2022
The inaugural Excellence Awards Europe took place at Cvent CONNECT Europe in London, and brought together a wealth of talent to recognise the industry's brightest stars.
Event Professional Winners
Best Virtual Event Programme
AD Ports Group
AD Ports Group surpassed their own programme-wide attendance targets by 71%, drawing an average of over 490 attendees per event while collaborating with a range of international partners and speakers. They delivered an impressive 96% customer satisfaction rate.
Most Innovative Cvent Implementation
Fjällräven
Fjallraven are delivering a broad events programme covering virtual hike preparation, in-person campfire events, in-store retail events, and are even using Cvent to fuel a contest between social influencers competing to win a dog sledding trip to see the Northern Lights. They tripled their registration numbers across their classic event series while planning an ambitious social influencer campaign, supported by Cvent.
Best Hybrid Event
The University of Greenwich
The University of Greenwich transitioned their open days from in-person, to virtual, to hybrid throughout the pandemic. They more than tripled their registration goal at their first hybrid open day and used technology to create engagement pre- and post-event, all while improving sustainability, accessibility, and international reach.
Best In-Person Conference
Fintech Week London
Fintech Week London grew to be a central focus point of London’s fintech community in only its second edition. The event grew to over 900 attendees, 120 speakers, 50 partners and sponsors, and 25 onsite journalists. Through sophisticated scheduling, appointment management, and audience curation, they’ve received brilliant feedback from their attendees and continue to grow.
Cvent Advocate of the Year
Sarah Christopher - WPM Education
Sarah Christopher from WPM Education is a longtime user of Cvent, with more than 10 years' experience using the product and a wealth of industry knowledge. Sarah is an expert in event technology, mastering a range of products and always looking to the future.
Outstanding Total Event Programme
Bayer
Bayer delivered a broad, multi-format programme while improving efficiency and data quality as well as accelerating their global Cvent rollout. They delivered internal and external events ranging from 20 attendees to over 100,000 attendees, making use of a wide range of Cvent products alongside integrations and robust internal processes to deliver results across more than 50 countries.
2022 Excellence Awards Europe Winners - Hospitality Professionals
The MICE Game Changer
Park Plaza Hotels
Park Plaza Hotels saw a 611% increase in RFP volume over the last 12 months, saw an increase of 1,300% in ROI in five months, and received 8,000 planner views in just two weeks with the launch of a new Cvent Retargeting Ad. As this year's MICE Game Changer, they have been recognised because of their outstanding 2022 performance and their commitment to the full event experience.
Planners' Best Partner
Melia Hotels International
Melia Hotels International has excelled at creating true partnerships that grow and flourish. They have been recognised as a planner-preferred-partner due to their thorough and timely responses. In the last 12 months, the organisation improved their RFP response time by 18% and saw a 168% increase in new planners sourcing.
2022
The 10th annual Cvent Excellence Awards honored event and hospitality professionals during a spectacular celebration held at Cvent CONNECT in Las Vegas. The second hybrid awards ceremony brought together the best innovators from across the industry for an exciting evening event with several new awards.
Event Professional Winners
Ace of Spaces
BCD Meetings & Events
BCD Meetings & Events use Cvent Event Diagramming and Cvent Supplier Network with other solutions to source and support in-person, hybrid, and virtual experiences for their client. Implementing health and safety questions in RFP’s for in-person experiences has allowed BCD to support clients effectively throughout the pandemic, sending more than 400 RFP’s in 2021 and producing nearly $70,000 in cost savings.
Cvent Superstar
Marco Ogsimer, CWT Meetings & Events
With 15 years industry experience, Marco relies on his deep knowledge of Cvent to ensure CWT’s web builders and attendee managers are best equipped to support the global organization through. He has championed the adoption and use of new modules and regularly holds trainings and demos, all while ensuring his team is Cvent Certified. He is a regular participant in early adopter programs and active in the Cvent Commmunity. Being a Cvent advocate has been essential to Marco’s success in managing a global team of Cvent Specialists.
Event Marketing Mastermind
YPO
YPO integrated Cvent with their existing tech stack to ensure a single source of truth across 3,600 annual events, with over 300,000 annual registrations managed each year. They pivoted to virtual using the Cvent Attendee Hub, creating the YPO Virtual Event Platform Ecosystem for their members. YPO saw a 140% increase in registrations and standardized RefID links to better track registrations, elevating attendee engagement across the virtual landscape.
Hybrid Hotshot
Morningstar
For their first-ever hybrid flagship conference, Morningstar relied on Cvent to mitigate risk and support a safe in-person experience while innovating the virtual experience. They tracked over 2,600 attendees, including 800 first-time attendees, and awarded 1,300 attendees Continuing Education credits via Cvent. They also achieved a 42% increase in session watch times as measured through Cvent reporting.
Pivotal Partner
Fox World Travel
Fox World Travel pivoted a planned hybrid event to virtual in just days by relying on Cvent, saving hundreds of hours. They pivoted dozens of sessions and increased session engagement while tracking session attendance for CPE credit requirements, all while managing over 530 flight and hotel cancellations successfully. Ultimately, the virtual event impressed the client and proved the value of the virtual experience.
Power of the Platform: Single Conference
Allscripts
Allscripts pivoted their Global Kick-Off to virtual using the Attendee Hub, ensuring professional production value through Cvent Studio. They were able to scale support staff back to one manager and saw a 40% increase in attendance with nearly 4x surveys completed. They ultimately reduced attrition as well, indicating deeper engagement across the event.
Power of the Platform: Total Event Program
OutSystems
OutSystems supports their entire events program through Cvent to help drive and nurture impacting sales through a single solution. They have exceeded business goals with a 3x increase in attendance year-over-year and 5x more opportunities won, including exceeding registration targets for their flagship conference by 98%.
ROI Rockstar
Xilinx (now AMD)
Xilinx’s ability to quickly pivot their flagship event to virtual through Cvent meant they could maintain increased engagement with target audiences and improve data collection and reporting. A Marketo integration ensured quality MQL’s and post-event sales enablement, allowing Xilinx to exceed business goals and attribution to pipeline. They drastically increased overall attendance with 38% net new attendees, achieving 4.5x their goals at 6x cost savings.
SMMP Sensation
Medtronic
With Cvent, Medtronic streamlined internal processes and created a global access portal while implementing and operationalizing a Concur and GDS integration - all while mitigating risk to the business during the pandemic. They streamlined and optimized the experience for over 700 Cvent users and stakeholders through their Strategic Meetings Management program, forecasting more than $24M in annual savings and efficiencies through the use of Cvent solutions and integrations.
The Rookie
American Marketing Association
The American Marketing Association streamlined different technologies and processes under one platform with Cvent across their events portfolio, managing 28 virtual, hybrid, and in-person events to date. They have automated dataflows through a Salesforce integration and support safe and innovative virtual and in-person experiences with Cvent solutions, resulting in the highest engagement numbers ever for the organization.
Virtual Virtuoso
Independent College Bookstore Association (ICBA)
The ICBA brought over 100 vendors together with buyers at their first-ever virtual conference in Attendee Hub, managing more than 5,100 appointments and increasing attendance by 62% year-over-year. They saved $700,000 in going virtual while maintaining a traditional profit margin of $1M. Their 2022 virtual and in-person dual conference exceeded forecasted attendance goals, up-leveling production with Cvent Studio.
Webinar Wonder
Montana Primary Care Association
Montana Primary Care Association hosts hundreds of webinars through Cvent, streamlining workflows across events with integrated surveys to view data trends and Cvent reporting to provide attendance metrics, feedback, and analytics. They nearly tripled the number of webinars hosted in just two years, measuring a nearly 60% increase in attendance through the Attendee Hub.
Hospitality Professional Winners
The Block Buster
Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center
The Gaylord Palms recognized a 43% increase in overall upsell revenue compared to pre-pandemic business (2019) due to Passkey. Through a unique and creative approach, the team increased upselling by 275% and achieved 66% in incremental add-on revenue such as early check in, late check out, “your choice” housekeeping, and guaranteed bed types.
The Business Intelligencer
Loews Hotels
By leveraging insights from Cvent Supplier Network Business Intelligence tools, Loews Hotels established a new team focused on Cvent insights for prospecting & sales efforts. As a result, they reduced their response rate time by 50% compared to their defined competitive set and reached a 100% response rate, seeing a 76% increase in awarded value.
The Clever Collaborator
Atrium Hospitality
Atrium Hospitality expanded Interactive Floor Plans to over 50% of its portfolio of 82 hotels, created more than 11,000 events using the Cvent Event Diagramming tool, and ensured they Cvent trained and certified the entire sales & events service team.
The Group Game Changer
The Wigwam
Cvent solutions have sourced 946 RFPs for The Wigwam. In 2021, The Wigwam was awarded 4,645 total room nights through the technology, saw a 208% increase in RFPs received, and the property achieved a 100% response rate.
The Hometown Hero
Visit Anaheim
Visit Anaheim influenced almost $22M in awarded business in Anaheim in 2021 and grew copy share from 46% in 2019 to 49% in 2020 to 51%. Anaheim’s hotels response rate is also 3% higher when the CVB is copied (vs. the RFP being sent directly to the hotel).
Planner's Choice
Westin Tampa Bay
Westin Tampa Bay excelled at creating true partnerships that grow and flourish— even through a pandemic. Westin Tampa Bay has been recognized as a planner preferred partner due to incredibly thorough and timely responses, and a focus on true partnership.
2021
The ninth annual Cvent Excellence Awards celebrated customers from across the globe who are driving innovation in the industry. This year's first-ever hybrid awards ceremony brought together the best in meetings and events at Cvent CONNECT. The live program included attendees from around the world joining from Las Vegas as well as virtually. Here, Cvent honored the incredible achievements of these industry leaders across ten unique categories, including two new categories for the Virtual Virtuoso and the Hybrid Hotshot.
Event Professional Winners
Ace of Safe Spaces
ACT
ACT created a scalable and repeatable process to source venues for pop-up testing sites for students who were displaced by pandemic closures and restrictions. They used the Cvent Supplier Network to send hundreds of RFPs in order to successfully hold more than 125 pop-up testing sites that served more than 34,000 student.
Cvent Superstar
Michael Goldenber, Eastern Athletic Trainers' Association
Michael is a dedicated Cvent advocate who spearheaded using the Cvent Attendee Hub for the Eastern Athletic Trainers’ Association annual conference, helping to triple revenue while driving a 40% increase in registrations. As an active Cvent Community member, a Cvent Celebrity, and an event technology champion for his organization, Michael was able to grow the success of the conference as EATA’s primary source of revenue.
Event Marketing Mastermind
Gerber Technology
For their annual ideation user conference in 2020, Gerber Technology used Cvent to target new personas for their first truly global virtual event on the Cvent Attendee Hub. The marketing team helped prove the value of virtual events in driving a measurable increase in sales pipeline.
Hybrid Hotshot
InXpress
InXpress hosted a successful and safe hybrid event in Las Vegas in early 2020 for 100 in-person and 200 virtual attendees using Cvent Event Management, Attendee Hub, Onsite Solutions, and Appointments with support from Cvent’s Virtual Event 360 services team.
Pivotal Partner
FCM Meetings & Events
In their seven-year partnership with Cvent, FCM Meetings & Events has managed more than 295,000 registrations, leveraging the Cvent platform to help win more clients, grow their accounts, and improve retention. This year alone, they have added 420 new events – including 100 virtual events with 20,000 attendees.
Power of the Platform
Walmart
Walmart has partnered with Cvent for 15 years. When the pandemic hit, Walmart turned to Cvent to create a turnkey technology solution for managing the COVID-19 vaccine rollout for millions of associates and customers. To manage mass scheduling, they stood up a solution in 24 hours using the Cvent Event Management platform. To date, Walmart has served more than 120,000 patients through community clinics and partnered with the NBA & WNBA to provide vaccines for players, staff, and families. They expanded their initial six clinic pilot program to more than 100 clinics and counting.
ROI Rockstar
Wisconsin Bankers Association
The Wisconsin Bankers Association uses Cvent to manage nearly 100 educational events annually for 8,000 attendees. Using the Attendee Hub for six of their largest conferences, they were able to drive significant increases in attendance and program net profit.
SMMP Sensation
Mastercard
Mastercard first partnered with Cvent in 2017 to centralize their Strategic Meetings Management program. Due to this groundwork, they were able to successfully pivot in 2020 while mitigating risk for the business.
The Rookie
MJH Life Sciences
In their first year with Cvent, MJH Life Sciences launched more than 620 events. They relied on Cvent to improve the attendee experience, streamline internal processes, and create synergy across 15 different brands. All associated team members are now Cvent Certified.
Virtual Virtuoso
United Federation of Teachers
With nearly 200,000 members served through their continuing education events, the United Federation of Teachers relies on the Cvent Attendee Hub to support more than 1,500 annual events for 750,000 registrants.
2020
The eighth annual Cvent Excellence Awards brought together the best in the industry from around the globe for the first-ever virtual awards program. Held during Cvent CONNECT Virtual, the record-setting ceremony honored the resilience and dedication of industry leaders in front of more than 43,000 virtual attendees.
Relive the 2020 virtual awards
Event Professional Winners
Ace of Spaces
Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits
Using Cvent Supplier Network and Passkey in conjunction with other Cvent solutions, the two-person team centralized their event management processes to save hundreds of thousands of dollars through negotiated savings and room block management efficiencies.
The Achiever
National Network for Oral Health Access
By using a host a Cvent solutions starting in 2016, NNOHA streamlined registration with a modern registration site, improved their dataflow with a Salesforce integration, and modernized the onsite experience. Since 2016, active membership has more than doubled, and conference revenue and attendance has increased by impressive margins.
The Cvent Superstar
Kyle Flinn
As Cvent Advocate of the Year, Kyle Flinn worked with his team to enable the adoption of the end-to-end tech stack at the University of Missouri. Kyle is a member of Cvent’s Higher Ed CAB, and over the course of the last year has advocated for Cvent through webinars, case studies, and speaking engagements at industry events. These include Cvent CONNECT 2019, multiple webinars, direct mail testimonials, EDUCAUSE 2019, and Event Tech Higher Ed Trends Report. He also presented at Cvent CONNECT 2019.
Event Marketing Mastermind
FIS
FIS used a host of Cvent solutions with a Marketo integration to track event attendance and evaluate campaign performance, resulting in a significant increase in lead generation and influencing hundreds of millions of dollars in existing TCV while driving a measurable increase in new deals created. They also nearly doubled sponsorship revenue. Stakeholders were impressed with the enhanced look and feel of the technology-driven conference.
The Mobile Maverick
S&P Global Market Intelligence
In 2019, S&P Global managed hundreds of events across 60 global cities for thousands of attendees, generating thousands of new leads and subscription trials. They used Cvent’s Appointment tool and CrowdCompass app to foster networking, and tailored programming with data from session scanning and feedback surveys. Live Q&A, polling, and the activity feed helped ensure attendee engagement. The robust reporting was vital when debriefing senior executives to evaluate event ROI, especially since the event feedback form was conducted via the app.
The Onsite Orchestrator
Insperity
Using Cvent’s Onsite Solutions and CrowdCompass mobile event app streamlined the onsite experience at Insperity's annual Sales and Marketing Convention. They eliminated hundreds of manual labor hours and tracked tens of thousands engagement points in the app, all while capturing incredible savings in 2019 using Cvent solutions.
Pivotal Partner
BCD Meetings & Events
BCD Meetings & Events works in a preferred partnership with Cvent across the globe to support their clients’ meeting technology strategies and needs. BCD leverages the Meeting Request Form with Cvent Supplier Network and Budget modules. For reporting, they designed Macros with Cvent’s assistance and added status triggers to their MRF based on RFP active or awarded status. They drive significant average savings on every meeting they manage with an impressive workflow completion rate for 2019.
Power of the Platform
Penn State University
Penn State experienced astounding year-over-year growth in terms of number of registrants, total income, and income paid to internal clients for their events program. The department saw a 50% increase in registrations and enrollments year-over-year thanks to their close partnership with Cvent. Eight other functional units across the university now leverage Cvent, bringing total registrations to 100,000 across university programs. They now manage 10 different Cvent accounts and have expanded the number of programs by a factor of six and increased income by a factor of ten.
The Rookie
Campus Management
Campus Management relies on Cvent to deliver ease of registration, access to training documentation, networking, attendee experience and improved customer satisfaction surveys. In their first year with Cvent, they saved hundreds of hours with automated processes, expanded one general conference survey to hundreds of session-specific surveys, and saw a huge increase in engagement levels with the CrowdCompass mobile event app. They also used Cvent Appointments to enable hundreds appointments for their annual conference.
SMM Star
Boston Scientific
Using Cvent’s Strategic Meetings Management solution in conjunction with the full Cvent platform, Boston Scientific gained visibility into overall spend and supported their formal meeting policy. They saw a dramatic increase in program adoption and doubled their meetings cost avoidance in just two years.
Hospitality Professional Winners
The Block Buster
Host Hotels and Resorts
The Business Intelligencer
Loews Hotels
The Clever Collaborator
Sonesta Hotels
The Group Game Changer
The Galt House Hotel
The Wedding Whisperer
The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco
2019
The seventh annual Cvent Excellence Awards honored innovative event and hospitality professionals during an exclusive banquet at Cvent CONNECT. It was an evening to remember as a record number of winners were celebrated for their extraordinary work.
Event Professional Winners
The Achiever
Parkinson Foundation of the National Capital Area
In just three years with Cvent, the small nonprofit has eliminated operating losses while doubling their revenue, creating a fully sustainable organization as a result.
The Marketing Mastermind
BlackRock
BlackRock unified complex registration, onsite, and mobile experiences into a seamless solution, using data-driven decision making to prove ROI.
The Mobile Maverick
MDVIP
To eliminate manual processes and improve cost savings, MDVIP used Cvent’s mobile event app for a stellar attendee experience at their annual conference. High mobile engagement helped increase lead generation, leading to higher renewal rates.
The Onsite Orchestrator
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester leveraged Cvent’s Onsite Solutions and mobile event app while integrating Cvent’s Event Management with their CRM for easy data management. Replacing their outdated in-house system created impressive savings for the organization.
Power of the Platform
Royal DSM
Royal DSM increased negotiated savings and created a centralized meetings and events policy across the organization using Cvent solutions. Award-winning card integrations, better onsite experiences, and an eco-friendly mobile solution helped Royal DSM achieve valuable global savings.
The Rookie
Verizon
In their first year using Cvent, Verizon created a centralized events program that saved hundreds of hours and reduced costs by 30%. The team can confidently scale for future success by proving the intrinsic value of Verizon’s events.
The Savvy Sourcer
Autodesk
Autodesk expanded their global program in the APAC and EMEA regions, doubling the number of events sourced. They provided valuable cost savings, reducing potential attrition and increasing contracted savings to $11 million.
The SMM Star
Lincoln Financial Group
Using Cvent, the team integrated air travel and payment processing, introduced OnArrival and RFID for better data reporting, and built more than 110 CrowdCompass apps for a better attendee experience. They achieved over $1 million in cost savings and now have an active voice in the business.
Hospitality Professional Winners
The Best in the US
Visit Orlando
Visit Orlando embraces new technologies and provides integral feedback to shape the future of the industry. Testing and partnering with Cvent on aggressive marketing campaigns helps Visit Orlando stay ahead of the competition.
The Block Buster
MGM Resorts
With the help of Cvent Passkey, MGM Resorts has been able to apply technology in creative manners. MGM’s hard work has resulted in $3.7M upsell revenue and $9.3 million in total gains.
The Business Intelligencer
Visit Dallas
Through its use of Market Dashboards, Visit Dallas achieved four consecutive record years for bookings. Visit Dallas has moved to sixth place on the Cvent Top Destinations rankings as a result.
The Group Game Changer
IHG
In 2018, IHG increased unique RFPs by +15% and awarded value by +21%. IHG continuously leverages new ways of engaging with meetings and events professionals to bolster their position as industry innovators.
2018
As the industry evolved, Cvent's awards program expanded to include both event and hospitality professionals. Rebranded as the new “Cvent Excellence Awards,” industry leaders were honored across eleven unique categories during an exclusive awards ceremony held at Cvent CONNECT.
Event Professional Winners
The Achiever
Latin Expo Group
The Marketing Mastermind
Teradata
The Mobile Maverick
USC - Cultural Relations and University Events
The Onsite Orchestrator
Cardinal Health
Power of the Platform
Travel Oregon
The Rookie
AbbVie
The Savvy Sourcer
Conference Catalysts, LLC
The SMM Star
Allstate Insurance Company
Hospitality Professional Winners
The Block Buster
Westin Copley Place
The Business Intelligencer
Two Roads Hospitality
The Group Game Changer
The Peppermill Resort & Spa
2017
As the Cvent Plannie Awards continued to grow, a spectacular celebration featuring acrobatic performances by Cirque du Soleil delighted hundreds of attendees and nine category winners during the fifth annual awards program.
The Marketing Mastermind
CallidusCloud
The Onsite Orchestrator
Morningstar
The Mobile Maverick
ACIG Insurance Company
The Achiever
Netsmart
The SMM Star
Amazon
The Rookie
Sanofi
The Listener
LeadingAge
The Savvy Sourcer
Medtronic
Power of the Platform
Samaritan's Purse
2016
The fourth year of the awards program saw a record number of finalists recognized during an elegant awards ceremony in Las Vegas. Ten category winners were named and all attendees enjoyed a festive evening with their peers and Cvent leaders.
The Marketing Mastermind
Morningstar
The Onsite Orchestrator
Cisco Systems
The Mobile Maverick
Anthem
The Achiever
SevOne
The SMM Star
Kiewit
The Rookie
Adtran
The Listener
AIMIA
The Savvy Sourcer
Estee Lauder
Power of the Platform
Illumina
Cvent Advocate of the Year
Allen Villanueva
2015
The growth of the newly rebranded “Cvent Plannie Awards” attracted hundreds of attendees at Cvent CONNECT, where ten category winners were celebrated for their extraordinary work.
Best Event Website
Growth Energy
Return on Event (ROE)
Stella & Dot
SMM Program of the Year
Medtronic
Best Use of a Mobile App
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Savvy Sourcing
The Estée Lauder Companies
Best Event Marketing Strategy
Institute for Career Advancement Needs
Rookie of the Year
BBYO
Power of the Platform
Cisco Systems
Best Event Feedback Strategy
American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
Best Onsite Experience
Milken Institute
2014
The second year saw the expansion of the awards program as the “Cvent Planner Awards.” Here, winners across eight different categories proved the power of live events in driving organizational success.
Best Event Website
Stella & Dot
Return on Event (ROE)
B2W Software Inc.
SMM Program of the Year
Lincoln Financial Group
Best Use of a Mobile App
The Culinary Institute of America
Savvy Sourcing
Educational Testing Services
Best Event Marketing Strategy
Vocus
Rookie of the Year
Halliburton
Power of the Platform
Meetings & Incentives Worldwide Inc.
2013
The inaugural year of Cvent’s awards program honored industry leaders across five unique categories. The first ceremony was held during the first Cvent CONNECT in Las Vegas.
Best Event Website
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Best Use of a Mobile App
Agilysys, Inc.
Savvy Sourcing
Meetings & Incentives
Return on Event (ROE)
Ericsson
SMM Program of the Year
Visa, Inc.