Open Forum

Hello Cvent Community, 

Welcome to the August edition of our Member Spotlight series, where we spotlight exceptional Community members. This series aims to celebrate standout individuals within our community, showcasing their unique insights, perspectives, and experiences. Chosen for their active participation and expertise, our spotlights promise to bring you a captivating glimpse into the journey and contributions of our featured members. 

So, let's unveil our remarkable community star for this month without further ado!

Meet @Terryn MacDonell

Hi, I'm Terryn! I live in Nova Scotia, and I'm a Solutions Specialist at Cvent. I've always found this role a little hard to describe - just ask my mom; she still doesn't really know what I do - but basically, we act as a strategic resource that's brought in to assist in product discussions for customer-specific use cases. 

@Kameron Kidd was able to chat with Terryn and ask her some questions.

Aside from your role at Cvent, do you have any hobbies or interests that you enjoy pursuing in your free time?

I've always been a fan of spending my free time playing video games! I'm also passionate about programming and enjoy working on various programming projects in python and C++/#. Additionally, I love to knit and crochet, and recently taken up making resin crafts like custom dice sets. 

How long have you been a part of the Cvent team, and what initially drew you to the company?

I've been working at Cvent for nearly two years now. Honestly, what initially drew me in was the opportunity to work fully remotely - as someone who can be a nervous driver, the flexibility to skip rush hour was a huge bonus. However, as I progressed through the interview process and had an opportunity to meet the people I'd be working with, I found that there was a variety of reasons to want to work here. The real draw for me became the incredible team I get to work with every day and how great my team leaders are. I've had previous positions where it felt like management just saw everyone as employees, but I feel our management here genuinely cares about the person behind the employee. The supportive and inclusive culture truly makes it a pleasure to work here.

What resources, tools, or training programs do you find most valuable to share with customers in order to enhance their experience with Cvent?

I find the Cvent Community as a whole is a valuable resource when it comes to learning how to use different modules in Cvent and keep up to date on new releases. Cvent Academy has trainings you can go through that can be a helpful place to start. I tend to recommend looking through the Product News page under the Resources section on the community which is quite helpful in finding upcoming releases and product updates. As a very hands-on learner, I find just experimenting within test events to be a fun way to learn how different aspects of our software works - especially when you let yourself get creative with your imaginary events!

Can you share a memorable experience or success story from your time at Cvent?

My training experience was quite memorable! I ended up having a small training class, so my trainers and other classmates had a lot of fun getting to know each other and learning the product together. I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of anything specific - as a remote worker, there's a lot of fun little things that happen day to day. My teammates always find a way to bring fun into our meetings and make sure to involve my other remote coworkers in online activities.

Do you have a specific area of Community that you feel is important and recommend to customers most often?

The Community Knowledge Base articles are always helpful for learning the basics and answering some more simple questions, but I feel the discussion forms are a valuable wealth of knowledge! It's like channeling a hive mind of fellow Cvent users where you can find others that have had similar questions or use cases, and it gives the opportunity to network with users managing similar events.

Are there any specific initiatives or projects you are currently working on within Cvent to better support clients?

I recently joined the Community Moderator team! I actually find it really enjoyable to look into the interesting questions and use cases that get posted in the discussion forums. My job role keeps me pretty busy, so I don’t get to go through the forums as often as I'd like to, but I do my best to help out where I can! I also make an effort to participate in User Acceptance Testing programs for upcoming releases - it can be a lot of fun to provide feedback for our product teams. 

What advice would you give to Cvent customers who are looking to actively engage and participate in the community?

If you're just starting out in Community, a great place to start is checking out the Welcome to the Community page under Participate - this page has a huge list of ways you can contribute. One of the biggest things I can recommend is to try not to be afraid to post questions and respond in discussion threads. Putting yourself out there are sharing your experience can be a huge help to other users! I'm also a big believer that there's no such thing as a dumb question, especially with a complex software. Another thing I like to recommend to users looking to be more actively engaged is to utilize the Product Ideas page! You can post, upvote, and comment on recommendations on how you think we can improve Cvent.

Anyone with comments or questions can respond below

Step into the Spotlight - Nominate Yourself or another Standout Member for Our Next Feature
Just send an email to communitymanager@cvent.com to volunteer or nominate one of your peers.
Minimum Requirements: Have a profile photo uploaded and a history of participating in Community discussions, activities, product ideas, or events.

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