Item: Cvent Event Management
Rating: 9
Author: Lesley Irminger

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have a few departments at George Mason University who use Cvent. My office, University Events, contracted it for registration for events. We are a TouchNet Ready University and Cvent was a platform that worked with this service. Cvent provides us with a clean, practical, professional event registration system for our events. In particular it allows us to provide a website and full registration system for conferences.

Pros and Cons

Coordination - they are great at coordinating you with members of their team to best solve your issues.
All-Inclusive - Cvent is a full package software offering supplemental items for conferences.
Communication - My team has been impressed with the follow up and ongoing communication of the Cvent team.

Transparency - We had issues when we started with transparency of what the software could accomplish due to TouchNet.
Cost - We have found the costs to be a bit high at times. This is in particular for Social Tables and when we have had to renegotiate contracts.
Classic Vs. Flex - Classic is being discontinued but we found that it offered more than Flex a few years ago.

Return on Investment

Negative: Cost - we've found the cost to not be 100% worth our ROI.
Positive: Ease of Use - we've found the software very easy to use.
Mixed: Reports - the reports are not always intuitive. You can create your own, but I had to reach out to support for assistance to get what I needed.

Alternatives Considered

RegOnline by Cvent (Discontinued)

We used to use RegOnline. I do not have a lot of experience but we utilized the survey option in that for free registrations. It would be nice if there is a package we could pay for "free" events vs $3.99/registrant.

Key Insights

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?

Yes

Did implementation of Cvent Event Management go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cvent Event Management again?

Yes

Other Software Used

MESA, Cisco Webex Teams, Zoom, Cisco Webex Meetings, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox Business

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Cvent is well suited for anyone who manages events and wants a "one-stop shop." In particular events where you charge. I do not think it works well for free events due to the cost. We have to pay $3.99/registration on top of our contract fee for free events. This is a hindrance and we do not use Cvent for free or simple events for that purpose

Support Rating

I've had nothing but positive interactions with the Cvent support team. In particular I've found they can be "over-helpful" and I have to ask them to walk me through vs doing so I can learn. They are always happy to do so. They are also very proactive on responding, following up and emailing instructions on things they assist with so we have the knowledge for the future.

Cvent for Universities with TouchNet

Overall Satisfaction with Cvent Event Management