marketing qualified leads
new-to-database leads
of dollars in opportunities generated
Merkle is a global data-driven, technology-enabled performance marketing agency. For over thirty years, Fortune 1,000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to build and maximize the value of their customer portfolios. Merkle’s Global Events program is a key driver for lead generation and opportunities within the organization’s larger marketing strategy.
For their expanding global events program, the team needed a technology solution that would assist in scaling their program success. “Merkle’s events program is robust,” notes Jaclyn Sass, Director of Global Events and Marketing. “We participate in or host about 135 online and offline events annually, and it is also the largest lead-generator and opportunity-generator for Merkle.” The team knew integrating event technology into Merkle’s larger marketing tech stack would increase efficiencies, create automation streams, and develop greater sales-to-marketing alignment.
Bridging Data Gaps
Prior to integrating event technology into their MarTech stack, Merkle relied on inefficient manual processes. “Before partnering with Cvent as our event marketing and management tool, we primarily managed our events program offline using Excel, email, and spreadsheets. It was a pretty low-tech world for us,” notes Jaclyn. The Merkle team sought to automate its processes including email marketing, as well as optimize the onsite experience for greater attendee engagement. They also wanted to upgrade their outdated event management process to create data-driven insights for the organization. “There was really no integration between marketing and sales when it came to data flow as far as new leads were concerned or opportunities that were created,” adds Jaclyn. “There was no way for us to show any data behind the value that our events drove for Merkle.”
The team was also tasked with managing Merkle’s growing suite of international events, mirroring the success of the US program. “As our program and organization grew, we were asked to be a center of excellence for the organization,” explains Zoe Fernandez, Director of Global Events and Marketing. “We now have a footprint in APAC and EMEA so we’ve been asked to create consistency throughout the organization. That includes event processes, event data flow, management, campaigns, messaging where appropriate, and best practices.”
"Being able to have that Cvent integration, that data flow, and being able to track those leads that are entering the database is important so they can use that technology to track from start to finish.”
Zoe Fernandez, Director of Global Events and Marketing
Creating a Seamless Dataflow with MarTech
Events play a critical role in pipeline acceleration at Merkle. Jaclyn explains, “As an organization, we have identified a handful of KPI’s or metrics that we are measured against annually. Those include new to database, marketing qualified, sales qualified, and opportunities - number of opportunities, or value or dollars.” Zoe notes that these KPI’s are mirrored in their international regions as well.
Zoe believes that digital transformation is the key to their success, particularly as event marketers. Personalizing the attendee journey yields more valuable data points that provide important insights for the Sales and Marketing teams. “Digital transformation for us in the event marketing arena is important because we're able to customize how we communicate with our attendees or potential attendees,” she explains. “We can develop customized experiences for them, and we’re representing our brand in a meaningful way.” Cvent’s Event Management and Marketing solution allowed the team to create unique experiences for sponsors, partners, and clients. It also automated the flow of data between their registration tool, CRM, and marketing automation tool. OnArrival allowed the team to create key efficiencies with the onsite check-in experience and tracking attendee data. Using CrowdCompass has provided the team with communication tools for a seamless attendee experience. They are able to use push notifications to handle last-minute changes and updates. They have also been able to eliminate the need for a paper agenda and benefit from organic social marketing through the activity feed throughout the event lifecycle.
Leveraging Automation for Greater Sales-to-Marketing Alignment
In partnership with their Cvent account team, Merkle enabled key marketing automation and CRM integrations to create better sales-to-marketing alignment. Having the data flow seamlessly between systems allows the Merkle team to be much more efficient with their marketing efforts. A Salesforce integration allows the team to segment by key data points like industry, title, or engagement. “Once they are identified in Salesforce, they are sent an email from Pardot, which is our marketing automation tool,” explains Jaclyn. “They are driven to Cvent to register from our Pardot email, and then automatically added as a campaign member in Salesforce.” These automated data points then enable the Sales team to meaningfully communicate with their clients. Real-time reporting is readily available for the sales and client teams through Cvent. Understanding the value of these integrations is a key aspect of Merkle’s marketing success. “The Salesforce integration allows us to quickly segment and communicate to our registrants and attendees by leveraging connections with our email automation tools to customize the event communication experience for our guests,” notes Jaclyn.
Once onsite, the data carries through to Cvent’s onsite engagement tools. “They’ll check in through OnArrival, which automatically updates Cvent that they’re onsite. This automatically updates Salesforce that they have been at the event,” says Jaclyn. Enabling their sales team with qualified leads is then a seamless process. “When an industry trade show wraps, we will take the list of leads that we get from the lead scanner onsite,” notes Jaclyn. After loading those leads into Salesforce, “we’ll assign a sales lead in Salesforce and track the progress of any resulting opportunities,” Jaclyn adds.
Optimizing Data for Greater Global Sales Opportunities
Post-event data analysis allows the team to better support lead generation for their sales and marketing teams. “We’ll look at how attendees interacted with us onsite and then communicate with them post-event in a meaningful way using this data,” explains Jaclyn. Customizable reports provide detailed customer journey information regarding how contacts engage with the brand.
The team uses the barometer of success from the US events to galvanize their international program. Zoe notes the APAC and EMEA regions have also leveraged Cvent for a selection of events to replicate the successful data flow and tie metrics back to their KPI’s. “Being able to have that Cvent integration, that data flow, and to be able to look at where leads are coming from are key,” notes Zoe. “Being able to track those that are entering the database -- whether it's the new-to-database, marketing-qualified, or sales-qualified leads -- is important so they can use that technology to track from start to finish.”
"By implementing Cvent products as part of a wider event strategy, the marketing team was able to successfully scale Merkle’s event program to become a global multi-million-dollar opportunity generator."
Jaclyn Sass, Director of Global Events and Marketing
World-Class Event Marketing Success
Zoe and Jaclyn have transitioned their MarTech use to optimize sales opportunities and lead generation within the pipeline. In 2018 alone, their global events program generated over 9,000 new-to-database leads, 6,000 marketing qualified leads, and over 300 sales qualified leads. “We know through our closed-loop reporting and by tracking KPI’s that our events generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the organization in opportunities,” notes Jaclyn. “This shows us that our events are the largest opportunity and lead generator for the organization.”
Jaclyn and Zoe have seen how the organization has grown in understanding the intrinsic value of events over the last several years. “I have been with Merkle for over eleven years, so I have seen the change in the organization and how the larger company sees our marketing team,” says Jaclyn. She notes that their CEO has always been an avid supporter of the function of events within the marketing mix, intrinsically understanding the value they bring. “It has been valuable to get a lot of other stakeholders behind us in showing the metrics and proving the value of events,” she adds.
In the near future, the team will continue to expand their international suite of events. They wish to continue refining their processes while simultaneously expanding their global footprint within the organization. Jaclyn and Zoe view the integration of Cvent technology within their MarTech stack as a key contributor to their success. “By implementing Cvent products as part of a wider event strategy, the marketing team was able to successfully scale Merkle’s event program to become a global multi-million-dollar opportunity generator,” Jaclyn notes. She foresees an expanded network of integrated marketing touchpoints across their suite of global events, allowing the team to be ever-more involved in their event marketing efforts across the entire network.
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Merkle is a global data-driven, technology-enabled performance marketing agency. For over thirty years, Fortune 1,000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to build and maximize the value of their customer portfolios.
more new and existing deals influenced vs. previous in-person event
total influenced TCV across 682 influenced opportunities
increase in attendance for virtual event
When Fidelity Information Services (FIS) found their events program affected by the start of the global health crisis in March, they knew it would directly impact their sales pipeline. With up to five major hosted conferences each year, as well industry trade shows and internal events like sales kickoffs, the events team needed to find a creative solution to keep the sales funnel active. Cynda Covert, Events & Trade Show Advisor Senior, saw virtual events as the best path forward.
Understanding the Value of Virtual Events
“At the end of March, we were supposed to have our first client conference, but obviously we couldn’t really host in-person events at that time,” explains Cynda. The Financial Services organization wanted to move their planned event to August with the hopes of an in-person experience, but the worsening crisis made it impossible. In April, they made the decision to move forward with a fully virtual InFocus event in June. They also decided to move a second client conference, Connect, to a virtual event in June. The key to the success of both these events was in convincing stakeholders of the value of the planned virtual experience to engage customers and prospects. “We took the time to really show our stakeholders the importance of keeping events moving as virtual events, which I really appreciate,” Cynda notes. With only eight weeks to convert their in-person event to a virtual experience, Cynda knew she needed the right technology in place.
In looking at the needs of her prospective attendees, Cynda saw several key factors that could affect the virtual experience for the large base of banking clients. “We provide them the software and technology they need to move money quickly, safely, and globally,” explains Cynda. "They come to our events to see new innovations, learn how to use our technologies, talk with their peers, and discover what’s happening in the industry.” Realizing that the audience would be working from home with potential distractions, they decided to retool the planned content for a virtual viewing experience. They shortened each day to a half-day and offered on-demand content throughout the event. They also extended the availability of their virtual event to remain open for two weeks after the live event, thereby ensuring additional attendees for their sales leads.
"We took the time to really show our stakeholders the importance of keeping events moving as virtual events."
Cynda Covert, Events & Trade Show Advisor Senior
Building on In-Person Event Success
The easiest part of the process, says Cynda, was trusting the Cvent solutions already in place. FIS had seen great success using Cvent for their in-person events. For example, their 2019 InFocus Conference saw measurable improvements from 2018 in proving ROI, mapping the attendee journey onsite, and using data to show attendee insights. For this and other internal conferences, they leveraged a host of Cvent solutions including Event Management, CrowdCompass, Onsite Solutions, Abstract Management, and Passkey to automate processes. For the InFocus conference specifically, the events team added session tracking to their conference in order to provide real-time data for sales teams, and modernized the mobile experience with the CrowdCompass event app. The two-way integration with Cvent registration allowed them to track engagement points and attendance data across the conference. Coupled with the quick and painless check-in and badge printing process through OnArrival, the tools gave attendees the high-tech experience they craved. On the backend, the Marketo integration gave them valuable insights into their marketing campaign performance, moving contacts further down the funnel for their sales teams. As a result, they increased lead volume by 38% over the previous year and influenced $750M in existing TCV, a 300% increase over the previous year. They also saw 68% increase in new deals created and 131% increase in existing deals created, as well as an 89% increase in sponsorship revenue.
Using Cvent to Power Digital Engagement
With such impressive success for their in-person events, Cynda knew their virtual events would need to garner incredible results. Her team relied on best practices from her in-person events in planning the digital experience. “Because all of our events were already hosted in Cvent, it was an easy jump to move the virtual event to Cvent,” Cynda explains. “We used the microsites and were able to whitelist the URLs, which I really like for our brand, and made it easy for people to find us.” She could use weblinks and reference ID’s to target user behavior. She sent targeted invites through Cvent’s eMarketing tool through segmented contact lists. By syncing her campaigns through Marketo, she could track campaign performance in driving registrations.
"Because all of our events were already hosted in Cvent, it was an easy jump to move the virtual event to Cvent."
Cynda Covert, Events & Trade Show Advisor, Senior
To execute a virtual pivot under tight timelines, the FIS team created a new registration site in Cvent with a dedicated virtual pathway. They were able to re-register existing registrants while simultaneously expanding their reach to target a broader base of prospective invitees. They integrated the Cvent Event Management solution with the chosen virtual platform to host over 200 breakout sessions with a mix of pre-recorded and live content. The Solutions Expo Hall was grouped into six different product ecosystems for easy navigability. Attendees could network through video conferencing or chat functionality, and could contact exhibitors through their virtual booths. They also created networking lounges for attendees to enjoy a sense of community amongst their peers and colleagues. “We wanted to make sure we had that sense of community in a new virtual wellness center as well. So we had a space where people could go to relax, do yoga, and we even had cycling videos in there,” Cynda adds.
Innovating the Virtual Experience with the Cvent Attendee Hub®
With the initial success of FIS Emerald, the FIS team knew they needed to expand their offerings for attendees with an even more seamless experience across a single platform. After the launch of the Cvent Attendee Hub in the fall of 2020, Cynda and her colleagues knew they found the right solution to host their virtual Image Solutions conference. "With a streamlined agenda and lots of collaborative time to problem solve, the conference was the perfect candidata3e to enable all of the Cvent virtual platform features," notes Cynda. Her colleague, Keerin Pinch, agrees. As the Global Events Technology Specialist, Keerin is tasked with managing all event technology solutions for FIS. Understanding the security requirements for implementing such technology within the Financial Services industry, Keerin knew the team needed a reliable, secure virtual platform solution from the initial website and registration, throughout the virtual event, and through the end of the on-demand period. With the proven security and data integrity found in Cvent, the FIS team could be assured that all sensitive information was secure.
Within the Attendee Hub, attendees could engage with content which was either hosted as a livestream or collaborative session directly through the Cvent Video Player and Cvent Video Conferencing, respectively. These embedded, one-click experiences ensured attendees stayed within the virtual platform throughout the event. FIS was able to produce both live and pre-recorded content through the virtual platform, working closely with the Cvent Virtual Event 360 professional services team. This dedicated team helped guide the execution of the content through project management, speaker training, webcast support, and final content execution.
FIS was also able to engage attendees through engagement features like live Q&A, wherein moderators could approve questions to ensure compliance with industry standards. Attendees could also upvote their favorite questions to ensure the most relevant questions were top of mind for presenters. As the product continued to evolve and incorporate additional engagement functionality like live polling and chat, Keerin and Cynda are thrilled with the insights they are now able to gain from their attendees. "Now being able to chat one-on-one with an attendee and being able to jump into a virtual meeting with an attendee is ideal as well," says Keerin. "The virtual expo booths allow you to upload videos and brand the page, and it's just a huge help to us as an organization because the sponsor and exhibitor aspect of our conferences is huge."
Scaling Virtual Marketing Strategies for the Future
Across the conferences, Cynda’s team was able to track engagement and session attendance to provide valuable metrics for her stakeholders. “Another aspect that really helped us show event success was the on-demand reporting in Cvent,” Cynda adds. “We knew it was important to show our stakeholders that virtual events were here to stay and they were worth the return on investment.” Cynda’s team had previously estimated roughly 1,000 attendees for their in-person Connect event, and therefore expected the same number for their virtual attendance. “I thought we were going to have to fight pretty hard for each of our 1,000 attendees, and I was expecting no more than that in the virtual environment,” she says. Incredibly, the virtual conference garnered three times as many registrations as expected. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d get more than 1,000 clients to attend. We ended with over 3,000 attendees, so we tripled our expected attendance for the virtual event,” Cynda says. With over 45 different countries represented across attendees, the global event was a resounding success for FIS.
“We ended with over 3,000 attendees, so we tripled our expected attendance for the virtual event."
Cynda Covert, Events & Trade Show Senior
With integrated session and registration data synced between Cvent and the virtual hub, Cynda’s team was able to provide key attendee insights for their sales teams. For the InFocus event, Cynda says the average viewer spent 300 minutes within the hub. “That more than hit any sort of benchmarks I’ve seen,” she insists. For the Connect event, attendees spent an average 136 minutes in the hub and her team tracked 46,000 social impressions. Even more impressive, they tracked another 1,000 attendees who logged in during the on-demand period after the close of the event. “That was pretty fascinating to me that people are either coming back to consume more content or spending their first time with us on their own time,” Cynda observes.
For the Image Solutions Conference, they also saw a significant increase in attendance. In fact, with almost 700 registrants, total attendance had increased by more than 238% since 2019, and was up nearly 33% since the previous year. "It just shows the power of virtual events and it was one of the first virtual events. So everyone wanted to attend, to see what it was like," explains Keerin. They also note the conference saw more than 7,600 views of content, with automated tracking and reporting available directly within Cvent.
Proving Virtual Event ROI
Using this data to drive users further down the funnel for their sales team, the events far outpaced the previous year’s already impressive performance. “When everything was said and done, we had 14% more new deals created in the virtual event in comparison to the in-person event last year,” she explains. “We also influenced 35% more existing deals and had 682 influenced opportunities, or a total TCV of $509 million. We tracked 119 MQLs and 57 SQLs as well." The incredible metrics only further proved the value of the virtual environment and expanded marketing reach for FIS. “Needless to say, our events and sales teams were really thrilled with those numbers and they spoke for themselves,” Cynda adds.
"We had 14% more new deals created in the virtual event in comparison to the in-person event last year. We also influenced 35% more existing deals and had 682 influenced opportunities, or a total TCV of $509 million. We tracked 119 MQLs and 57 SQLs as well."
Cynda Covert, Events & Trade Show Advisor Senior
What would Cynda advise others to do in shifting their event marketing strategy to virtual? “You’re never going to over communicate with your attendees,” she insists. “Create easy pathways to access the virtual content and find those ways you can help your attendees engage, which will help you in the long run as well.” She also stresses the importance of fostering community within the virtual environment, particularly for relationship-building. She says creating those shared experiences amongst attendees is key to engaging them across the event lifecycle to drive pipeline and keep leads active for your sales team.
Cynda and Keerin foresee a bright future of hybrid events in 2021, with the opportunity to tailor two exclusive experiences for in-person and virtual attendees. “It’s going to be important to treat those attendees at two different groups, so we can really focus on what those regional communities want to see in-person,” she explains. For virtual attendees, she looks forward to expanding her marketing reach to create valuable connections across the globe. As they look forward to the future of hybrid experiences, they plan to host their next conference using the Cvent Attendee Hub for the virtual aspect of the event. As the dedicated technologist, Keerin is excited by the prospect of learning all he can for the hybrid experience. "My advice be to learn as much as you can, as fast as you can, because if you're the technologist, people are going to be looking at you as the expert in the organization," he says. "So the more you know about event technology, the better it's going to be for you to help your company through whatever may be going on. So my best advice is learn, learn, learn, and don't stop learning."
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FIS™ is the world's largest global provider dedicated to financial technology solutions. The FIS events program consists of both internal, employee conferences and external, client facing conferences.
DOCEBO
How Docebo is inspiring the industry with impressive event growth
attendance growth YoY
increase in sponsorship sales
ticket sale revenue growth
Docebo is dedicated to enhancing enterprise learning by providing scalable, hyper-personalized educational experiences that have a tangible business impact. Established in 2005, the global organization now has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Dubai, and Italy. Docebo leverages a diverse team of over 900 people worldwide dedicated to fostering an inclusive community where learning is accessible to everyone.
The Global Events Team plays a crucial role in crafting events and experiences that are both meaningful and impactful. With a focus on human connection, they deliver in-person and virtual events that engage a wide range of audiences, including customers, partners, internal employees, and the broader learning industry. Docebo manages more than 100 events and webinars annually, including their flagship conference, Inspire. They work to ensure each event aligns with clearly defined KPIs to support brand and revenue goals, underscoring their dedication to impact and accountability.
BACKGROUND & GOALS
Finding event tech inspiration for Docebo Inspire
Docebo’s marquee conference, Inspire, brings together partners, thought leaders, customers, and Docebo experts to drive insights, knowledge-sharing, and skill development. The challenge lies in creating a seamless hybrid experience for hundreds of global attendees by providing the latest tools, thought leadership, and opportunities to grow connections.
Before adopting Cvent, the Docebo team were challenged to execute the multiday hybrid event in a short timeline with a small team. “We were essentially starting at ground zero,” explains Richelle Westhafer, Director of Global Events. “We were starting from scratch, with no playbook, no venue, and no tools.”
The team was tasked with trying to understand the scope of the project with no previous model to build upon. With just five team members and no prior blueprint, they needed to:
- Secure a venue and creative concept quickly.
- Earn executive buy-in for a complete event marketing and management platform.
- Stand up registration, content, sponsorship, and onsite operations on an accelerated timeline.
- Capture accurate, granular data to prove ROI for ticketing, sponsorship, engagement, and attendee outcomes.
Despite these challenges, Richelle notes it did give her team the opportunity to shape Inspire from the ground up. Choosing their event management platform was one of the first crucial steps in this process. “We didn’t have the luxury of time to make any errors, “ Richelle explains. “We needed to choose quickly and choose wisely – the entire event experience was riding on this.”
Inspire includes a welcome reception, Docebo University, over a dozen demo stations, live support, a Docebo Champions Program with VIP lounge, a sponsor expo, awards programs, and a broad mix of session content. In addition, the conference includes evening events, private meetings and dinners, invite-only programming, and a Partner Day. With such a robust offering, Richelle’s team wasn’t content to rest on their laurels. “Despite the challenges and constraints, we still had very ambitious goals to take the Inspire event to new heights,” she says.
They wanted to better engage attendees throughout the event lifecycle, from pre-event marketing to post-event engagement – ensuring the event was so memorable it would become the foundation of a multi-year growth plan. For this, they needed to capture substantive data to provide the business proof of qualitative wins and quantitative ROI. “Ticket sales and sponsorship would be the key drivers of cost recovery on this program, so it was critical we had a tool that was sophisticated enough to manage the entire financial backend without added strain on my team,” Richelle adds.
APPROACH
Partnering with Cvent Professional Services for speed and risk reduction
As they started to search for an event management solution, Richelle notes she had previously used another tool in a different position. This allowed her to determine where the platform fell short while helping her identify non-negotiable requirements. “As soon as I put Cvent through my barrage of questions, I knew it was the path I needed to go down,” she says.
After adopting the platform, her dedicated account and support teams immediately began putting together a detailed plan for Inspire, which would take place in a matter of months. “We were able to work through determining exactly what solutions and support we’d need to make this seemingly impossible timeline happen,” she shares. “I was looking for a company that, especially for the first year, we could use as an extension of our team – and that’s exactly what Cvent became.”
The plan relied heavily on using Cvent professional services for the first year. “We knew to be set up for success, we had to figure out which workstreams we could greatly speed up and reduce risk for by leaning on the Cvent team first,” Richelle explains. “So we purpose built the first year to be really heavy on services.” Docebo engaged Cvent Professional Services to accelerate their first year success. This included partnering with:
- Event Build 360 and End-to-End Project Management for solution fit, timelines, risk management, materials, and issue tracking.
- A dedicated Project Manager for requirements scoping, expert consults, and milestone governance.
- An Event Builder for full configuration, branding, testing, and post-launch review.
- Cvent experts to manage reporting setup, training, and consultation to enable the internal team.
Richelle notes her team always had direct insights into event progress, sharing, “They really acted as part of our team to the point I called it the ‘Bat Phone,’ where there was just always someone there when we needed them.” The end result was exactly what Docebo needed. “We ended up with a beautiful and fully functional website in a matter of a few weeks, and every single day, my team and I worked together with the Cvent team to learn a little more so we could comprehend the full power and capabilities of what we built,” Richelle notes. She adds that customization Cvent provides as a whole has been a tremendous asset. “That flexibility is such that, depending on the event and the team, we could scale up or scale down – but we have all the functionality and support that we could need,” Richelle adds.
Creating personalized attendee experiences with Cvent solutions
Thanks to the dedicated training and support they received during their first year with Cvent, Richelle’s team is now highly proficient in a number of solutions – all of which were used to create a successful conference. Using Cvent’s Registration platform, Docebo ensured attendees had a seamless first touchpoint. They could modify or cancel their own registrations with automated payment processing, taking the workload off Docebo’s small team. Attendees could also view speaker information, FAQs, awards details, sponsor information, and hotel info in one location.
The flexible site allows Docebo to manage multiple registration types for a more personalized experience. “We’re really able to tailor the registrations on the backend so we can have a ton of intelligence that tells us who is registering, tailor discount codes, and things like that,” Richelle says.
Her team can also track registrations using code snippets and reference IDs to know where registrants are coming from and which marketing tactics are most successful. They were able to send invite, registration confirmation, and reminder emails directly from Cvent as a valuable time saver. Richelle says real-time reporting helps her team pivot and adapt their marketing strategy quickly to drive impressive results.
Streamlining speaker and exhibitor management with comprehensive tools
Docebo also uses a number of Cvent solutions to help manage content, speakers, and exhibitors more efficiently across their small team. These include using:
- Abstract Management to centralize submission collection, review, scoring, and communications for their conference and their awards program.
- Speaker Resource Center to empower speakers to self-serve task management and uploading assets, all with automated reminders.
- Exhibitor Management for task completion, documentation uploads, staff registration, and viewing floor plans, as well as on-demand reporting to validate ROI.
Abstract Management allows Docebo's event and marketing managers to centralize submission collection, evaluation, and decision-making in one place, both for their larger conference and their awards program. They’re also able to automate abstract invitation, confirmation, and reminder emails right from Cvent. Richelle loves that Cvent can be used in creative ways, noting, “It’s really allowed us to think a little outside the box because it does take away a lot of really manual work.”
Similarly, the Speaker Resource Center centralizes all speaker activities within a single portal, allowing speakers to self-serve tasks like updating their headshots or biographies. Automated reminders eliminate manual back-and-forth. The Exhibitor Management tool also enables exhibitors to manage tasks, access reports, and oversee requirements within a 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.
Richelle notes being able to streamline content and exhibitor management has been invaluable, providing automated workflows to accelerate her team's timelines. “We’re a small team and we don’t have departments upon departments that can manage these pieces, so having the right tools is absolutely essential,” she says. “I’ve yet to find a situation where I’ve asked, ‘Can we do this?’ and the answer was no – and as collaborative partners, that’s what’s been amazing.”
“I was looking for a company that, especially for the first year, we could use as an extension of our team – and that’s exactly what Cvent became. To say this event was a resounding success would be an understatement. The event exceeded expectations both internally and externally, and has established so much credibility for my team.”
An impressive onsite experience for Inspire’s attendees with Cvent OnArrival
Onsite, Docebo used Cvent’s OnArrival 360 to create a fast and seamless check-in and badging experience. Attendees can check-in via a QR code to receive their badge in seconds – eliminating long queues and frustration. “Check-in was flawless from the first moment onsite, which sets the tone,” Richelle says. Her team can also harness data from attendance tracking through session scanning for real-time updates, which can be shared with internal stakeholders, sales teams, and presenters. Planner alerts ensure they’re always aware of check-in progress, and they can rely on onsite technical support from Cvent experts to ensure a smooth experience from start to finish. Being able to have insights into attendance patterns via the OnArrival app also means Docebo can better tailor their content for the next year’s Inspire.
Inspire: An engaging hybrid event for all attendees
It was imperative that Docebo could fully engage their global hybrid audience across their diverse programming for Inspire. They used the Cvent Attendee Hub as the centralized conference resource, whether attendees joined in-person or virtually. The customizable platform ensured the entire experience reflected consistent theming and branding. “We couldn’t believe how easy it was to take our creative and then really easily see this robust experience where people can choose their tracks, engage with one another, and so on,” says Richelle.
Docebo used Attendee Hub to create a truly engaging experience for all attendees, including:
- A unified virtual and in-person experience with consistent branding and customizable journeys.
- The ability for attendees to self-manage agendas, view sessions and speakers, and access interactive maps.
- Ways for attendees to stay in-the-know with push notifications and recommended sessions.
- Networking opportunities including attendee recommendations, direct messaging, and discussions.
- Interactive elements like live polling, chat, and gamification.
Importantly, Docebo used Attendee Hub as their singular resource for housing all content post-event, with over 40 hours of recorded content made available to paid ticket holders. “Having the on-demand content, especially with it being our first year, really helped establish a benchmark for the years following - showing people the quality of the content, the type of speakers they’ll see, and adding credibility and validity to the event,” Richelle says.
RESULTS
Prioritizing data-driven decisions for future Inspire events
Richelle’s team can also embed event and session-level surveys in Attendee Hub to gauge attendee feedback and insights in real time, with quantitative metrics helping to assess event impact and performance. In addition, they can send post-event surveys out of Cvent, as well as sponsor and speaker surveys to understand each group of stakeholder’s experiences and build on their feedback for the next year’s event. When combined with engagement scoring from Attendee Hub, all of this data gives Docebo valuable insights into attendee sentiments and behaviors for actionable decision-making. “The data is everything, so being able to look at reports really allows us to tailor our strategy for next year,” Richelle adds. “Being empowered to have our own data and run our own reports without relying on other teams is incredible.”
In fact, having a single source of truth for all event and attendee data means Docebo can use Cvent reporting to prove event impact to company stakeholders. This includes everything from event check-in to session data, overall registration trends, survey reporting, and more. Leveraging this data helped prove the clear success of Inspire. “To say this event was a resounding success would be an understatement,” Richelle smiles. “The event exceeded expectations both internally and externally, and has established so much credibility for my team.”
Richelle's team has achieved impressive results through their Cvent partnership, including:
- 68% year-over-year attendance growth, including 33% in-person growth.
- 53% ticket sale revenue growth, a clear monetization lift.
- 4x increase in sponsorship sales, showcasing value delivery and program maturity.
- 40% of total enrollments in Docebo’s Pro Certification Study Resources originated from Inspire, validating targeted content strategy.
LOOKING FORWARD
Setting sights high for the future of Inspire
Richelle is grateful for the close relationship her team now has with Cvent and is excited for the opportunity to become more self-sufficient within the platform. “For that first year, whenever we needed help, someone was always there,” she shares. “That said, we wanted to make sure that in the second year and beyond, we would be able to be more self-sufficient, which is absolutely where we are now.”
In looking towards the future, Richelle is setting even higher targets – including doubling the number of attendees and increasing revenue goals. She says the data, insights, and learnings from Inspire have helped her team better plan for the future. They were able to extend their planning timelines for upcoming events, which has fostered positive relationships with other teams like finance, design, and legal. In addition, they’ve been able to give more enablement time to their sales teams to help drive additional registrations and sponsorships.
She notes the success of Inspire ultimately gave her team the full trust of their leadership, to the point they are expanding the event internationally. “It’s exciting to know that because of everything we established in year one, we can now confidently continue to raise the bar and evolve this program to new heights,” Richelle shares.
GOALS
- Establish program playbook with singular event marketing and management solution
- Stand up registration, content, sponsorship, and onsite operations on an accelerated timeline
- Capture accurate, granular data to prove ROI and seed a multi-year growth plan
- Ensure platform could manage financial backend without adding strain on small team
APPROACH
- Partnered with Cvent Professional Services to compress timelines, reduce risk, and launch Inspire in weeks
- Scaled Cvent to automate tasks, centralize processes, and provide real-time insights into event data
- Streamlined content and exhibitor management with automated workflows and on-demand reporting
- Delivered seamless hybrid experience backed by surveys, engagement scores, and single source of truth
RESULTS
- 68% YoY attendance growth
- 4x increase in sponsorship sales
- 53% growth in ticket sale revenue
PRODUCTS USED
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Read case studyALKAMI TECHNOLOGY
Bringing event collaboration and marketing innovation together at Alkami Co:lab
growth in registrations YoY
attendance over four years
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.
BACKGROUND & GOALS
Standing out in a crowded industry at Alkami Co:lab
The financial services industry hosts hundreds of events and trade shows throughout the year, making it difficult to stand out. That’s why Alkami’s marketing and events team strives to ensure Alkami Co:lab is uniquely different, blending the best of SaaS and fintech events to create something entirely new. “We want to ensure all attendees - from customers to prospects and speakers to exhibitors – all have an impressive event experience, from the very beginning of their journey with the event website all the way through the in-person experience,” says Nancy Leazer, Senior Events Manager.
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.”
With Cvent Registration, Nancy’s team offers a seamless first touchpoint for attendees to self-manage their registration, book their room and travel, view the Co:lab agenda, and process payments. “We live in a world of technology where attendees expect it to be self-service, and what’s great about everything we use in Cvent is that it’s very self-service,” she says. The fully customizable sites reinforce Alkami’s branding while providing a single source of truth across their events program. Integrated payment processing also simplifies transaction management, meaning the Alkami team doesn’t have to manually oversee adjustments or refunds – saving valuable time.
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.
Attendee Hub offers all attendees a centralized platform to view session details and speaker info, and network via direct messaging, attendee recommendations, and discussions. Onsite, they’re able to manage their personalized agenda in the Event App, and features like live polling, chat, and Q&A keep attendees engaged throughout the event. Alkami’s event and marketing teams are also able to integrate event and session-level surveys to gather valuable feedback from attendees. “We take surveys very seriously and make sure we take that into consideration as we’re planning for the next year in terms of space, food and beverage, activations, and so on,” shares Nancy.
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.
Onsite, Alkami also uses OnArrival 360 for a fast and seamless check-in and badging experience. Attendees can check-in via a QR code or quick iPad search to receive their badge in seconds - eliminating queues and reducing wasted badge stock. They also receive support from an onsite technical expert to ensure everything runs smoothly. Having real-time data helps Alkami better plan each year’s experience. For example, OnArrival tracking proved 75% of their attendees arrive Sunday prior to the start of the conference - giving sales teams opportunities to connect with customers and prospects prior to the event.
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.”
RESULTS & LOOKING FORWARD
Thanks to personalized marketing efforts pre- and post-event, Alkami Co:lab has more than doubled their attendance in just four years. “We’ve grown Co:lab from a 400-person meeting to almost a thousand people in 2025,” Nancy shares. They’ve seen an incredible 20% year over year growth and Co:lab is now one of the top bottom-of-funnel pipeline acceleration events for new logo sales at Alkami. It’s also one of the top lead generation events for add-on sales. Using eMarketing features in Cvent, they were able to recruit multiple new logo prospects to the event for the first time, helping to create momentum to become an effective top-of-funnel marketing channels in the near future. Jennifer says, “This year, I think we really witness it evolving for the first time from a customer conference to an industry conference, and that’s been a very clear goal for some time.”
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.”
GOALS
- Use customizable, fully branded technology to better engage attendees
- Expand reach to attract new prospects and drive opportunities
- Improve data tracking to increase visibility and uncover new opportunities
APPROACH
- Increased engagement through highly personalized experiences
- Scaled conference success with host of Cvent solutions and martech integrations
- Empowered attendees, speakers, and exhibitors with automated, self-serve tech
- Improved data management to better track influence and attribution
RESULTS
- 20% attendance growth YoY
- Co:lab is now top lead generation event for add-on sales
- Co:lab is top bottom-of-funnel pipeline acceleration event
PRODUCTS USED
CAPITAL GROUP
Delivering data-driven event program success across Capital Group
increase in events executed
increase in client engagement through events
decrease in average cost
Capital Group Companies is one of the world’s largest investment organizations with a presence in North America, Asia, and Europe. “We’ve been around for 90 plus years and manage more than $2.5 trillion in assets as of March, 2024," explains Ajith Krishnankutty, Vice President of Experiential Marketing. With close to 9,000 associates across 31 offices globally, meetings and events play a key role in driving client and employee experience for the organization.
BACKGROUND
Aligning events with Capital Group’s strategic goals
In 2018, shortly after joining Capital Group, Ajith began assessing the organization’s existing events program in relation to the larger business strategy. “We needed to think through the transformation of data, technology, talent, process, and experience,” he says. Capital Group's events program, which involved over 300 annual hosted and attended events, lacked a unified approach, with largely undefined processes that were scattered across the organization. Ajith’s team identified opportunities to strategically align events with organizational goals while scaling the program through automated technology, which would in turn provide important efficiencies for the business.
First, Capital Group needed to differentiate its event strategy within a competitive landscape for the Financial Services industry. Ajith recognized the need to leverage technology and provide innovative experiences for their clients in order to set their events apart. While Capital Group had a longstanding relationship with Cvent, they primarily used only the Registration solution. Ajith explains, “We really needed to look at the possibilities of how we could essentially use Cvent as a platform, rather than a tool.”
Ajith began by taking a strategic approach to implementing the right technology to optimize their larger program. He sought to create a unified strategy across the business that would automate processes and provide efficiencies while creating valuable insights through a single source of truth. He therefore relied on Capital Group’s existing relationship with Cvent, noting, “We had seven different Cvent contracts within our organization, and Cvent played a critical role in helping to consolidate and unify our approach.” The consultative method required several months of collaboration, ultimately resulting in a cohesive events program strategy for the larger business. Ajith explains, “Cvent came in with the possibilities and the roadmaps, and the outcome was a bigger contract, a unified approach, and an enterprise technology we started to implement globally.”
GOALS
A critical shift in integrating events into the marketing mix
With a consistent and unified meeting strategy in place, Ajith began assessing the Capital Group’s larger program requirements. “The focus became on looking at our clients’ unmet needs, the structure of the events, and the reason behind the execution of those events,” he says. Moreover, they needed to better understand how to cater to their clients’ industry-specific requirements. “From a financial industry perspective, it’s all about exclusive access, so how do you give that exclusive access to these investment professionals?” he explains. With strict industry regulations in mind, Capital Group needed to carefully design their events program to meet those requirements. “On the hosted side, it’s about being incredibly thoughtful and intentional about the enrichment and client engagement,” Ajith adds. “On the sponsored side, it’s about brand and reputation.”
As a leading asset manager with a 90+ years history, Capital Group recognized the need to adapt its strategies to new market developments, such as entering the ETF space. As a result, their go to market strategies needed to evolve in how they viewed events within the larger marketing mix. They recognized the limitations of traditional tactics like white papers in being able to quickly address market volatility and investor concerns. Events provided a more immediate and impactful platform for engaging with clients and delivering relevant information. By bringing events directly within the marketing function, they could more fully capitalize on these opportunities. “Events are now an integral part of our marketing channel, and we’ve been able to touch more clients and have much more meaningful dialogues as a result,” says Ajith.
They also began looking at how to better classify and organize the events within their program. “As part of the transformation of the events program itself, we started to have conversations around managing capacity versus demand” Ajith offers. The team recognized that while the number of event requests may be unlimited, the capacity to execute them was not. Furthermore, Ajith needed to understand how to not only capitalize on events as a critical marketing channel, but how to integrate events as a key part of the distribution strategy from a financial services perspective.
APPROACH
To address this challenge, the team adopted a data-driven approach. They analyzed average cost, lead time, and capacity metrics across their events to establish a baseline data set, and then overlaid additional criteria like experience, content, and technology needs. This resulted in establishing a three-tiered approach, namely Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 events. Each tier is defined by specific requirements like execution time, capacity allocation, and associated costs. To streamline the event planning process and facilitate decision-making, the team developed their Event Builder technology solution. This tool enables the team to collaborate with clients and create customized event experiences based on their specific needs and preferences. They can easily estimate the time and cost required for each event, allowing for real-time adjustments and modifications.
This flexibility proved invaluable in optimizing event planning and execution. Ajith’s team is now able to streamline the planning process from an average of two or three months to a matter of weeks, resulting in a roughly 75% increase in time savings. This accelerated planning cycle allows the team to be more agile and responsive in meeting business needs. They’re also able to extend calendar planning to a rolling cycle of 18 months rather than nine months, enabling long-term strategic planning and providing a clearer roadmap for future initiatives.
Leveraging Cvent technology to power the event lifecycle
To streamline the event management process, Capital Group leverages almost the entirety of the integrated Cvent platform. Ajith notes, “I think we use almost every feature set of Cvent now, when five years back, we were only using Registration.” He says each piece of technology supports specific requirements across the different event tiers, depending on the event goals and KPIs as well as the overall organizational requirements.
In assessing each new solution, Ajith explains that the process is driven by a desire for tech stack optimization and improved efficiency. He says, “We were looking at where planners spend their time, and it came down to tasks like managing hotel room blocks in Excel and dealing with a lot of manual work.” As a result, they now use a host of solutions designed to automate processes and alleviate pain points, ultimately streamlining the workflows for their event management and marketing teams. “Even simple things like GDS integrations or Passkey can save someone a week’s time,” Ajith insists.
Integrated solutions for travel, venue sourcing, and space design – such as Passkey, the Cvent Supplier Network, and Event Diagramming – ensure Capital Group is able to effectively source and manage space while maximizing their relationships with hotel and venue partners, resulting in quantifiable cost and time savings. For example, the Cvent Supplier Network, a venue sourcing network comprised over 300,000 global venues, automates the RFP process while tracking and optimizing spend. Automated analytics and reporting enable the team to optimize sourcing activity for savings and demonstrate its impact on the business.
Other solutions such as the Attendee Hub and Mobile Event app support audiences regardless of event format. The integrated Registration and Attendee Hub solutions ensure a seamless data flow for event managers, creating a single source of truth for attendee and event data. These solutions also drive attendee engagement while allowing Capital Group to gather valuable insights. With automated data synchronization, event organizers can make informed decisions and deliver personalized experiences for their attendees.
Rich engagement opportunities within Attendee Hub like moderated Q&A, live chat, and polling allow clients to stay connected across the event life cycle. Attendees can also view session and speaker details, stay up to date with push notifications, complete surveys, and participate in networking. On-demand videos mean attendees will continue to engage post-event and, when combined with live session engagement data and feedback surveys, these features give Capital Group invaluable data for more targeted follow-up by sales and marketing teams.
Capital Group is also able to leverage Onsite Solutions like OnArrival to ensure a speedy check-in experience, eliminating lengthy queues and hours spent pre-printing and organizing badges. Session scanning and attendance tracking through RFID or NFC badges not only capture session attendance, but allow event professionals to monitor capacity and track attendance for requirements like continuing education credits. This consistent technology experience provides an ecosystem for Capital Group to leverage the right data and technology across the event lifecycle. Ajith notes, “From a pre, during, and post-event perspective, Capital Group uses almost every piece of Cvent technology.”
Driving ROI through data-driven decision making
Ajith notes that the ongoing adoption of Cvent solutions over the last several years has helped transform how the business views event technology. “There’s a fundamental shift in looking at the technology as a platform versus a tool,” he explains. “And now, we look at it as a platform.” He adds that importantly, it’s not just this Cvent technology that Capital Group utilizes. “We’ve started to integrate Cvent with many other software platforms, like Salesforce,” he says. “From a data perspective, it’s vitally important because now everything is in one place.”
By leveraging these integrations, Capital Group is able to seamlessly manage Cvent in relation to their larger tech stack, unifying their data to get more value out of their investment. Not only does this help centralize operations so they can manage the entire event lifecycle through these integrated tools, but sales and marketing teams can learn about attendee preferences and behaviors to improve audience targeting. From the marketing perspective, this data is then integrated into the system of record to help improve customer engagement and accelerate the sales pipeline. “Data is incredibly important, especially when you're looking at data at multiple folds,” insists Ajith.
He says they look at both operational data - how the portfolio is functioning in terms of factors like event execution and spend - and post-event return on investment. “The question is then, how do we drive a journey in terms of nurturing that lead and getting a qualified lead?” he says. Integrations with platforms like Salesforce and Marketo allow Capital Group to not only holistically view that data, but integrate it into multiple parts of the organization. “Capital Group has always done a phenomenal job in really looking at that data holistically, and Cvent has been great in helping us compile that data to make it much more consumable and actionable,” he says.
RESULTS
This has resulted in much more dynamic conversations with their sales partners and proof points for event ROI within the business. “We’re able to look at the data and assess how events as a channel helped contribute to the sales lift,” says Ajith. Thanks to this cohesive, tiered approach and more deeply integrated data, Capital Group has seen tremendous success across their program. “So the outcome is now we are able to do three times more events and touch 30 times more clients at one-third of the cost,” says Ajith. “That’s a huge achievement.
Embracing innovation through a close Cvent relationship
Cvent has maintained a consultative approach in helping the organization identify opportunities for technology solutions to maximize operational efficiency. “Cvent really played a great role in terms of looking at where we are spending our time and how we can convert that to more efficiency using technology,” says Ajith. Bringing in their IT department to implement the technology as an enterprise solution was critical to the successful adoption of Cvent across the business. “It’s not just about technology, but rather operating smartly,” Ajith says. “I think the ability for Cvent to really show what that North Star looked like was incredibly useful, and I think it really changed the landscape and the way we thought about technology and the business.”
LOOKING FORWARD
In fact, Ajith cites Cvent’s leadership and Capital Group’s account team as vital to the program’s continued success and growth. “It’s not just selling a technology and then showing up next year when it’s time for renewal,” says Ajith. “Cvent has always brought value by not just delivering a platform, but by also delivering on co-creation of a successful program.” Cvent’s Consulting division in particular has provided valuable guidance for continued growth and success. “They brought the consulting focus inside Capital Group, driving multiple sessions from an experiential marketing point of view and giving us a playbook which we are using right now,” says Ajith. “So if you think about it, that’s value beyond our contract and we’re constantly having those dialogues which can help transform the industry and what we are doing.”
In considering the near future, Ajith looks forward to seeing the innovation tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI) will bring. “For me, that’s what is inspiring and I see that as an opportunity,” he says. “Understanding how to use AI to drive data insights and how technology can be used to drive more efficiency is going to continue as the world evolves.” However, he believes it’s important that we maintain a focus on the people at the heart of the industry in the midst of this rapidly changing landscape. “You have to understand your talent base and then really focus on upskilling your talent,” he advises. He sees a bright future for companies that embrace the power of technology while continuing to invest in their employees, like Capital Group and Cvent. He adds, “So I’m very optimistic in the way Cvent continues to evolve, and everyone at Cvent is amazing . I’m excited to see where the industry as a whole will go next.”
GOALS
- Strategically centralize and optimize events program with event tech
- Successfully integrate meetings & events into the larger marketing mix
APPROACH
- Leveraged data to create a three-tiered approach
- Adopted integrated Cvent solutions for automation and efficiency
- Tracked measurable improvements in cost and time savings
- Fostered significant increases in client engagement through events
RESULTS
- 3x increase in number of executed events
- 30x increase in client engagement through events
- Tracked 66% decrease in average cost
The Challenge
In order to drive revenue growth, Illumina’s Sales team depended heavily on the marketing team to deliver an ever-increasing number of events in an expanding number of regions. Furthermore, as Illumina grew, their Customer Success department also leveraged the events team to deliver trainings necessary for customers to successfully utilize the technology to its fullest extent. Needless to say, the events team was central to Illumina’s overall success. “We had grown to over 400 events a year. Our main event registration system consisted of a form submission to our web team that they would send back to me in an excel spreadsheet with first name, last name and email address. We recognized that we were ready for a commercial solution that could scale with us as our program grew” said Kim Scott, Senior Regional Marketing Manager.
“Additionally, we had no viable marketing data on our potential customers that would allow us to have meaningful and continued conversations. Integrations with Marketo and Salesforce were incredibly important to us so that we could deliver accurate lead data while getting sales reps from all the different regions engaged as quickly as possible” said Scott.
The Solution
Illumina ultimately decided to employ several Cvent solutions to improve the event experience, engage attendees, and capture more data and insights for future sales and marketing activities.
- Cvent Event Management was implemented to capture more usable attendee data and streamline the registration process.
- OnArrival is used at Illumina’s flagship event to reduce check-in wait times and the number of on-site staff.
- CrowdCompass mobile event app was used to keep attendees engaged, personalize schedules, conduct live polls, and house a sales document hub.
- An integration between Cvent and Marketo, Illumina’s marketing automation system was developed to pass data to the sales team. By connecting interested persons immediately with sales representatives, Illumina was able to accelerate the sales cycle by holding contextual and timely conversations with potential customers.
“Cvent allowed us to scale up and produce more events efficiently”
Kim Scott, Senior Regional Marketing Manager
The Outcome
Illumina identified events as a core strategy to support its ambitious growth objectives. When they decided to begin investing in event technologies, their annual revenue was valued at $1B. Six years later, and the development of a strategic event marketing program of over 400 events a year, Illumina has over doubled its revenues to $2.2B.
“I really feel like Cvent is the DNA of our events program”
Kim Scott, Senior Regional Marketing Manager
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Illumina is the world’s leading provider of technology for identifying genetic variations. Its technology is primarily used in genetic research varying from agriculture to cancer studies to hereditary sequencing. In fact, 90% of all DNA that has been sequenced has been done so using Illumina technology.
Morningstar
Expanding the boundaries of event technology for unparalleled experiences.
increase in attributed revenue
MQLs from live & online events
increase in total global event profit
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research across the world. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings through their global events and eight international investment conferences.
The events team manages hundreds of annual events, with over 13,000 registrants across eight countries. These events include client trainings, key conferences, and internal executive-level events. They have catapulted the program’s success by pushing the boundaries of event technology and bolstering their global brand.
Building a Powerful Global Tech Stack
The road to becoming an event powerhouse presented unique challenges for Director of Events and Operations Caroline DeCamp. The team was decentralized and the original in-house system could not support the suite of international events. Head of Experiential Marketing Leslie Marshall notes, “The homegrown solutions did not capture all the data and information that we wanted to understand about our clients. It also did not give us the event experience we wanted for our attendees."
To streamline and centralize operations, the Morningstar team turned to Cvent in 2015. In conjunction with Cvent’s Event Management platform, they now leverage Cvent's OnArrival, CrowdCompass, LeadCapture, Appointments, and RFID solutions. “What’s great about the technology that we’re using with Cvent is it really helps us elevate the client experience, help them register more effectively, and get the information that they need through the mobile app. It’s always working behind the scenes,” explains Leslie.
The team leveraged Cvent’s Event Management platform for an automated functionality that streamlined registration and payment processing. They have strengthened event marketing efforts in line with their brand to create a unified event experience, regardless of location or region. “Previously, we were only using Cvent for client-facing events. The seamless experience we have delivered to clients, and how that experience supports our brand, has enabled us to show the value for internal events as well,” adds Leslie.
Crafting an International Reputation of Excellence
The U.S. Morningstar Investment Conference (MIC) in Chicago serves as the brand's flagship event. Because of its success, the team was tasked with expanding their international events. “One of the challenges rolling out this program globally has been understanding the needs of particular events in different countries," explains Caroline. The team increased international technology adoption while enabling regional departments to self-manage for efficiency. “By investing in this technology and making sure our event managers were trained to use the Cvent tool...they’re empowered to really manage their events in their markets and run them really successfully,” adds Leslie.
Event templates now ensure branding is easily carried across events, and on-demand reports measure the effectiveness of their campaigns across international markets. In 2018, the team rolled out OnArrival for the U.K., India, Italy, and Australia conferences. They saw a 500% increase in technology adoption and elevated check-in for over 7,500 attendees. Automating this process not only saved the team more than thirty hours per event, but ensured compliance with GDPR standards and CE accreditor requirements.
“Using Cvent’s reporting system, we can demonstrate to senior management that our conference generates revenue through paid attendance and exhibiting, as tracked through Cvent. It also contributes to the company lead-generation and revenue attribution goals.”
Leslie Marshall, Head of Experiential Marketing
Creating a New Morningstar Mobile Reality
CrowdCompass offers Morningstar the ability to integrate industry-leading technology into their attendee experience. "We really want to elevate that experience and make sure attendees feel that they get a solid return on investment," notes Leslie. In 2018, users spent almost 121,000 collective minutes in the app, resulting in an 8% year-over-year growth globally. They also use the app to attract key sponsors for additional revenue generation. To increase cost savings, going paperless saved $31,000 for the U.S., U.K., and India conferences.
At the 2018 MIC U.S., the team worked with Cvent to create a deep link through CrowdCompass to a companion augmented reality (AR) app. They saw 36% of CrowdCompass mobile app users download the companion AR@MIC app as a result. Through this unique onsite experience, Morningstar saw huge spikes in customer interactions; they tracked 250 sponsor interactions and 1,300 exhibit hall discoveries through the AR@MIC app alone.
Supporting the Sales Cycle with Digital Technology
Morningstar continues to add new tools to their tech stack. With Cvent’s Appointment tool, they gained insight into how client and prospect meetings support the sales cycle. The results were impressive, with 195 private meetings scheduled and 80 training lab appointments created at MIC U.S. in 2018. Ultimately, there was an incredible 247% increase in actualized training lab appointments as a result. “These tangible numbers help us make planning decisions and prioritize our budget. Enabling the sales team to do business with tracking and reporting means greater financial support for our events in the future,” adds Caroline.
“Now we’ve got proof that business is happening at the Morningstar Investment Conference. We know the value of that business, and then we can track where that business is going. It really just helps build our pipeline, and it also helps all the C-Suite. They see the financial impact and the long-lasting relationship impact it has.”
Leslie Marshall, Head of Experiential Marketing
Showcasing Morningstar Event Impact
Understanding the scope and impact of their events is an evolving KPI for the team. While they knew MIC U.S. had always been successful from a revenue standpoint, they were previously unable to track contribution to pipeline. RFID scanning now tracks the attendee journey across their global conferences. The results of these concentrated efforts have proven the value of Morningstar's events in delivering to business goals.
In 2018, the team captured almost 2,000 MQLs from MIC U.S. live and online events. Their US event alone accounted for a 123% increase in attributed revenue. "We're able to tell a great financial story with our event planning, both from a revenue standpoint and in terms of what the event makes," insists Leslie. “Using Cvent’s reporting system, we can demonstrate to senior management that our conference generates revenue through paid attendance and exhibiting, as tracked through Cvent. It also contributes to the company lead-generation and revenue attribution goals."
Proving Measurable Success to the C-Suite
The team has proven not only the value of events, but of event technology within Morningstar’s growing MarTech stack. As a result, both Leslie and Caroline have accelerated their career growth. “My role has expanded globally and we have connections with our global teams through technology and really thinking about our brand experience,” says Leslie. Caroline’s role has expanded into managing the partnership with Cvent as a whole, and she acknowledges the results of their efforts have not gone unnoticed within the organization. “Being able to show those business results has really elevated our team from event planners to business partners. We are working at a higher level with different partners across the organization," explains Caroline.
Not only has Morningstar seen impressive growth in their global events, but data-driven decision making has catapulted events to the forefront of the organization. “Now we’ve got proof that business is happening at the Morningstar Investment Conference. We know the value of that business, and then we can track where that business is going," says Leslie. "It really just helps build our pipeline, and it also helps all the C-Suite. They see the financial impact and the long-lasting relationship impact it has.”
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Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data.
CCPA in a Nutshell
All you need to know about the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
Like GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ushers in stricter data privacy protections, this time for California residents. We’ve created a CCPA library of frequently asked questions (FAQs) to provide the answers you’ve been searching for.
What does CCPA stand for?
CCPA stands for California Consumer Privacy Act
What is CCPA?
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a state statute intended to enhance privacy rights and consumer protection for residents of California.
What does CCPA do?
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) grants California residents new rights regarding their personal information and imposes various data protection duties on for-profit entities conducting business in California.
Who is subject to CCPA?
In a nutshell, for-profit companies doing business in California or with California residents. More specifically, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) applies to for-profit entities that do business in CA and meet one of the following criteria:
- Global revenue is greater than $25M (global revenue; not just CA); or
- Collect PI information of 50K consumers (globally); or
- Derives 50% of revenue from selling data
The law also applies to any entity that controls, is controlled by, or shares common branding with a for-profit business meeting the test above.
Does CCPA apply to nonprofits?
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) does NOT apply to non-profits (unless it controls a for-profit entity)
What does CCPA mean for event industry professionals?
For event industry professionals, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) means changes are needed to ensure compliance, primarily providing your stakeholders with:
- Transparency: Clearly stating what information you collect and how you use and share the information you gather about attendees, sponsors, and exhibitors.
- Consumer rights: Providing stakeholders with the right to delete their information, get access to their information, and opt out of having their information sold.
- Data security: Ensuring due diligence by understanding how sensitive information is being stored and that it’s being reasonably protected.
We’ve heard a lot about GDPR – how is GDPR and CCPA different?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Protections Act (CCPA) are similar, but not the same. Consumer rights, the right to access information, the right to change information, portability, and the right to delete information are all the same. But where GDPR permitted companies to use information whether with your consent or for legitimate business interest, CCPA doesn’t require either. CCPA focuses on transparency - letting consumers know what is going to be done with their information so that they can decide if they want to opt-out.
When does CCPA go into effect?
January 1, 2020
When does CCPA enforcement start?
July 1, 2020
Does Cvent provide CCPA solutions?
We're here to help! While California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) may look like a daunting challenge, you can turn it into an opportunity. By ensuring you have the right event management technology in place to adhere to the new regulations, you can be a standard bearer in your industry for the protection of personal information. Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help drive your CCPA compliance.
Cvent is taking the necessary steps to ensure your event data won’t let you down. To learn more and get helpful resources, please visit our Event Professionals and CCPA page
To see more California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) frequently asked questions, please visit our California Consumer Privacy Act FAQs page.
Cvent
Cvent is a leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider with more than 5,000 employees and 24,000 customers worldwide.