As of 10/17/18
31-Oct
No, Flex will be free for all clients.
A list of features that are not yet available will be available on the community under the "Welcome to Project Flex" page and maintained as features continue launching.
A list of future features will be made available on the community at launch -- with general deliver dates for those items that we know will launch in Q4. As we near each quarter we will update this list, so you can follow along and will post Release Notes after features are released. Also, your account support team will likely reach out to you if a feature that you are waiting on becomes available so that they can help you plan your switch over efforts. You do not need to turn anything on – features will be automatically available as they launch.
We hope to be feature complete by mid-year in 2019, but it is hard to estimate development projects far in advance. We will make sure to communicate any timeline changes as soon as we are aware and will not begin retiring the current Event Management product until we achieve feature complete.
With the General Availability release on October 31 we will make a change where any new event created from scratch will be a Flex event. You can still copy previous Classic standard events or use existing standard event templates. Over 90% of events are created from these two methods so this should not be a disruption for most users. Eventually we will have to restrict the ability to create using previous legacy events and templates, but this would be coming toward the end of 2019 at the earliest and only after we have achieved feature complete. At no point will events ever be removed from your account or shut down, we are only targeting the creation methods.
On 10/31 Flex will be available to everyone to begin using. At this point any new event created from scratch will be powered by Flex, but you can continue to copy classic events and use existing templates after 10/31.
Yes, Flex Project is intended to be a full upgrade of our Event Management project and in the long term all events will use the Flex framework. Unlike with the Blue release we will have a long transition period where users can use both event types simultaneously, rather than having all events cut over at once.
Yes, as new features launch you will be able to start using those features in new or previously started Flex events -- without having to start over.
Flex is activated at the account level, but access to Flex can be restricted using our existing event creation permissions in conjunction with user/user group visibility settings. Reach out to your Cvent Representative or Customer Care if you need help setting this up.
We definitely want customers to start using Flex as soon as it launches to start rebuilding their events however if there is a feature that need that is not yet available in Flex you may want to use a classic standard event for a little longer.
Nope! Any Flex events already created will continue to work just as they do today.
You will see a new “New Standard Registration (Flex)” option as a new choice on the Event Creation page, which you see when you choose to “Create: A new event” in the Event Creation wizard.If your account still needs access to the existing event product it will be labeled as "Classic Registration" after the General Availability release.
All historical events and data will remain in your account and show in cross-event reports, just the same as they do today. At no point will your existing or previous events be shut down, hidden, or removed from your account.
You can either continue to use the legacy standard registration for your Jan 2018 event or begin building your January event in Flex, but you can't switch over in the middle as the new format/features are dramatically different. The reason for this is that the structure and styling of the new events are so different that it would not be a smooth process to convert. It would take users longer to go through and clean up a converted site than it would to create a new one.
Express will not be impacted by the rollout of the Flex Project.
We plan on supporting all of the integrations that clients have built, and many are already functional in Flex. You can reach out to your Cvent Representative for more information on your specific integration(s).
On 10/31 JavaScript will not be possible, but the Code Snippets feature will allow for this. We aim to have Code Snippets available before the end of the year (2018).
Depending on how the code is being implemented in your events it might not be possible at the moment in Flex, but we will be adding Advanced Design modes in 2019 with the aim being to support these kinds of use cases.
We are still examining the impact/need of allowing users to directly upload CSS to the site, but we will be looking into Advanced Design options in 2019. Stay Tuned!
Much of the need to access the HTML or CSS directly to style an event site has been eliminated with the introduction of the Site Designer, and we are working on Advanced Design options in 2019 for use cases that are not covered by the Site Designer. We will also be adding a Table Widget in the near future!
With the General Availability release HTML/CSS will only be accessible for emails, but we will be working on Advanced Design options for event sites in 2019 for the cases that are not covered by our out-of-the-box tools.
Yes, you can revert back to previously saved versions.
Publish action is site-wide, meaning it includes website, registration, surveys, etc. Make sure the pages your creating are the ones you want to show your registrants.
There’s no way to choose to only show a certain element on one device size v. another, but we have put in special handling on the more detailed widgets to make sure images look good on your phone as well as your desktop.
Customer event reporting will not be affected by Project Flex. We do have ongoing upgrades to the reporting framework in the works, so over the next year you may see some new features coming out, they just won't be a part of Project Flex.
Nope! We want to make some upgrades, so they are temporarily locked, but will be a part of the 10/31 release.
As our new design tools create dynamic pages and therefore images will change to fit the device viewed upon so there are no absolute dimensions to share. Visit the Cvent community > Welcome to Project Flex page to see recommendation article.
We don't have plans to increase the standard font options at this point in time, but we will be adding support for Custom Fonts at or shortly after the GA release.
There is! If you open the Theme panel you can change the Font across all pages and widgets at once, unless a particular widget has been individually customized.
The Question Library will be coming in 2019.
Yes!
Absolutely.
Yep, you can create a custom button to link to any page whether it is a Cvent hosted page or an external site.
Flex has a new theme panel with brand new themes that give even more customization than what Express currently offers. They’re wonderful and we think you’ll love them.
Yes, sites can be edited at any time after the site launches
As part of overall Cvent software performance, we have limits on all products. As we continue to focus on site performance you’ll see these numbers increase so that they no longer limit you. Talk to your account rep if you have a request to raise a specific limit and we’ll treat these on a one-off basis.
The initial limit will be around 1000 Sessions and we will be working on increasing that limit immediately after the release.
Yep! Registration Types can be associated to different Registration Paths, and tickets (Admission Items) can be associated to different Registration Types.
No, there are no plans to change this. The reason we require them to be uploaded to Cvent first is so that we can guarantee the files will always be available and hosted securely.
Currently we do not offer any accessibility checks on the site designer. Recommend installing a third-party browser extension to ensure that you’re meeting accessibility standards
In the right-hand panel for a section, you can choose how you want to lay out your columns. For example, you could choose to create a 3-column section as either (33 | 33 | 33) or (25 | 50 | 25).
Yes, integrations will work the same way as they do today.
Yes, you will be able to host a website and hide the Registration actions to allow attendees to browse the site before registration is open.
Not at all! Our goal with the 10/31 release is to give a powerful but intuitive out-of-the-box tool that eliminates the need to use backend coding. For those that are more comfortable in code we'll be adding Advanced Design options in 2019.
Yep! There are no changes to the functionality of emails, just updates to the designing of emails.
The updates in the Flex Project cover both the Website and the Registration Process, so if you'd like to use an outside website and link to Registration that will still be possible.
Yes
Yes! We've recreated almost every Visual Showcase event (and even some new ones) that we will have available on 10/31.
We recommend using our OnArrival app for event check-in or setting up a Kiosk mode, but you can still mark participants on the backend as well via the Invitee Management screens.
No, we are handling those the same way that we do today so that customers do not have to make any changes they don't want to.