Registration Software

How Reliable is Your Registration Software?

Monday, November 9, 2009 by Elizabeth Elko

Some questions you need to consider before making a decision regarding online registration software include:

"What would the effect be of losing an entire day or two of data?"

"Ultimately, what are the costs incurred if the events don't happen successfully due to system outages?"

One thing that we take very seriously at Cvent, and that warrants mentioning, is the stability of our system. Since our inception in 1999, we've never experienced unplanned outages and are proud to say that we're the only registration software vendor that truly delivers 99.9% up-time to our users.

A majority of the other vendors out in the market can't promise this high level of reliability, but Cvent is here to relieve you of any worries you have about accessing valuable registration data - or worse - losing that data permanently.

Happy Birthday, Cvent Blog! The Top 10 Posts of Our First Year

Friday, October 9, 2009 by Sarah Larkins

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.

How to Maintain Company Standards and Consistent Branding in Event Websites, Emails and More

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 by Cvent Client Services

Larger organizations tend to have many users for their online registration software, and most of the time these users are located in different offices. This may cause difficulty in maintaining an organization’s standard of branding for events. Cvent offers a number of features to help address this.

Using Cvent, users can create and save event templates with their organization’s look and feel for the various types of events that they host. Once created, users can then easily clone a suitable template over and over for future event websites, invitations, etc.

Account-level email templates are also extremely helpful in these circumstances. Standard emails that may be used across multiple events can be set up at the account level for users to send to their specific targeted audiences. This will standardize the terminology and branding of an organization across its account.

Just because your email marketing is standardized doesn't mean it will be formal and cold. Through the use of data tags, these emails are also tailored to each individual that receives it, maintaining that personal feel. This is very helpful when sending out newsletters, announcements and invoices.

Administrators on accounts also have the ability to control the visibility and permissions of their users. This allows organizations to uphold the certain standard to which they are accustomed.

We've seen these features in action at large organizations. One client has even developed their own Cvent user guide with their organization's standards. They have found that using event templates and account-level email templates has helped them maintain their organization's branding and standard of communication.

Cvent is Great for All Events from A(zkatraz) to Z

Friday, July 10, 2009 by Sarah Larkins

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!

Cvent Featured in ITBusiness.ca!

Friday, March 20, 2009 by Sarah Larkins

Cvent's online registration software and Supplier Network were recently featured on ITBusiness.ca! The article "Software tools help event planners get hard results" describes how Cvent's event planning tools can help planners host meetings easily, effectively and accurately despite shrinking budgets.

Some Cvent clients in Canada, such as Ottawa-based Netrunner, Inc., shared how Cvent helped streamline events and save money.

Valerie Yersh, vice president of events and marketing at Netrunner, noted in the article that Cvent's reporting function was useful for sending just the financial updates to the sales department, without having them access all of the other logistics information. When it came to costs, Cvent's customizable event website tool was her top money-saving feature.

"The Web site development function allowed us to launch the event without having to pay a fortune for back-end Web development," she said in the article. "We found creating a Web site would cost around $15,000."

Read the full article here at ITBusiness.ca.

Encouraging Alumni Donations with Event Registration Software

Monday, March 2, 2009 by Cvent Staff

We recently blogged about the importance of donations to non-profits, associations and foundations. Donations are also very important to educational organizations, whose meetings and events, it seems, may be more apt to weather the economic storm.

Meeting planners working with alumni can easily take fundraising efforts to the next level by adding a donation option to their event registration. They can even ask about donations from those who cannot attend. Redirect invitees to the How to Donate section of your website after declining an invitation, or include a regret question asking them if they would be interested in donating to your alumni fund. This way, you'll reach alumni who simply cannot make it to your event (due to schedule or location conflict, etc.) but who want to give back to the organization nonetheless.

During tough economic times, it's important for planners to use all their resources to get in touch with alumni and find those interested in donating. Thanks to Cvent's comprehensive set of event management tools, it's easy to customize your event registration and make sure you're reaching out for support at any time possible.

Creating Name Badges Doesn't Have to Be a Pain

Friday, February 27, 2009 by Cvent Staff

Catering, audio-visual equipment, floral services—the list of things your meeting or event may require goes on and on. One thing that nearly every event is sure to need? Name badges. After all, networking is a big component of most events. If your attendees don't know each other's names, making connections is certainly hard to do.

Unfortunately, the task of creating name badges can also be a time-consuming one. Planners have to figure out how to design a label, incorporate mail merge fields into the design (that's assuming you already know all about the mail merge itself), and generate a label. Event registration software such as Cvent makes it so much easier.

Using Cvent, you can select what information—email address, first name, last name, title, etc.—appears on the name tag. Add your organization's logo, and edit the font size, type, color and style.

Then, just select the contacts for whom you want to create a name badge and print.

Don't make the task of creating name badges more difficult than it needs to be. Cvent's fast and simple feature for name badge creation is another example of how the software can meet all your event management needs.

Event Planning Tips: Stay Ahead When Staff Size Decreases

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 by Cvent Staff

One of the many unfortunate effects of the down economy has been staff cutbacks. Aside from losing trusted colleagues in light of tightened budgets, staff reductions also mean your workload increases, though the hours in the day certainly do not.

Luckily, meeting and event planners can meet the challenge to do more with less thanks to technology such as Cvent. Cvent's online event registration software accomplishes the extra work you have on your shoulders by drastically cutting the time spent on manual tasks.

For example, Cvent consolidates your attendee or member records in one location, collecting this data from them as they sign up for meetings and events. This information is pre-populated for returning customers, allowing them to view and update out-of-date contact data. Using Cvent, keeping track of registrant information is easily accomplished without demanding any of your time.

Consider the cloning feature of Cvent's event and Request for Proposal (RFP) management tools. You can easily access past events or RFPs and, with a few quick changes, re-use them for your current event. There's no need to "reinvent the wheel"—you'll save time by doing all the major event work just once, leveraging it later for similar events or RFPs.

These are just a few of the ways Cvent can save you time in your event management. Though your meeting planning staff may be limited, there's no need to feel overwhelmed. Sign up for one of our online demos today to learn more about using Cvent to meet the demands of a heavier workload without falling behind.

Manage Membership Renewal Through Cvent Software

Thursday, January 29, 2009 by Cvent Staff

As a member-based organization, you have a lot more on your plate than planning meetings and events through Cvent. Another important responsibility: managing your annual membership renewal campaigns. Did you know that Cvent, the leader in online event registration software, can help your association do this, too?

Membership renewal through Cvent is easy and efficient. You can arrange for all your contacts to be notified of renewal just by organizing your contacts into lists based on renewal dates (i.e. those whose membership expires in January, February, etc.). Then, you can easily send targeted emails to members in a timely and efficient manner.

The process for renewal is easy. First, create and launch a professional, appealing website using Cvent. You can provide background on your organization, list key association contacts, detail membership advantages, etc.

Rather than clicking "Register Now!" your current/potential members can click to renew/subscribe.

After reviewing their contact information, they can submit select their membership fee and fill out the payment details.

A few simple steps, and renewal is complete. Contact Cvent today to find out how our software can be leveraged for more than just your association events.

Attendee Management Tip: Increase Registration with Early Bird Discounts

Friday, January 23, 2009 by Cvent Staff

In a recent post on tips for attendee management to increase registration, we mentioned that bundling pricing can be a great strategy for encouraging multiple registrations. But what if you're just looking for registrations, period? Or perhaps you're targeting many clients who work for small organizations, and thus don't have more than one employee for whom event attendance makes sense?

You can incentivize this target audience as well. One way to do this is to offer other price discount options such as early bird rates.

With Cvent's online registration software, you can set such time-related discounts for your admission items. Just enter the discounted price and specify a date. Any guests who registers prior to this date will pay the discounted early bird price.

Time-related discounts are a great way to draw in registrations. After all, most people are most open to paying for something when they know they're getting a deal.

Another tip for making the most of your early bird offer? As you approach your discounted registration deadline, consider extending the "Register by" date by a few weeks. Extending the early-bird rate will bring the event to your invitee's attention again. Plus, it will grab a whole set of registrants who realize they should take advantage of a second chance at a great rate.

Attendee Management: 5 Tips for Increasing Your Registrations

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 by Cvent Staff

Now more than ever, meeting planners are on the lookout for ways to increase attendee registration. With a few simple but effective changes in your attendee management strategy, you'll have event registration numbers up in no time.

• Don't spam. Utilizing email campaigns for your event marketing can get a response rate of five percent to 15 percent, compared to the one percent to two percent response rate of paper campaigns. Yet no email campaign has a chance of success if it doesn't even get through to your event invitee's inbox.

Carefully consider your email invitation's subject line and content so as to avoid getting stuck in a spam filter. Online registration software such as Cvent boasts an email content analyzer feature that scores your email deliverability and risk of getting caught in filters.

• Take advantage of free marketing. Event planning software can do wonders when it comes to event promotion. But don't forget the many free avenues to garner publicity, like social networking sites, free press release engines and more.

• Go online. The Internet is the go-to place for information these days. Don't be left out! Create an attractive, professional event website to offer invitees online registration and event details, and to keep attendees up-to-date on the latest agenda.

• Bundle prices. Offering bundled fees for multiple event registrations encourages organizations to sign up several attendees. Attendees will be hesitant of registering more than one attendee at full price. By offering a volume discount, you'll entice organizations to sign up two, three, four or more attendees.

• Brand your event. From a color scheme to a catchy slogan, your event should be branded with the key "take-away" for your attendees. Make sure your attendees know the benefit of coming your event, and shout it from the rooftops on your email invitation, event website, follow-up survey and more.

Keep Online Registration Numbers High!

Friday, January 16, 2009 by Cvent Staff

Times are tough, and you've no doubt seen many changes happening with your meetings and events. Are you concerned about keeping your registration numbers up?

Just like you, your potential event attendees are dealing with stricter budgets. It's getting harder and harder to justify money spent on elaborate conferences and events. You can, however, convince cash-strapped attendees to click "Yes" on your event invitations.

Be flexible with your attendees by offering them multiple registration options rather than one, all-inclusive entrance pass. By setting up your online registration with various event session and track options, you'll draw in attendees who can't justify the price of a ticket to your conference or meeting as a whole, but can certainly attend a few of the most valuable (in their eyes) events on your agenda.

Offering multiple registration options is easy with online registration software such as Cvent. You can add sessions, specifying names, start dates and times and more.

Set fees and amounts that are appropriate for each session.

When your attendees register, they can select to register for the entire event or just one or two of your sessions. This feature will not only allow you to keep the registrants whose budgets no longer allow for an entire event registration, but also gain those who may have never met your admission fee in the past.

Meeting Planners Resolve to Re-Tool Their Meetings Programs

Thursday, January 15, 2009 by Cvent Staff

According to a MeetingNews survey, the majority of meeting planners (29 percent) have set a New Year's resolution to re-tool their meetings program in 2009. Many planners said that getting more familiar with event technology was one way to do this. Others cited efforts such as "improving the electronic invitation process" and "increasing my skill level in the use of technology as it relates to planning, promotion, implementation, follow-up and evaluation of our meetings."

Online registration software such as Cvent can help you meet these meeting planning goals and more. From email invitations to event follow-up surveys, Cvent's extensive toolset can address all of your needs. Plus, Cvent's dedicated customer care team is available 24X5 to assist in the creation, management and analysis of your meetings and events, and can also offer insider tips and best practices for making your events a success.

Make sure that your 2009 resolution is kept. Learn more about event management with Cvent by signing up for one of our online demos today.

What to Look for in Software for Event Websites

Friday, January 9, 2009 by Cvent Staff

Now that you know how to what makes an event website professional and effective, how do you go about actually creating one? Selecting event registration software such as Cvent can help. What should you look for in an event management solution when it comes to event websites?

• Customizable pages. Color and text are important for capturing your event attendees' attention, so make sure your event software lets you be creative with your pages. With software such as Cvent, you can set background and text colors, select button colors and styles, specify time and date formats and more.

In addition to being able to change the color, useful software for creating event websites should allow you to customize items such as graphics. Adding your corporate logo and color schemes promotes brand awareness.

• Organized page tabs. Rather than overload your invitees with event information on the first page of your website, create separate pages for the event summary, agenda, attendee list, speakers, etc. Using Cvent, you can create multiple event pages, then organize these pages in a logical order under separate tabs.

• Ability to update. Your event isn't static, so why would your event website be? Valuable event website software will allow you to keep adding and editing your event website after the initial launch. You can keep your attendees up to date on agenda items, session speakers and more.

A final note: one of the most important things to look for in your event website solution is a user-friendly interface. Especially if you have no knowledge of HTML or experience in website construction, pick a software solution like Cvent that offers easy-to-use tools and free customer support. Creating and launching event websites becomes a no brainer for any user.

Getting Attendees to Recommend Your Event

Friday, January 9, 2009 by Cvent Staff

When it comes to getting advice and opinions, we often turn to trusted friends, colleagues and family members. We value their input more than that from any external sources, which is often you, the event marketer.

Because of this inherit trust, a message from a friend or colleague can have a much stronger impact than one from you, especially if you are contacting a potential event attendee with whom you do not have a relationship (a non-member, new lead, etc.). Wouldn't it be great if you could get endorsement of your event from an invitee's friends? It's possible with Tell-A-Friend functionality.

Using event registration software such as Cvent, attendees can forward an event invitation other people. During registration, attendees simply enter the names and email addresses of friends along with a short message. An invitation email will automatically be sent to those entered.

When it comes to event promotion, it doesn't get much better than a solid recommendation from a trusted friend. Make the tell-a-friend feature a must-have for your event management software.

Multiple Path Registration Meets Your Conference Needs

Friday, December 19, 2008 by Cvent Staff

As many meeting and event planners know, it's common to have more than one type of registrant for your conferences, tradeshows, etc. For example, at a tradeshow you may have both exhibitors and attendees, while large meetings and conferences may be open to both members and non-members. In such cases, using conference registration software that offers only one registration process would be inefficient.

Using Cvent's registration software, it's easy to create multiple registration paths so that you can offer a registration to all your attendees. When creating your event, simply select the Multiple option for your event's registration process.

Then you can edit the details of as many registration processes as you need for your event.

Events and conferences are not "one size fits all," so why should your conference registration software be? Using Cvent's multiple-path registration feature, it's easy for planners to manage complex events with one easy-to-use system.

Time-Saving Features of Conference Registration Software

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 by Cvent Staff

Looking for a way to save time without increasing cost on your next conference? Conference registration software is exactly what you need.

Conference registration software such as Cvent offers a wealth of easy-to-use features that will enhance the registration process for both you and your conference attendees. Set up quick online registration that you can make open to the public through the event website or make private by specifying a targeted list of attendees.

It's easy to customize your online conference registration to meet every one of your needs. Set cut-off dates for when attendees can change or cancel registration, provide a personalized agenda according to each registrant's selections, and allow attendees to repeat the registration process as another registrant. You can even ask custom questions about your conference registration, for example, "How did you hear about this conference?"

Do you have a particularly detailed conference in the works? Using Cvent for your conference registration software makes it easy to create multiple sessions or tracks for your event. Include sessions in your conference, or create optional ones with or without required fees.

Managing your specific session attendees is even easier with session emails. Scheduled automated emails for each session, whether before the session to provide an agenda or after the session to thank all the participants.

Consider all the features of conference registration software for your next event. You can save time and money planning even the most involved conference or event.

View more information on Cvent's online registration features