Hundreds of UK and European event professionals gathered in London to learn about cutting-edge technology and best practices that will drive meetings and events success

October 17, 2017 – Event planners across the UK and Europe should harness the power of technology to become more strategic and make their meetings and events more measurable to prove ROI. This was the dominant message shared at day one of Cvent CONNECT Europe, a gathering of hundreds of professionals from many of Europe's most respected organisations that are using technology to transform meetings and events.

In his opening keynote address at Cvent CONNECT Europe, Reggie Aggarwal, Founder and CEO of Cvent, focused on the value of using technology to automate events and leveraging the data and information from Cvent's event management platform to understand attendee needs and drive meeting success. “Planners need to help their organisations jump the technology innovation curve, and capture the physical footprint of their attendees' journeys. Utilising this data will help event professionals measure their return on investment and also improve future events. The end goal is to see events not as an expense, but as an asset on the balance sheet,” said Aggarwal.

More than 400 event, hospitality and travel professionals from the UK and Europe attended day one of the inaugural Cvent CONNECT Europe conference held at the Pullman London St Pancras Hotel. The conference provides those in the event and meetings industry with the opportunity to learn about new innovations and best practices, gain insight through case study evaluation, network with peers, and experience the latest in event technology at the Innovation Pavilion.

Besides outlining the compelling business case for using technology to drive successful events, in his keynote speech Reggie Aggarwal also highlighted Cvent's increasing momentum, winning new customers, and delivering new innovations to the marketplace. Key details included:

• Increasing international presence: Cvent has opened additional international offices, expanding its presence in existing markets outside of the U.S. to support a growing global client base. The company now operates 14 offices worldwide across four continents, with more than 2,700 employees worldwide and over 120 employees in Europe. Most recently, Cvent opened new offices in Singapore and Melbourne, Australia.
• Adding new customers: Cvent is rapidly expanding its customer base with strong growth in both its Event and Hospitality Clouds. Cvent now has 25,000 customers worldwide and over 1,700 customers across Europe.
• New solutions: In 2017, Cvent has expanded its platform with additions and enhancements for both the event and hospitality industries including: Cvent Passkey for room block management, Business Transient and Business Intelligence hotel solutions, a revolutionary user experience called Cvent Flex, as well as substantial enhancements to the Cvent Supplier Network.
• Cvent Flex: Cvent's largest technology investment to date, Cvent Flex, is available now through an early adopter programme, and will be made available to all Cvent customers over the coming months and into 2018. Cvent Flex builds on extensive user research to provide both the planner and the event attendee with an easy to use and enjoyable experience, whether creating the site on the back-end or navigating the attendee-facing event site.

Aggarwal concluded, “We continue to make significant investments into product development and have doubled the size of our technology team to ensure we deliver the world's best solutions that transform meetings and events. While we have long offered the best capabilities, our innovations around the user experience will drive even greater value from the Cvent platform by increasing the efficiency and productivity of event planners. In this way, we are furthering our commitment to deliver the technology that powers the human connection.”