“We organise events all over the world,” explains Jon Eden, Venue Finding Account Manager at AOK Events. “Awards, off-sites, private dinners, conferences - you name it. Our clients expect exceptional quality, and every event needs to reflect their brand and standards.”
The team’s work ranges widely - from curated private dinners to a 200-person cyber security conference in Marrakesh - and their clients often come with precise stylistic preferences. As Jon explains, different firms can have dramatically different tastes, creating an ongoing need for flexible and reliable venue sourcing.
The Challenge: Slow responses, heavy admin, and risk of details falling through the cracks
Before adopting Cvent, AOK’s venue sourcing relied heavily on email - and that came with delays, inconsistencies, and risk.
“The biggest issue was venue response times,” Jon explains. “When you’re sending out dozens of enquiries and waiting for replies, it slows everything down. And we have to respond quickly to clients.”
The challenge wasn’t just speed. With hundreds of emails arriving daily, crucial details could easily get buried.
User friendly for a distributed team
The agency also needed a platform that was intuitive and accessible for their nationwide, partially remote venue sourcing team - something easy to learn, easy to use, and fully supported.
“Cvent is really intuitive,” Jon says. “It’s easy to learn, and there’s a huge amount of support available.”
The combination of ease-of-use and accessible help meant the team could adopt the platform quickly and confidently. Jon also noted that there is a wealth of education available for Cvent users – from support directly from their Account Manager to dedicated training and the online Cvent Community.
Faster responses and higher client-satisfaction
“Venue response times have massively dropped since we adopted Cvent,” Jon says. “We’re getting responses much faster from venues, which reduces our response time to clients”.
After implementing Cvent, AOK saw immediate improvements in response speed. Venues replied more quickly through the platform than through traditional email outreach, enabling the team to deliver proposals to clients faster and increase the likelihood of securing bookings.
Beyond speed, the team benefitted from dramatically reduced administrative burden. All event details and communications became centralised and easy to track. As a result, client communications became smoother, turnaround times improved, and the team gained more headspace for strategic work.
You've got a huge bank of knowledge at your fingertips and it's really helpful. It's all in one place. Most hotels’ websites don't have all of that information consolidated in such an easy-to-understand way
Looking forward with Cvent
The AOK team have streamlined their venue sourcing process and gained faster, more reliable access to detailed venue information.
Looking forward, AOK is excited to explore new Cvent features, including AI-driven venue suggestions, to further optimize event planning and uncover hidden opportunities for standout experiences. As Jon reflects, “Cvent has already transformed how we work - and we’re only just scratching the surface of what’s possible.”
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Why Cvent
