event Management again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 365, Snagit, Adobe Acrobat DC, Adobe Photoshop

Likelihood to Recommend

Cvent is useful for meetings and events taking place in one location, one set of dates. Several of our internal clients have asked for a registration site that allows invitees to choose between different locations and dates (a series of educational trainings) but this has not been possible. We have found Cvent helpful in managing session registration for some of our larger programs, though the session selection page and reporting options are limited. The system's ability to set session capacity limits, limit session registration to certain registration types, and prevent attendees from selecting the same session in different time slots or overlapping sessions, has been very helpful.

Users and Roles

Our Meeting & Events travel group manages the tool, but all our departments use us (and therefore Cvent) to manage registration for their events.

Support Headcount Required

Basic computer skills, organization and time management. Detail oriented is helpful as well.

Business Processes Supported

Helps us manage our events from start to finish all in one place - sourcing, budget, registration, feedback.
Cover registration from initial invites to registration, to on site check in and post-event surveys.

Innovative Uses

We've actually had some trouble trying to use Cvent for some of our more unusual/special case programs. The work-arounds we've come up with do the job, but aren't ideal.

Future Planned Uses

Better reporting options and access to those reports for individuals without log in access to the system.

Likelihood to Renew

We've had some customer service issues. Support is great for those just getting started who need to understand the basics. It is much less helpful if you are looking for work-arounds or ways to creatively solve a problem.

Products Replaced

Yes - StarCite. Our contract was up and we were looking at alternates. Cvent provided a solution that was more advanced and had better pricing options for us at the time.

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability

I wasn't among the team of final decision makers, but system functionality and pricing were likely the most important factors in us changing providers.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

There are things now that I wished we knew after we made the switch - like how best to organize our libraries and set up account-wide preferences, but nothing that would really impact the evaluation/selection process.

Implementation Rating

It would have been nice during implementation if we had received more pointers on how to organize our parked report folders, libraries, etc. to avoid the mess we find ourselves in today. If we had known ahead of time the limitations we could have planned better.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Issues

Unsure, I was not part of the implementation team.

Cvent Event Management Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	Poor followup Problems left unsolved Escalation required Need to explain problems multiple times

Pros	Cons
Like to use Easy to use Technical support not required Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Importing invitation lists are very easy, each step is clear and simply.
Being able to import various components of registration - sessions, invitee details, registrations or hotel requests, has cut down on a lot of manual work

Difficult Tasks

If we want to remove a number of people from an event, it cannot be done in bulk. We've had instances where the wrong list was sent to us and we had to delete/remove each person individually.
When sending test links through Cvent using the test feature, it would be nice if we could search for a name instead of having to scroll through the hundred and hundreds that we have in the system. Searching for a user is an option in some places, but not all.

Usability

There are things that Cvent can improve upon and we've made quite a few enhancement requests.

Cvent Event Management - Make your life easier!

Overall Satisfaction with Cvent Event Management