Customer Events

With tight budgets and picky eaters, finding great food for a good bargain in the Windy City is a difficult task for event planners. Chicago is well-known for its fine dining restaurants, but at a eye-popping price! Here is a list of some of hidden Chicago restaurant gems found in the many ethnic neighborhoods that surround the city.

Nacional 27
Sizzling Latino Treat
Located in the River North Neighborhood

Petterino's
Traditional Delicious Italian
Located Downtown

May Street Market
Rich, Contemporary Cuisine
Located in the West Loop

Vong's Thai Kitchen
Tasty Thai
Located on the North Side of Chicago

Marche
Fabulous French Food
Located in the West Loop

These Chicago dining facilities guarantee a great dining experience. When bringing small groups to these hot spots, be sure to ask for their pre-fixed menus to cut down on costs. Also, be sure to request a drink package. Dining with alcohol on consumption can be a risky move when entertaining clients.

To learn more about Chicago restaurants for your client dinners and private events, please visit the Cvent Supplier Network.

Securing sponsorship for your events is never an easy task, but Cvent can make it easier. Why not create a "Sponsorship Sales" event using your Cvent account?

Use your account to create an event designed to collect sponsorships sales for monthly events, conferences, or meetings for your organization. Consider placing a link to registration from your website or your monthly newsletter so that people can purchase different sponsorship opportunities. You can also easily send out an email invitation to previous event sponsors to see if they are interested in sponsoring an upcoming event.

By using your merchant account, sponsors can easily pay for their sponsorship options in Cvent. This will allow for quick and simple reporting later, allowing you as the planner to compare yearly revenue solely for sponsorship sales. Plus, the easier the process is for potential sponsors, the more likely they will be willing to contribute to your event!

What gets you excited about events or conferences you attend? The biggest thing for me is the location. I love getting to see cities and venues I've never seen before, it adds an element of fun to any event. Use Cvent's Destination Guide to find the perfect venue in the perfect city, and then let your invitees know about it! 

With Cvent's custom event website pages, you can design and display information about the hotel or venue. When your invitees are taken to your mini-event website from their invitations, they can not only learn more about the event itself, but also get more information about their destination to make them more likely to attend! Branding and customizing your website to get people excited and looking forward to your event is just one more way Cvent promises higher attendance and higher ROE (Return on Events)!

Check out this mini-website as an example!

One year ago, Cvent Meetings & Events blog was born! We've certainly grown—we're now over 1,000 posts strong!

To celebrate, I decided to take a look back at some of the year's highlights with a recap of our 10 most popular posts. Enjoy!

• How to Add Attendees—Not Expenses—to Your Event You can roll out an expensive marketing campaign or turn to discounted event prices to encourage registration, but you don't always have to do so.

• 3 Benefits of Banquetology Usually you'd think that bigger is better when it comes to catering at meetings and events. But in fact banquetology's "less is more" concept can be quite beneficial to planners in a number of ways.

• What to Include in Your Invitation Reminder Emails What can you do to increase your invitation response rate? Reminder emails are the answer.

• 3 Centerpiece Ideas to Save the Environment and Your Budget One area of meeting spend that can definitely get out of hand quickly is that of decor. It's also one that can be very wasteful, especially when it comes to centerpieces. Can you really save on centerpieces and be eco-friendly?

• How to Create a Custom Meeting Request Form In your already busy world, handling multiple meeting requests can get overwhelming. That's why meeting forms can be an invaluable tool in your Strategic Meetings Management program.

• 3 Caterers Offering Gluten-Free Menu Options One growing dietary concern among event guests is the need for a gluten-free option. Luckily, event caterers are hearing the call from planners to offer gluten-free meals.

• Creating Name Badges Doesn't Have to Be a Pain The task of creating name badges can be a time-consuming one. Event registration software such as Cvent makes it so much easier.

• 3 Ways Team Building Events Benefit Your Organization and Staff While professional networking, training and education are all key facets to your events, the benefits of team building to your employees and the organization as a whole should not be overlooked.

• 2009 Top 10 Meeting Trends Benchmark Hospitality International has released its Top 10 Meeting Trends for 2009, as observed at 30 award-winning properties.

• 3 Reasons Why Michael Scott Needs Cvent for The Office It's great that Michael can use Evite to quickly create an invitation and get some data on who is attending and who is not. But a 0.2 percent response rate? He could do better than that.

It's always been said that you only get one chance to make a good first impression, and events are no different. The first hour of your event is one of the most important, as it sets the stage for the rest of your event, whether it's just a one-night dinner or a three-day conference.

Make the most of this time! Welcome your event guests with:

• A thought-out invitation. The invitation is really the true first impression, right? Make sure your email event invitations are pleasing to the eye and include all the important information, such as event date and location, directions, and contact details.

• A name badge. When the majority of your event guests don't know each other, a name badge with a little bit of information—first name, company—is an easy way to create automatic introductions. Even when you host a big event in which many of the people should know each other (a large company function or user conference), name badges can be helpful. Your attendees may roll their eyes, but trust me, they'll thank you when their mind goes blank on the name of that huge client.

• A cocktail. When it comes to loosening up your event guests, nothing beats a little alcohol. Whether it be a signature cocktail or a glass of wine, drinks are a must-have at your welcoming receptions.

• An appetizer. A few passed plates will be much appreciated by those event guests who didn't get to grab dinner or who traveled from far away and haven't even eaten lunch. Not just polite, appetizers at welcoming receptions are also practical—your guests will need something in their stomachs to go with your cocktails!

• A smile. One of the most important elements at your welcome reception is you, the event planner! Make sure your events are adequately staffed so that someone is on hand to greet guests, take coats, distribute name badges and answer questions.

Put yourself in the shoes of an event invitee. You've just heard about an event—an industry tradeshow, association seminar, user conference, etc.—that you really want to attend. You go to the event website to register, only to be met with a simple message: "This event is closed."

How frustrating! It's bad enough that the event is closed, but a message like these really closes the door completely to your potential attendees. What if someone wants to know if you'll be having a similar event next year (because they'd attend)? What if someone wants to be included in your event marketing so they'll be ahead of the game for similar events in the upcoming months? A simple "This event is closed" message doesn't give them any where to turn.

When you build an event with Cvent, it's easy to edit your "Event closed" message with more specific information. Include the planner's name and email as a contact, or provide specific instructions for those who would still like to register. You could even direct visitors to your events calendar so that they can sign up for future events. Don't close the door completely on interested guests!

As you review your budget going into next year, you may be wondering how important it is for your company to send employees that that tradeshow or to host that conference for prospective clients. Before you make any drastic cuts in your meetings spend, you might want to consider what new research has to say about the link between business travel and business growth.

A recent study by Oxford Economics found that for every dollar invested in business travel, businesses see an average increase in revenue of $12.50 and $3.80 in new profits. What's especially notable about this new research is not just the findings, but that it marks the first time that the return on investment of business travel has been successfully measured.

"This study shows that not all spending cuts are smart cuts," said Adam Sacks, managing director of Oxford Economics, in a statement. "When companies cut their travel budgets, there are negative consequences that we can now quantify, in terms of lost revenue and profit growth, and in terms of giving competitors a distinct advantage."

Covering 14 economic sectors over a span of 13 years, the study found that cutting back on business travel can negatively impact corporate profits. In fact, an average U.S. company would forfeit 15 percent of its profits in the first year of eliminating business travel. It would take more than three years for profits to recover.

"In tough economic times, many business executives have an understandable short-run focus on managing costs. The report points out the less visible—but significant—long-term benefits resulting from business travel, such as partnership building and new business opportunities," said Dr. Martin A. Asher, adjunct professor of finance at the Wharton School. "Increased business travel in this economy can actually increase sales and reduce the financial decline companies might otherwise suffer."

As we already know, most business people agree that in-person meetings build better relationships. The Oxford study also found such meetings gain customers.

Roughly 40 percent of prospective customers are converted to new customers with an in-person meeting, the study reported, compared to 16 percent without such a meeting. Executives cited customer meetings as having the greatest returns, approximately $15-$19.99 per dollar invested, with conference and tradeshow participation returns ranging from $4-$5.99 per dollar invested.

Read the full results at Meetings Mean Business.

Cvent's event email marketing tools make it easy to maintain a comprehensive set of contacts: clients, prospects, members, non-members, attendees, exhibitors, etc. As your list of contacts grows, you may find it gets more complex to manage. What if an organization no longer wants to receive your event invitations? Or maybe you only host events for sales prospects, not your current clients?

As part of Cvent's new August 2009 release, it's now easier to handle such opt-outs with domain exclusions. If any organization does not want to receive scheduled or manually sent emails from you anymore, you can add its domain as an exclusion. This is a big time saver, as you don't need to individually opt out each person.

What's great about this new feature is that it can be used selectively. For example, perhaps you're hosting a regional user conference. Users that aren't based in that region are not to be invited, but you don't want to have to opt-out every single email address belonging to those contacts. You can still create a exclusion for that domain, then use the Active Yes/No option to make it a temporary exclusion.



Keep in mind, though, that the domain exclusions apply only for scheduled and manually sent emails. Registrants with these domains will receive a registration confirmation and any emails they request themselves from the website.

Cvent's internal calendar feature makes it easy for meeting planners to maintain a high-level overview of their events. The corporate lunch next week, the user conference coming up in November, the company holiday party at the end of the year—it's all there for you in user-friendly format.

As part of Cvent's new release, it's now easier to keep members of your team and organization in the know about upcoming events. Make your calendar public, and choose which users can have access.



You can also activate an external version of your calendar by creating a weblink. Share the link with others, who will be able to view, but not change, the calendar without logging in to Cvent.

We’ve launched additional support and features for international meeting planning on the Cvent Supplier Network, the largest global database of meeting venues in the industry! Cvent has included meeting space profiles for over 35,000 meeting hotels, conference centers, convention centers, and special event venues across Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. Planners can sign up for a free account and send electronic Requests for Proposals (eRFPs) to any property to get information on pricing and availability.

All of Cvent’s event management customers now have the ability to send RFPs to international properties. Plus, Cvent has signed numerous meeting management companies that will be sending RFPs to properties internationally, including ConferenceDirect, Global Cynergies, EMC Venues, and Meetings & Incentives.

"Meetings & Incentives uses Cvent’s innovative technology to manage our clients meetings and events across the globe. The speed and consistency of supplier responses, even for venues outside of the United States, through the Cvent Supplier Network has allowed us to streamline our work," said David Sachs, director of sourcing services for Meetings & Incentives. "The global adoption of the Cvent Supplier Network with suppliers has made Cvent an application a necessity. Cvent is the end to end solution that every procurement and meetings manager should have access to every day."

Complementing the international profiles, the Cvent Supplier Network offers comprehensive functionality to support the global sourcing process. Planners can specify a search for meeting space by square feet or by square meters; use a meeting space calculator supporting the metric system to assist in requesting space; request pricing information from hotels in the monetary currency of their choice; and send RFPs in any language using RFP attachments.

And don't forget, Cvent features over 25 international destinations on the Cvent Destination Guide. Find information on event venues, meeting statistics, transportation data and more for locations across the globe, including London, Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Singapore, Seoul, Toronto, Jamaica and the Bahamas.

To learn more about the expansion of the Cvent Supplier Network, read the full press release.

User conferences, association meetings, corporate gatherings, Harry Potter fan conferences? Yes, Cvent's online registration software is versatile enough to handle all kinds of guest registrations, including those of Harry Potter fan conference Azkatraz 2009.

Held July 17-21, just two days after the much-anticipated Harry and the Half-Blood Prince hits theaters, Azkatraz attracts fans from all over the world and at least 40 states to over 150 hours of event programming. Focused on J.K. Rowling's book series and the Warner Brothers' films, the event agenda includes presentations by TIME Magazine book critic Lev Gossman, Emerson Spartz of Mugglenet, and actor Chris Rankin, who plays Percy Weasley in the movies.

Azkatraz is the sixth in a series of events organized by HP Education Fanon, Inc. Almost all of the event organization, from registration to event chair meetings, is coordinated by volunteers online via Google, Yahoogroups, Skype, and, yes, Cvent!

Just check out the online registration page:



They made use of some of Cvent's great features to customize the event for their needs.  For example, they added a custom field to their registrant information page for Badge Name:



And used the "Tell-A-Friend" feature to invite guests to forward the invitation:



Also added were various attendee-specific questions:



As well as some event-specific ones:



Just an example of how conferences come in all shapes and sizes, and Cvent can accommodate them all!

Kimpton's new Epic Hotel in downtown Miami is offering a revamped "Pick-Your-Perks" meeting program, which offers planners new ways to customize meetings and stretch their budgets with creative perks and incentives.

The program includes 20 percent off the best available room rate and a choice of one incentive from the following list:

• Up to 15% off the master account folio charges
• Two-hour complimentary boat cruise
• 10 percent off published menu prices

In addition, they'll get two of the following:

• 50 percent off meeting room rental
• 20 percent off audio/visual equipment
• Two VIP guestroom upgrades
• Welcome amenities for up to five VIP guests
• Complimentary weekend stay for future use
• Assorted whole fruit, chilled juices and coffee to start the day
• The option to re-book another meeting for before March 10, 2010, and receive 25 percent off the best available rate

Finally, planners get an American Express gift card based on combined group revenue.

I subscribe to Meetings & Convention's Hot Idea of the Day, and sometimes I come across some pretty interesting tips. The other week, I read one regarding event transportation.

Marci Bracco, a Monterey, California-based event planner, contacted local Mercedes dealerships to provide vehicles for attendees at a VIP sales event for a high-end real estate development firm. The dealers made arrangements for attendees to be driven in new Mercedes convertibles for free. Why? Because it was an opportune way to showcase the cars to qualified buyers.

This seems like such a simple, yet inspired way, to cut meeting costs. When it comes to venues, caterers, transportation providers and so on, it's all about partnerships.

Organizing a conference of IT professionals? Sounds like an ideal time to work with an audio-visual supplier that will provide services at a reduced cost in order to show off their new products. If you happen to be planning a reception for regional meeting and event planners, look for caterers or venues that want to partner with you so they can showcase themselves to planner attendees.

The strategy of forming win-win partnerships will certainly vary based on your event. Still, it's worth asking every time, What value is your event bringing to a supplier? How much is that worth?

Read other Daily Hot Ideas

There is a lot of buzz surrounding the latest advancements in social media, but if you are like me you are still a bit skeptical.  Will social media actually help you do your job any better or will it simply be one more way you are forced to communicate with your friends and colleagues? Based upon some recent conversations and information I have come across, I am beginning to become a believer in social media and its ability to simplify the way I network and maintain relationships, as well as generate new business for my company.

According to an article published by HSMAI, Sixty-one percent of meeting planners who attended HSMAI's recent Affordable Meetings West Conference & Exposition in San Jose, California "stated that they were engaged on facebook, and 58% were members of LinkedIn. Networking and maintaining relationships were the top benefits cited.  Just 13% said they were using Twitter." 

A colleague of mine just attended the Vocus User Conference and said that social media was integrated throughout every component of the conference.  During the sessions Twitter was blowing up, serving as a way for attendees to silently debate various points without interrupting the speaker's presentation.  Not only did Twitter serve as a useful tool for the  attendees, but it also functioned as automatic press and marketing for Vocus and its conference. 

HSMAI reports that "technology continues to be a top priority in 2009 with 70 percent of planners reporting an increase in technology use" as it relates to marketing and managing their events.  Of the 70 percent, 74 percent felt that technology made their jobs easier. 

It seems that if the jury were to vote, 100% would be in favor of social media.  Not only is social media really taking off, but I believe it is also here to stay.  Its many benefits are already being appreciated and experienced industry wide and as it always is with technology, this is just the beginning of what social media will have to offer us.

I came across an interesting blog post today at Chelsey Jean on the Durham Scene. She brings up the cyclical problem that conference planners and conference attendees face more and more often these days: planners on tight budgets have to charge more for events, so attendees decide your event is not worthwhile to attend, which means you need to raise costs even more to cover low attendance numbers, and so on and so forth.

If you want to keep registration numbers high at your conference, you'll need to convince attendees of its value. Make your conference too good to resist. And, as Chelsey points out, value is not always based on your event agenda alone. She blogs, "They will want to know, 'Do they have a local baseball team?,' 'Are there any yummy Thai restaurants?,' 'Can I get some Christmas shopping done while I'm there?'"

I completely agree! Certainly the bulk of an attendee's decision will come down to the value of what your conference offers in terms of education, training, networking, etc. But think about it: you've been invited to an organization's annual user conference that may teach you a few new things. Or, you've been invited to an organization's annual user conference that may teach you a few things, plus the planner told you that the destination is home to a new four-star restaurant, a museum featuring work by that artist you've been meaning to check out, a three-level shopping plaza full of your favorite stores...you get the idea.

In the end, you may not even have the time to explore the conference city as you would on a leisure trip. But doesn't the idea alone start to push you in the direction of registering "Yes"?

That's one of the ideas behind resources like the Cvent Destination Guide. Whether you're still narrowing down meeting destination options or you've already chosen one, it's important to have some background on what a city can offer not just your event, but your attendees and their guests, too. Where can spouses and children go during conference hours? Check out the Family Activities we list for each city.

In the evening, where can attendees catch dinner and a show? What are the best nightclubs and bars for the younger set? You can find all this in Entertainment and Nightlife sections presented on each destination.

It's all there for you in profiles of over 100 cities worldwide. The Destination Guide is a free resource that saves you time spent researching a meeting destination. So the next time you want to know what kind of value your event can offer to an attendee outside the boardroom, make sure to visit the Cvent Destination Guide.

Whether you are a third-party planner or you work for a large organization, it's not uncommon to receive requests from multiple people asking you to plan their meetings. In your already busy world, handling multiple meeting requests can get overwhelming. That's why meeting forms can be an invaluable tool in your Strategic Meetings Management program.

A meeting form is basically an easy way to streamline your meeting requests and keep things organized. When someone wants you to plan a meeting, they access the form; enter the key event information, such as contact information, event dates, attendees, or room requirements; and submit it for your approval. It only takes a few minutes of their time, and it gives you an organized overview into the meetings throughout your company.

The types of events requested at your organization may vary greatly, which is why Cvent offers highly customizable meeting form options. You can select fields to appear on the form, which may relate to the Requestor (such as email address); the Event itself (such as start date); or the RFP for the event (such as sleeping room requirements.)



You can even ask custom questions such as "Is this your first event?" Thanks to Cvent's extensive question type feature, you can set up questions and answers of virtually any type.



Aside from the content of the meeting form, you can change the look of your form as well. Choose from one of Cvent's various professional form templates. Then, customize it to match your organization and/or department by uploading images for the header and footer.

Best of all, we give you customized controls over the administration of your meeting forms. Create custom statuses for your request forms to let the requestor know where his or her request is in the process. Additionally, you can set up user access rights within your account.

Many meeting planners plan the same event (or events) on a regular basis, from annual user conferences to employee Christmas parties to quarterly training seminars. For these reasons, Cvent has long made it possible for meeting planners to copy, or clone, their RFPs.

Why spend time re-creating an RFP with virtually the same event details? By cloning your RFP, you can just copy an existing RFP you've already made for an event, then change details such as date or duration.

Now, we've made it possible for you to save even more time when you use the clone RFP feature. Available in our new release, planners can not only copy an existing RFP, but can also copy all suppliers associated with the RFP. This is great for regularly-held events during which you want to contact the same venues, or even for sourcing different events held in the same city.



Make sure to copy your existing RFPs and copy associated suppliers when it makes sense for your event. You'll save time on RFP creation and on supplier searches.

In the past, we've blogged about the benefits of using an early bird discount rate to improve attendee registration for your event. Price discounts can incentivize attendees to sign up; after all, they don't want a great deal to pass them by.

We also mentioned that you might want to consider extending the "Register by" date by a few weeks to bring the event to the forefront of attendees' minds once again. However, beyond this, extending your early bird rate can have a lot more disadvantages than advantages.

When you don't want to keep extending your early bird rate, but event registration numbers are still not where you'd like them to be, consider a few of the following tips to get registration numbers up:

• Send invitation reminders. We've said it before and we'll say it again: reminders work! In the past, Cvent's customers have seen a spike in registration in the days following an invitation reminder by as much as 100 percent.

Sometimes emails are pushed aside or lost due to busy schedules, not a lack of interest. Sending a reminder catches your invitees who want to attend but simply forgot about the invitation.

• Remind, or update, attendees on the value of your meeting. It's one thing to simply remind your invitees about the date and location of an upcoming event—you have to reinforce why they should attend! Stress the benefits of attending your event, from networking opportunities to educational sessions. 

Also, make sure to update guests on any further agenda items you may have finalized since the initial round of invitations. Did you finally nail down that great keynote speaker? Let guests know!

• Create a second discount rate. As we mentioned, multiple early bird extensions can have negative effects, including frustrating the first set of early birds. To avoid this while still providing an incentive, consider creating a second discount rate that is higher than the first time-related discount, but lower than regular event registration price. This gives an incentive to your remaining invitees without insulting your loyal early registrants.

• Ramp up your event marketing. We can only hope that, by this point in the game, you've launched a customized event website. Perhaps you've also done a few press releases or put an advertisement in local media. But have you gotten the word out via social marketing sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and event promotion sites such as Eventful? Now's the time to start!

These relatively new mediums are key for spreading the word about your event. They can go a long way, at little cost, in reaching an audience, so make sure it's a top priority from the get-go on your next event, as well.

• Be honest. In today's tough economy, meeting cancellations are happening every day, and it's often public knowledge. Don't leave your attendees to hesitate on registration out of fear that the event won't happen. In most cases, it's best to be clear about that status of your attendee numbers and possible explanations. Firmly let them know the meeting will happen—and that they won't want to miss it!

Communication with your event attendees should not stop after they register. If you want to keep your audience involved and excited about your event—and reduce event attrition—you need to keep them in the loop from the initial registration to the day (and even after) your event. That's why we offer functionality to send emails to your registrants after they've signed up for your event.

Aside from the standard event reminders and registration confirmations, Cvent offers a number of custom messages you can send to attendees, should something important come up. Did you have to change your keynote speaker? Has the cocktail reception been moved from 7 PM to 7:30 PM? Forgot to mention that name badges can be picked up on the first-floor lobby? Customize an email to include whatever information you'd like.

Because you can send emails to an invitee list of your choosing, you can even send emails for administrative purposes. For example, you can notify any registrants if they have a remaining balance due. Cvent's extensive set of data tags even allows you to automatically insert details such amount paid and remaining balance—meaning there's no need to spend time figuring out who owes what and creating emails one by one.

From registration to the day of your event, any number of issues could arise. Use Cvent's easy-to-customize email features to keep your attendees in the know.

In today's economy, your time as a meeting planner has become an even more precious commodity. It could be that staff cutbacks have resulted in a bigger workload, or perhaps an increased focus on budgets and cost-cutting has turned your attention away from the smaller details. Either way, you still need to create and launch professional, appealing events, but just don't have the time to do as good a job as you'd like building them.

Cvent can help time-pressed planners. Though the features of our event management software inherently save time spent sending invitations, registering attendees and more, we take it step further with Eventbuilder. Cvent's Eventbuilder team creates your entire event, complete with custom graphics that ensure a clean, branded look. Armed with industry experience and knowledge on how to create a successful event, our team makes sure your event is built according to best practices.

In a time crunch? The Eventbuilder team can create your events with just a few days' turnaround. Planning to build and re-use one event and want to make sure it's done according to best practices? Eventbuilder creates a well-made custom event that you can use over and over again.

If saving time or making the most of our expert knowledge is important for your next event, contact Cvent today to learn more about Eventbuilder.