Cognizant is a leading multinational technology services and consulting firm that offers a broad spectrum of services, including digital solutions, technology, consulting, and operations across various industries.  Clay Botkin, Senior Director - Marketing Technology, Customer Data & Campaign Operations, and Ashley Sutton, Corporate Communications Associate - Global Sponsorships & Events, help manage Cognizant’s robust global events program, which includes conferences, trade shows, and customer engagements. These events help showcase Cognizant’s offerings while providing opportunities to interact with clients and partners in order to strengthen industry relationships.

GOALS

Streamlining lead management, reporting, and data analysis became critical. “Data is not just our biggest challenge,  but our biggest priority,” Clay shares. “Data is the focal point of measuring engagement and all of the high value touchpoints we have to understand what the leads and ROI are.” He notes the previous processes were prone to errors in campaign syncs and often resulted in the loss of critical data, impacting real-time reporting for their stakeholders. 

Achieving data accuracy and efficiency with custom integrations

To solve for this, Cognizant leveraged custom integrations with Cvent to fully automate the end-to-end event management and data capture process. To develop advanced, two-way integrations with systems like Salesforce and Pardot, they worked in tandem with the Cognizant Sales and Marketing IT team. First, they evaluated different stakeholder requirements and touchpoints across various event types, formats, and sizes. “The challenging piece was we have stakeholders with very different needs from multiple regions on separate teams,” Clay explains. He says they relied on prioritization exercises to help determine key requirements across these teams while also accounting for critical internal processes like event nomination workflows.

This automation includes syncing contacts collected in a custom Salesforce nomination tool to a Cvent event’s invitation list. This connects registration data to participant statuses in real time for accurate, up-to-date metrics. Since Ashley’s division works regularly with Clay’s team, she finds these processes to be integral to event success. “We work regularly to ensure our team is up to date on any new systems, protocols, or new ways of doing events,” she says. 

Since Cognizant launched the integration, time-consuming manual work has decreased by nearly 70%, event data health has improved by 65%, and there has been a 90% increase in event data captured in Salesforce – with 49% of that data coming from Cvent alone. “We heavily lean on reporting to enable our stakeholders and track event progress and impact,” Ashley notes. 

Leveraging Cvent to manage the entire event lifecycle

They now leverage these integrations in tandem with a suite of Cvent solutions, including Registration, Attendee Hub, Meeting Request Forms, Premium Access Portal, OnArrival, Passkey, and Surveys. All these products are fully integrated with Salesforce, enabling Cognizant's event planners, field marketers, and campaign operations team members to effectively plan, execute, and measure the success of events and webinars. “That’s where the magic happens,” Clay says. “It’s when we start to see all of that come together and derive those insights we wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Ashley outlines several Cvent solutions as being critical to her team’s success, starting with the Meeting Request Form (MRF). This automated solution provides a centralized platform for managing all global event requests in a fully branded portal. The MRF can be tailored to unique requirements with custom fields or data points. Automated workflows help streamline the procurement process, eliminating manual tasks and reducing errors. On-demand reporting offers valuable insights into the events being requested to better allocate planning resources. Additionally, Cognizant uses the MRF for reporting on events not managed by the Global Events team, such as certain Field Marketing and Healthcare/Life Sciences events. This valuable tool enhances visibility into the scope of the team's events across the globe.

Other solutions like Attendee Hub allow Cognizant to create engaging attendee experiences, no matter the event type, format, or size. The Attendee Hub provides a cohesive experience for attendees, allowing them to build their agenda, view session and speaker details, and stay updated with push notifications. Networking features like one-to-one messaging, attendee recommendations, and discussions enable peer connections. Built to scale for Cognizant’s diverse program, both the web platform and Event App are fully customizable. They offer highly branded experiences with custom cards and pages to highlight key information and cross-promote content, thereby boosting engagement. 

For example, a large global webinar was recently hosted in Attendee Hub. The Cognizant team used Cvent Studio to build and manage a fully branded digital experience. The event garnered over 140 registrations, with an attendee login rate of almost 50% – one of the most successful Cognizant webinars to date. Real-time engagement features like live polling, chat, and Q&A enhance participation. Embedded surveys also provide valuable attendee feedback and, when combined with engagement scoring, allows Cognizant to tailor their post-event follow-up more effectively.

RESULTS

Cognizant’s cohesive tech stack for improved lead management

Clay says the key to Cognizant’s success lies in bringing these technologies together into a seamless tech stack. “Because of what our tech stack looks like as a whole, our ability to harmonize this data across all of our different touchpoints is immensely valuable,” he explains. In fact, Cognizant has successfully managed 14,800 registrants across various events with Cvent, including key decision-makers from elite accounts. They’ve tracked a 96% audience retention rate and the integration has significantly improved the quality of their marketing qualified leads (MQLs). “For an organization heavily focused on relationship development, that engagement rate is so important and it really helps with our ROI,” Clay adds. “As far as the whole lead to revenue process, it’s much easier with the integration and not having to rely on a process that takes weeks.”

This is largely because the Salesforce integration and campaign details provided sales and marketing teams with detailed member status of prospects, along with scoring and campaign attribution. The end-to-end integration enables Cognizant to build better customer segments and profiles for global marketing campaigns, enhancing existing client engagement for the sales teams. Clay notes, “Being able to have close to a 360-degree understanding of what that customer looks like and how we interact with them, and how we’re influencing pipeline through these events, is immensely valuable.” 

With on-demand reporting, stakeholders can now make fully informed decisions in real time to maximize and prioritize event commitments, while sales teams have access to the data needed for timely and more personalized follow-ups. Clay reiterates the importance of actioning this data through the right integrations. He says, “When we look at Cvent and all the things they’ve been able to offer – from Meeting Request Forms to insights post-event – being able to integrate that with our CRM or Salesforce, or pushing it into Snowflake for that data capture and visualization, has really given us a unique understanding of our customers that we didn’t previously have.”

LOOKING FORWARD

A look at the future of Cognizant and Cvent 

This integration and associated Cvent solutions have had a profoundly positive impact on Cognizant's business. Ashley notes they’ve also increased visibility and engagement with senior leadership as a result. She explains, “It’s especially helpful because it allows us to be able to submit that information from the events back into Salesforce, and that information goes to leadership and a number of different stakeholders so it’s a great way for them to be able to measure and look at ROI.” 

Ashley and Clay look forward to further enhancing Cognizant’s use of Cvent solutions to power their global events program. “What’s next for us is continuing to leverage the Cvent platform and enhance our integrations,” Clay says. He also mentions looking forward to exploring how to maximize usage of new features and solutions within the Cvent product portfolio. Ultimately, events are indispensable for Cognizant, allowing the company to build and nurture valuable relationships while fostering collaboration within the industry.

Alkami Technology is a premier provider of cloud-based digital banking solutions for U.S. financial institutions, empowering them to grow, adapt, and build vibrant digital communities. Alkami helps clients transform through retail and business banking, onboarding and account opening, payment security, and data and marketing solutions.

Their annual flagship conference, Alkami Co:lab, brings together forward-thinking financial institutions, top fintech providers, and industry analysts for a multi-day event filled with networking and innovation. “Co:lab is that convergence of collaboration and innovation, all coming together to build networks and bridge relationships,” explains Jennifer Cortez, Alkami’s Vice President of Demand Generation. She notes Alkami’s events are also a top-producing pipeline and lead generation channel for the company.

Jennifer explains Alkami’s goal of evolving their attendee base to bring in bigger business opportunities. “Historically, it’s been a customer conference, but we think it’s more than that - it can be the biggest selling event for us in the year,” she shares. “For us, it’s about really trying to grow attendance for those new prospective customers.” 

To achieve these goals, they first needed to create a more cohesive and personalized communication experience. This required better data tracking and eliminating cumbersome manual processes, particularly for speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors. Spreadsheets and email required constant updating and left the door open for mistakes, so they needed to automate processes for these various groups. Jennifer and Nancy wanted more visibility into which sponsors were speaking to certain clients to better identify add-on sales opportunities. 

APPROACH

Powering an innovative technology experience at Alkami Co:lab

Alkami has used Cvent to power Co:lab, along with their larger events program, for years. They rely on Cvent Registration, the Cvent Supplier Network, OnArrival, LeadCapture, Appointments, Attendee Hub, Speaker Resource Center, Exhibitor Management, and other tools. “The Cvent platform has played a critical role in elevating Alkami Co:lab year after year, leaving attendees with one of the best annual conference experiences they have in financial services,” says Jennifer. “My proudest moment in my professional career is what we did with Co:lab this past year, as it was the biggest conference we’ve taken on as a marketing department and an events and brand team.”

Alkami recently integrated Cvent Passkey into the registration process, meaning attendees can now book their room during registration. With custom booking sites, Passkey offers guests a simple, branded experience for self-managing bookings and shoulder night requests. Alkami can map Passkey back to the hotel to sync all reservations automatically, creating a unified process. Dashboards provide consistent communication between the hotel and Alkami so they always have clear insights into pickup and attrition rates. 

Alkami has seen incredible growth in registration rates as they’ve grown over the last few years. In fact, the most recent Co:lab reached their goal within 30 days of launch, meaning Nancy’s team had to quickly source overflow properties. They used the Cvent Supplier Network (CSN) to do so as it offers a huge network of over 300,000 venues. Her team easily sourced and centralized RFP data, tracking rate information to help increase cost efficiencies. CSN can also automate communication with NSO/GSO contacts in order to aggregate the most competitive rates and optimize sourcing activity. With automated analytics and reporting, Nancy’s team is able to maximize savings for the business. 

Reinforcing the Alkami brand at every event touchpoint with Attendee Hub

It’s vital to ensure the Alkami Co:lab branding is carried through every touchpoint of the event, from pre-event marketing to post-event surveys. Alkami therefore relies on the Cvent Attendee Hub as a centralized hub for in-person and virtual attendees alike to access personalized resources and critical information throughout the event lifecycle. “In Attendee Hub, they can manage easy agenda building, see highlights from the show, and easily connect and network with everyone at the conference,” Nancy explains. 

They also used the embedded Appointments tool within the app for client-facing Alkamists to schedule small group meetings with customers and prospects, as well as enabling prospects to request meetings with sponsors and exhibitors. “That was one of the huge successes for us, using Appointments in our exhibit hall to give our exhibitors and sponsors the tool they needed to meet with the right people – and for our clients and prospective clients the opportunity to meet with exactly who they wanted to meet with,” Nancy elaborates. 

With Appointments, stakeholders can create, accept, or reject appointment requests easily right in Attendee Hub. They can also define appointment details like location and include notes for more detailed meetings. Nancy’s team can also outline and manage appointment parameters, set up web and in-app push notifications to automatically trigger when an appointment is canceled or modified, and manage visibility, permissions, and scheduling rules. This creates a seamless experience for attendees while providing the needed control for Alkami’s event managers.  

Improving the Co:lab event experience with the right technology

By leveraging event tech designed to modernize and automate outdated processes, Alkami has eliminated cumbersome manual solutions for speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors in favor of using Cvent’s Speaker Resource Center and Exhibitor Management tools. The Speaker Resource Center centralizes all speaker activities within a single portal, allowing speakers to self-serve and complete tasks like updating bios and uploading assets. Automated task reminders eliminate manual communications, saving valuable time by empowering speakers to oversee their own requirements. Similarly, Exhibitor Management ensures all exhibitors can manage tasks, access reports, and oversee requirements in the centralized Exhibitor Portal. Stakeholders can access floor plans with their booths, see booth allotments, register staff, upload documentation, and manage appointments as admins. Automated reminders ensure exhibitors stay on target with deadlines and deliverables. Importantly, they can access comprehensive on-demand reports to easily track lead generation to better prove event ROI.

They’re also able to harness data from attendance tracking through session scanning for real-time updates, which they can provide to internal stakeholders, sales teams, and presenters to show event progress. Being able to have insights into attendance patterns via the OnArrival app means Alkami can better tailor their content each year. “The data we collect helps us curate that agenda for next year, so it really just makes us get better at our marketing strategy at future events,” shares Jennifer.

Empowering lead generation at Alkami Co:lab

They also used Cvent’s LeadCapture solution to enable sponsors and exhibitors to capture high quality leads while giving Alkami’s Client Sales team visibility into add-on sales opportunities. “LeadCapture is what fuels the biggest add-on sales pipeline from a marketing channel,” notes Jennifer. Sponsors and sales teams can easily scan, qualify, and rate leads for more accurate follow up. “We saw big success in offering one complimentary LeadCapture for exhibitors and sponsors to encourage them to truly show ROI for themselves, with the option to purchase additional licenses,” notes Nancy. Detailed reporting gives them an accurate, up-to-date view of all leads in an instant. “We were able to pull data from that and see the interactions our exhibitors were having, which is going to enable us to promote our event even more next year with those data points,” she adds.

Alkami then pushes their leads and attendee data into Salesforce via an API integration. This integration automatically syncs contact lists and updates, eliminating manual uploads. They can also sync contact updates and activities, as well as automate task and opportunity creation within Salesforce, making it easier for their team. This integration lets Alkami track overall marketing engagement and campaign performance for better data-driven decision making when strategizing their overall events program. “Having all of that information seamlessly integrated and available in one source of truth allows us to better market the event for the future, providing more personalized experiences when we market to the Co:lab audience,” says Jennifer. “Making sure all of that technology interacts well together is really important for that attendee journey, and that all comes back to having the tech stack and Martech solutions that we have.”

The deeply integrated nature of Cvent’s many solutions has been a key factor in Co:lab’s success. “Having all of those Cvent tools in one place to help market that conference and grow it allows us to get that data quicker and really get to those ROI metrics,” says Jennifer. “I don’t have to go to a million places when it comes to attendance metrics, tracking attrition, understanding engagement, and so on so we can more fully understand where we have had influence on certain prospects or customers engaged in different aspects of our event.” 

A future of collaboration and innovation at Alkami

Jennifer and Nancy share that the success of Co:lab – and their larger events program – is due in no small part to their relationship with Cvent. “It takes a certain team with certain specializations to put on a really good event, and I think our partnership with Cvent is what allows us to do that – helping us create one of the best possible events in our space,” Jennifer says. Nancy adds that their team’s relationship with Cvent is built on a shared interest in Alkami’s success. “We really appreciate our Cvent relationship, not just for our big annual event but all year long - and we appreciate knowing they care to know who we are and not just sell us a product,” she notes.

In reflecting on the incredible success they’ve seen with Co:lab, Jennifer insists the collaborative approach their teams take across every aspect of the event is a true testament to the strength of the partnership they’ve built between event management and marketing. “We really came together to put on the best event that I think we’ve ever had as a company – and one of the best events in the industry,” she says. “For me, that was a big highlight and we can’t wait to do more of that in the future.”

BACKGROUND

Founded in 2009, CAIS is a leading Alternative Investment platform that connects independent financial advisors with leading alternative asset managers and bank issuers to transact and engage on a massive scale. “As a fintech organization that operates a two-sided marketplace, our goal is to really automate those processes” explains Andrew DePaul, Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing. 

The CAIS meetings and events program is aimed at bringing together the independent wealth management community in order to facilitate these relationships. “Events have become a really big focus of the organization within the last year or two,” notes Joanna Munjack, Director of Events. Prior to 2022, there was no formal events program or department at CAIS. “Now, we’ve really grown our department and we’re hosting and participating in about 100 events every year,”  Joanna says. “It’s a big aspect of the marketing program and driver of ROI for the firm.”

The success of the Summit ultimately spurred the development of additional CAIS events throughout the year, including Due Diligence events focused on strengthening relationships with specific firms and the newest event series, CAIS Live. They also sought to expand the reach of their Summit while funding the event entirely through sponsorships and partnerships. In addition, they wanted to leverage the marketing automation features of Cvent to ensure their sales pipeline was fully connected to the Summit.

Leveraging these integrated solutions gave CAIS the experience and expertise needed to build a truly robust events program with a small team. “We went from zero to sixty very fast, from having nothing tracked to having the hundreds of events we now have all streamlined in Cvent,” Andrew says. Having everything centralized within one source of truth has allowed Joanna and Andrew to eliminate stop gaps and streamline workflows internally. Joanna insists, “It’s really helped us with the inconsistencies and inefficiencies that we had prior to using Cvent.” 

Andrew agrees, noting that using Cvent solutions have drastically improved processes and helped provide better visibility into event ROI for senior leadership. “It streamlines everything, and it gives us one tool we can go to,” Andrew says. “Everything is managed in one system, and we’re able to send everything over to Salesforce and can give our stakeholders real time data.”

In addition, attendees were able to easily navigate appointment scheduling using the embedded Appointments tool. They could create, reject, or accept appointment requests easily within Attendee Hub, defining appointment details like location and including notes. In addition, CAIS was able to define and manage appointment parameters, set up web and in-app push notifications that would automatically trigger when an appointment was canceled or modified, and manage visibility, permissions, and scheduling rules. This ensured a seamless experience for attendees while providing the needed control for CAIS event managers.  

Automating speaker and exhibitor management for increased efficiencies 

In addition, CAIS used Exhibitor Management and Speaker Resource Center to automate processes related to speaker and exhibitor management. The Speaker Resource Center coordinates speaker activities within a single portal, allowing speakers to self-serve and complete tasks like uploading their bio, updating social links, and providing materials. 

The Exhibitor Resource Center, similarly, automates exhibitor management tasks like uploading profile information, adding documents or resources, and uploading branded assets. Automated alerts ensured they stayed on target to meet important deadlines for the Summit. Joanna adds, “The use of the Speaker Resource Center and Exhibitor Management undoubtedly helps take some of the manual process off our team.” Not only does this save valuable time, but these solutions integrate seamlessly with the rest of the Cvent platform — ensuring they maintain full visibility into all content and reporting in a single location.

With Event in a Box, CAIS is able to create a quick check-in experience for smaller audiences with all the needed hardware shipped directly to them – including iPads with tabletop stands, printers, routers, and badge stock for on-demand printing. They also have access to 24/7 customer support and other resources to ensure everything goes smoothly. OnArrival Premium and OnArrival 360 offer additional capabilities, including session check-in and tracking, signature collection, check-in planner alerts, kiosk mode, and more. With OnArrival 360, they also receive support from an onsite technical expert and have access to additional badge supplies and hardware.  

Session scanning and attendance tracking through NFC badges not only capture session attendance, but allow CAIS to easily monitor session capacity and track attendance in real time via the OnArrival app. “We were excited to use the NFC technology for some of our breakout sessions,” notes Joanna. In addition, using LeadCapture for the events they attend gives CAIS an automated solution for lead generation. Using LeadCapture, they can easily scan, qualify, and rate leads in real time for more accurate follow up. They were able to access detailed reports via the Exhibitor Portal and export them in seconds, giving them an accurate, up-to-date view of all leads.

RESULTS

Doing more with less: Fostering strong partnerships to scale event program growth 

The successful growth of the events program at CAIS is a credit to the close partnership between their marketing and events teams. Streamlining their event marketing processes has been invaluable, due in no small part to the use of the Salesforce integration with Cvent. This integration creates automated data flows across the event lifecycle, allowing CAIS to automatically sync contact lists and updates – thereby eliminating manual labor and the capacity for human error. “The MarTech integration we’re using with Salesforce is great for real time updates into campaigns, creating and updating contacts, and so on,” Andrew elaborates. They can also automatically sync contact updates and activities as well as automate task and opportunity creation within Salesforce, making it easier for their team. Leveraging the integration to track overall marketing engagement and campaign performance allows CAIS to rely on data-driven decision making in strategizing their overall events program.

Another key to successfully scaling their program lies in their growing relationship with Cvent. “We have a lean team, and everyone is doing more with less,” says Joanna. “Looking at how we can take on more of the support services Cvent offers is important so we’re not spending all of our time on time-consuming tasks.” She notes that the feedback loop her team maintains with Cvent is invaluable. “It’s been a tremendous partnership,” she says, adding that Cvent not only listens to CAIS’ feedback, but implements the changes “pretty immediately.” In fact, by working closely with Cvent’s Professional Services, Client Services, and Account Management teams, CAIS was able to make their second Summit an even bigger success than the first. 

In fact, Andrew says continuing to centralize CAIS’ event management within Cvent is an important takeaway for his team, particularly when looking at previous events. “With implementing Cvent, I’d say the biggest learning for us is leaning into everything that the platform offers,” he says. “We tried to use parts of HubSpot or other email marketing tools to do what Cvent could have already done, so this year we’ve pivoted and gone back to using Cvent for everything.” He notes this includes managing invitations out of Cvent, using registration types, and leaning more into the capabilities of different Cvent solutions. “As a result, we’ve had a more seamless experience with registration and numbers have gone up – all by doing simple things and using what Cvent offers out of the box,” he insists.

MOVING FORWARD

Extending the attendee journey to better prove event ROI

In fact, extending the life of their content and ensuring post-event engagement has been a key focus for CAIS. “I would say one of the primary areas where we’re taking the events and activating them through all of our different marketing channels is through the video content,” Joanna says. “The plan is to have it put onto the Attendee Hub and then streamline it through our different campaigns for our attendees.” She adds that repurposing this content for attendees gives it an extended shelf life that helps prove the value of events as a marketing channel. “It’s that continual engagement that’s so vital,” she insists. Andrew agrees, noting that recycling content creates a “selling point” for the next Summit. He says, “It’s all built into drip campaigns and hype emails we have going out about the next year’s Summit.” 

Importantly, leveraging the data found in Cvent’s on-demand reporting has helped Joanna and Andrew better prove event ROI to their leadership. “When we’re resourcing and budgeting, we’re really looking at the pre and post-event impact,” says Joanna. “And what we’ve seen is that it’s proving events are really a strong ROI for the firm.” She adds that the value they’ve seen from hosted events in particular is helping to shape their future strategy. She says, “Moving forward, we’re trying to make sure we have the right balance of hosted events versus events we’re participating in.” 

Andrew adds that another goal in the near future is to simply lean more fully into the tools at their disposal. “What’s next for CAIS, especially when it comes to events with Cvent, is just leaning more into the technology,” he says. “I think there’s so much more we could be doing to lean into everything Cvent has to offer, and we’re finding new opportunities every day as we work with Cvent to uncover all the things we can do.” This mindset has truly created a powerful environment where events can thrive at CAIS in the near future and beyond.

PRODUCTS USED

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) is a healthcare association that supports 34 independent BCBS Plans across the country. BCBSA works towards four key initiatives: integrated affordable healthcare, promoting healthier lives for members and communities, ensuring a convenient and seamless experience for customers and providers, and achieving market leadership in Medicare Advantage.

BCBSA has relied on Cvent as their primary event technology partner for several years, leveraging a number of solutions to support over 200 annual events. These include Registration, OnArrival 360, Event in a Box, Attendee Hub, the Event App, Abstract Management, the Speaker Resource Center, and more. 

While their largest conference, the National Summit, was typically held on an annual basis, BCBSA made the strategic decision to cancel their 2023 conference to better align with changing business goals. “We had new leadership and a new vision as to where we were going as an association,” notes Kara. “So we wanted to take a step back and make sure our events were truly supporting the goals of the association.” The team dove into qualitative and quantitative research to assess the needs of each plan, distributing surveys and completing dozens of interviews. They realized without the Summit, there were strategic gaps in content that would impact each plan. “That’s where we came up with the idea for the webinar series,” Kara says.

APPROACH

Enabling plan members through BCBSA webinars, powered by Cvent

The newly formed webinar series would serve three key purposes: to offer timely and relevant content, to keep the association top of mind, and to remain the primary source of content for any employees at the plans. “It was important to ensure we were really satisfying the needs of the plans, and our unique value proposition is that they can network and learn from others while also hearing from leaders in the industry,” Kara notes. 

To produce high-quality webinars, Kara’s team turned to Cvent Studio. This advanced video production solution helped easily capture and produce broadcast-quality video content for the webinar series. “Studio allowed us to have a really polished look, from using lower thirds to putting our branding into the webinar so you can see it’s part of the series, regardless of which webinar you’re viewing,” Kara says. 

They initially planned two webinars per month, not knowing how large their audience base would necessarily be. “Through Attendee Hub, we didn’t have to worry about having a cap on the audience, so that was a great benefit,” says Kara. While the initial feedback was positive, Kara’s team did not anticipate the overwhelming registration numbers they saw. “We only anticipated about 100 attendees per webinar, but our first webinar had over 4,000 registrants and over 2,500 live attendees,” Kara says excitedly. This is an increase of 2,400% over their initial projected attendance. She insists, “It is clear from these numbers that our plan employees appreciate the educational offerings we’re providing.” 

Driving efficiencies across BCBSA’s entire events program

Kara’s team continues to find ways to drive efficiencies across not only the webinar series, but their entire events program. “We’re always trying to look for ways to automate as much as we can,” she explains. “Even within the webinar series, we’ve been looking for ways to shorten the timeline from working with speakers to developing content.” For this reason, they’re now leaning into Cvent’s Abstract Management tool and Speaker Resource Center. Abstract Management serves as a central portal for all speaking abstract submissions, consolidating the process to save time and allowing event managers to easily track, review, and score submissions.  With an annual call for proposals, BCBSA can easily automate invitation, confirmation, and reminder emails to reduce workloads on their team.

The Speaker Resource Center also allows Kara’s team to easily coordinate speaker activities within a single portal. “Speakers are then able to upload all of their information directly into the Speaker Resource Center and everything will be in one place, which is going to save us a lot of administrative work,” Kara notes. Speakers can complete tasks and self-edit their profile, receiving automated reminder emails that take the workload off the BCBSA team. In addition to time savings, these solutions integrate with the rest of the Cvent platform, ensuring BCBSA maintains full visibility into all content and reporting.

Working smarter with event tech for in-person events

While the success of the webinar series is clear, Kara’s team has continued to execute in-person events in order to serve the needs of different plans. For these events, they continue to use Cvent as their central event technology platform. Kara explains that they do not have a central CMS and therefore rely on the event data Cvent provides as their source of truth. “This year we have worked to streamline our tech stack, eliminate transferring data and relying on integrations,” she adds. “We are trying to work smarter, and Cvent is allowing us to do that.”

This was not the only technology Kara’s team leveraged to help maximize efficiencies. She explains, “We realized it would save the events team a lot of time to use Cvent’s Abstract Management, Speaker Resource Center, and Attendee Hub since it all flows seamlessly from one to another.” Kara adds they also planned to use the Event App onsite along with session scanning to ensure attendees received CE credits. They adopted a similar approach for other smaller events, such as the Tax, Treasury and Finance audiences who also have CE requirements. “Because we produce such a wide variety of events at BCBSA, the Cvent services run the gamut and allow us to transform the work we do,” Kara insists.

LOOKING FORWARD

In the near future, Kara is excited to continue to grow the webinar series and create more personalized experiences for their audiences through differentiated content, particularly for repeat registrants. “It’s been really successful so far, and it’s been impressive that our numbers have been so much higher than we anticipated,” Kara says. “We’re looking for ways we can really diversify the type of content we’re offering, such as having sessions that are led by sponsors.”

Thanks to their investment in event technology, Kara’s team is excited about the possibilities on the horizon as they implement new offerings for their plan audiences. She credits their partnership with Cvent as a key part of helping to facilitate this journey. “With Cvent, there is always a creative solution to every problem,” she says. “We’re able to transform how we work with both internal and external stakeholders, and most importantly, we’re creating event experiences that will further our brand and leave a lasting impression on our members.”

PRODUCTS USED

The Global SOF Foundation is a professional organization for the international special operations community. It connects government, industry, academia, and nonprofit partners to discuss critical issues, foster networking, and collaborate on innovative solutions. Chelsea Hamashin, Vice President of Marketing and Events, has been a driving force behind the foundation’s rapidly expanding events program. “We help and support the international special operations community in bringing them together to talk about common issues, network with one another, and create solutions for the current war fighter,” Chelsea explains. 

This includes their annual conference, Global SOF Week. Chelsea shares, “It’s the only event of its kind that brings together commands from over 70 nations to the same venue along with industry, academic, and nonprofit partners.” The week-long event includes a broad mix of programming such as general sessions, breakouts, keynotes, and opportunities for nonprofits to support issues affecting the SOF community. It also includes transition programming for members leaving military service and a large outdoor capabilities demonstration from USSOCOM. 

GOALS

Ensuring the security of attendees was crucial due to the sensitive nature of the included technologies and participant’s backgrounds. The Global SOF Foundation needed robust measures to protect information and ensure safety, given the high-profile nature of the event. Managing the registration and credentialing of over 20,000 attendees securely and efficiently was a significant logistical challenge. The foundation required a system that could handle large volumes of registrations seamlessly while ensuring accurate credentialing to maintain participant flow and uphold stringent security protocols.

Chelsea also needed detailed insights into attendee behavior to better understand preferences, optimize programming, and enhance the overall event experience. This required the strategic expansion of their tech stack. She explains, “We are trying to grow our software suite as smartly as possible to make sure we’re not wasting time on add-ons and instead, grabbing the tool that’s going to give us the most bang for our buck – and that was Cvent.” 

APPROACH

Enhancing registration security and efficiency with Cvent Registration

Adopting Cvent’s comprehensive Registration platform means the Global SOF Foundation can now create customizable and repeatable registration processes, providing a consistent attendee experience and efficient data management on the backend. Having a single source of truth has been a clear benefit. “Replicating processes in multiple systems is a huge challenge, so having everything contained in one system that’s really integrated with itself and talks to itself is incredible,” Chelsea says. 

Cvent Registration offers Chelsea’s team a flexible means for managing complex registrations, including differentiating registration paths and attendee types for more personalized experiences. They’re able to help drive key metrics by tracking registrations using code snippets and reference IDs to know where registrants are coming from and which marketing tactics are most successful. Attendees can also easily modify or cancel their registration, saving the team valuable time. 

The security Cvent offers is paramount to ensuring a successful Global SOF Week. “We have very specific requirements for our registration due to the level of security required for our attendees,” Chelsea says. Cvent was able to work closely with her team to ensure even the most stringent security requirements were met. “Cvent really did everything possible to customize the experience and keep all those security requirements in mind, so it was a smooth process for our attendees,” she shares. “With Cvent, you’re not just getting an out of the box solution that can only do one thing.”

In fact, Cvent maintains high standards of data security, adhering to and surpassing PCI DSS compliance standards. Built on a robust Information Security Management System and underscored by an ISO 27001 certification, Cvent offers a comprehensive security strategy with strict network and data controls to protect payment data. The information security program is formalized, documented, and supported by a range of administrative, technical, and physical security safeguards. Additionally, Cvent maintains several certifications to ensure a strong security posture and compliance across all solutions and data centers, adhering to industry best practices for security.

Chelsea also credits Cvent for improving their ability to capture accurate data while maintaining a single source of truth across different solutions. She says, “Having an integrated system like Cvent that has Registration, OnArrival, Attendee Hub, and so on is really helpful for us because all of that data is kept in one location.” This means no manual syncs between systems, saving time and ensuring accuracy. “If I do one update in one location, it’s updated everywhere else and I don’t have to change things in lots of different locations” she adds. “The fact that everything updates in real time is obviously really helpful.”

Chelsea’s team can also use specific features to create a more personalized experience in Attendee Hub. With audience segmentation, they can send targeted notifications to drive session attendance based on specific criteria like title or industry. Custom cards and session recommendations help curate a tailored agenda, and the team can send targeted communications to specific groups via push notifications. “The customization Attendee Hub offers is helpful in that we’re able to highlight the things that are important to us – no one is having to search for information,” Chelsea says. 

Importantly, attendees can watch live streamed or on-demand sessions directly within the Attendee Hub. “We don’t always have room in all of our theaters so we worked to ensure everyone knew they could watch sessions right on the app,” Chelsea shares. She adds that given government restrictions against phone use in certain locations, “it was really helpful to offer the web version for those government and military participants so they can stay up to date on everything that’s happening in real time.”

Using automated solutions like Attendee Hub saves Chelsea’s team valuable time. As an example, she notes how syncing recorded content to the on-demand library eliminated several days of work. “I saved at least 20 hours of time because the live streaming occurred within the Attendee Hub and then automatically went into the on-demand video library,” she explains. “The previous year, I had to get the hard drive, download every video, upload to a separate platform library, and put it on a password protected secure website for our attendees.” 

Global SOF Foundation relies on OnArrival 360 to provide attendees an effortless check-in and badging experience, whether at the registration desk or at standalone mobile kiosks. Attendees can check in via a QR code or quick name search and receive their badges immediately. This eliminates lengthy queues and reduces wasted badge stock due to misprints or reprints - not to mention hours often spent pre-printing and stuffing badges. “We had lots of people make use of the onsite badge printing, which were located in different strategic locations around the SOF Week campus so it was a smooth process,” Chelsea adds. OnArrival 360 also offers additional capabilities like signature collection, check-in planner alerts, and more. Chelsea’s team can receive support from onsite technical experts with access to additional badge supplies and hardware.  

They’re also able to track attendance and monitor session capacity through session scanning. Real-time data in the OnArrival app ensures stakeholders always know where attendees are spending their time. “It’s really helpful from an event planning standpoint because we know where to put our energy for future events,” Chelsea shares. “We see where we can allocate more or less staff, where we can amplify the programming, and so on based on the data we get through OnArrival and session scanning.”

RESULTS & LOOKING FORWARD

Creating a foundation of growth for the future 

Together, these solutions have helped support the rapid growth of Global SOF Week. The most recent event saw over 22,000 registrations, up from 15,000 the year before – resulting in an impressive 47% increase. They also saw a 25% increase in exhibitors, from 600 to more than 750.  As they continue to grow, Chelsea notes she deeply appreciates the tailored approach Cvent provides for the Global SOF Foundation. “Cvent offers a lot of options for flexibility and opportunity that other software doesn’t really provide,” she says. “Whether we’re working with professional services to meet our specific requirements or seeing what the end-to-end project management team can help us achieve while ensuring the integrity of our data, you really feel their dedication to the project.” 

Neuberger Berman is an investment management firm founded in 1939 with a focus on delivering strong investment results for clients. They prioritize deep fundamental research, investment insight, and continuous innovation to serve their clients. Rose Pasqua Strickland, Vice President - Event Manager, and Donna Gambale, Vice President - Event Manager, work closely with a small team to differentiate Neuberger Berman within the marketplace through over 360 annual events, ranging from small dinners to large, multi-day conferences. 

BACKGROUND & GOALS

Revolutionizing Event Management at Neuberger Berman 

Both Donna and Rose have helped shape Neuberger Berman’s expansive event portfolio over several years. “I’ve been at the firm for over 27 years,” offers Donna. “When we started, everything was manual, from taking RSVPs manually to managing everything in an Excel sheet.” As the volume of events increased, they recognized the need for automation and began exploring internal solutions, but found them to be time-consuming and complicated to use. Moreover, they realized the need to better track event ROI and streamline reporting for stakeholders. “Folks wanted data faster, so we began our search for an event tool that could do everything we needed,” Rose says.

At the time, they lacked a formal database to assign, track, and report on their global event portfolio. Inconsistent processes due to a lack of a formal request form resulted in delays for event approvals and execution, as well as issues managing event budgets. There was no central event calendar or centralized reporting structure to accurately capture the scope and impact of their events program. In addition, lead generation was not optimized due to disparate reporting methods. “All of these pain points were manual processes that took away valuable time from our team when planning events,” notes Donna. “Being a team of three, time management and efficiency is critical to our success.”

APPROACH

Fostering Expertise in Cvent Event Technology 

As Rose and Donna’s small team deepened their experience with event technology, their proficiency grew. “As we became more proficient in using Cvent, we were able to turn around registration pages, websites, email invitations, and so on really quick,” Donna says. Rose agrees, noting that they now consider themselves Cvent “super users.” They can now easily self-manage the tool, creating additional efficiencies for their busy team. Donna adds, “It’s a really easy tool if you’re in it every day, and your skillset just grows and grows as you use it.”

Once they felt comfortable with the established capabilities of the Event Management platform, Rose and Donna began looking at expanding their solution set. “Cvent was easy to use and it provided the resources that we needed at the time, but we also saw there was room for growth,” explains Rose. “As our events grew, we started to see we needed more of the platform.” After attending the Cvent CONNECT industry conference in 2018, Neuberger Berman realized the full potential of the integrated Cvent platform. This experience sparked a renewed sense of excitement as they sought to adopt new technologies, soon after introducing OnArrival, the Mobile Event App, and other solutions to their internal clients.

Additionally, at the Museum of Modern Art event in 2023, OnArrival facilitated the smooth check-in of 650 attendees in 15 minutes. Being able to print badges on-demand provided further efficiencies for the internal team while avoiding needless waste. At a Private Equity Annual Meeting, they were able to manipulate seat assignments in real time while printing badges onsite, which was imperative for VIP tables. The flexibility of the OnArrival solution ensures the effectiveness of streamlining event check-in processes.

As Neuberger Berman integrated additional solutions into their product suite, they were able to centralize their data within a single source of truth and eliminate the need for multiple technology solutions. For example, adopting Cvent’s Survey solutions allowed Neuberger Berman to integrate survey feedback directly into their event management process without needing to sync data between multiple platforms. “We were previously using SurveyMonkey, and that created a problem with two systems that didn't connect,” explains Rose. “We were having to export an Excel spreadsheet and manually send it to stakeholders in another platform, and now we can just do it all right in Cvent.”

Centralizing and Scaling Event Program Success through Strategic Meetings Management

By the end of 2019, the team of three was managing 200 events and faced challenges in providing robust reporting to senior management. This included annual event spend by business unit, event count by business unit, estimate versus actual spend for all events, and compliance attendee reporting. They were also struggling with event assignment and scheduling as their program expanded globally. Rose notes, “At first we were just using the Cvent platform for our team, but this need for faster automation and having everything in one place necessitated a broader solution.”

Delivering Data-Driven Business Decisions

To streamline lead generation for their sales and marketing teams, Rose and Donna also incorporated the Salesforce integration. This creates a seamless dataflow across their event lifecycle, allowing them to automatically sync contact lists and updates and eliminate the need for manual labor as well as the capacity for human error. Through these integrations, they are able to track marketing engagement and overall campaign performance. They can automatically sync contact updates and activities as well as automate task and opportunity creation within Salesforce.

Donna adds that arming their teams with this data has ensured that “Cvent has a name for itself at our firm.” She explains that the team has become the go-to resource for all things meetings and events. “We have an initiative called ‘Actionable Insights,’ which is collecting data on client engagement,” she explains. For each event, they require a form to be filled out within the Meetings Management tool that allocates which product the event is connected to. She notes, “This allows us to better gauge the interest of our clients around certain products, which  results in real leads and real interest.”

RESULTS

Growing Neuberger Berman’s Global Event Program 

Since implementing Cvent in 2012, Neuberger Berman has experienced significant improvements in their processes and procedures. They credit their partnership with Cvent as a key resource in that success. “Cvent support has been a critical resource for our team and we would never be able to implement these processes internally as it would take too many manpower hours, time, and money away from our firm’s day-to-day business,” notes Donna.

LOOKING FORWARD

Both Donna and Rose believe having event professionals included as strategic partners within the business is vital to the success of the larger enterprise. “Event planners finally have a voice at the table” insists Rose. The  influence of meetings and events on overall business success is clear. For example, she says, “One business in particular is now using cross-event reports as part of their compensation, so advisors have to meet certain thresholds of client participants and that goes into their compensation numbers.” 

As Rose and Donna continue to scale their global events program, they credit event technology as an important component of their team’s success. “The only way we’re able to do the number of events that we have is because of the automation, and it really shows you the power of the Cvent platform” insists Rose. She adds that the use of this technology in powering their events program clearly impacts the business on a strategic level, saying, “It’s because we’re able to provide these data points and show ROI that we’re able to show how important our events are to business success.”

PRODUCTS USED