Cvent: A Meeting Planner's Swiss Army Knife

The other day I had the opportunity to speak with Brian Pirkle from Cvent, an Online Event Registration & Event Management Software company.  Like other event planners in the area I'd received invites to come to a seminar to hear about their product.  Since I started in technology and moved into event planning, I wanted to know more about a tech driven event planning company.

Upon my arrival I was immediately approached by Brian and welcomed into the room.  The setting was small and conducive to interaction, great for asking questions.  Guests like myself, were provided an information packet and of course a pen to jot down notes on the provided slides.  I was more curious about the engines behind the product I'd been peppered with email about than the splashy slides. At Danico we specialize in registration/check-out and web presence, so we like to know what others are doing in the market. 

The software covers many pain points for planners, but not all - more on that in a sec.  The invites and reminder that led to my participation were generated out of the software.  Score!  Here are some other features that I like:

• Contact/Member Management - I can see this being extremely helpful especially as we often have repeat clients, for annual events
• Email Campaigns - very helpful for having one place to work from, I don't know about you but depending on the client we could be using any one of the vendors out there
• Online Registration - this is near and dear to us.  The ability to combine online with onsite check-in as well as use any device - major time savings
• Mobile Apps - this is on the wish list for many of our clients.  I like that Cvent has both mobile friendly web presence and a mobile app for all types of devices

That is only the tip of the iceberg of what this software can do and you might be thinking I am ready to sign up.  Well....

Not really.  While I really like what it has to offer it is geared more towards the Meetings & Events Planners.  With 90% of our clients being non-profits running fundraisers we would still need a second tool, like our partner software provider Charity Auction Organizer, for the auctions.  Two features that we would love to use for an event we are planning for next year are the Venue Sourcing and Housing & Travel Management, however the event is too small to fully leverage all that Cvent brings to the table.

As we continue to expand our customer base, this is definitely one vendor we will keep an eye on.  If you are a Meetings & Events Planner, including online seminars/webinars, I encourage you to take a look at them.