For our Q1 Virtual Education Community Conversation, we welcomed Katie Risher, Assistant Director, Conferences at the University of Florida, who brought to life how her team uses Cvent Supplier Network (CSN) to power UF's event portfolio.
Katie described conferences at UF as an extension of the university's brand and one of the most visible expressions of its research mission. Each event is an opportunity to connect faculty, industry, government, and global partners, and her team is at the center of that work-supporting 125 registration clients and 20–25 full‑service conferences each year.
How UF Uses CSN
Katie walked us through a typical journey. Her team partners with a planning group on site selection, AV, transportation, travel, and onsite event management, while still leading these logistics internally. Instead of juggling multiple RFP documents and one‑off emails, they now start in CSN.
With one RFP, Katie can capture detailed meeting requirements-from the agenda and room setup to attendee counts-and send it to a curated list of hotels. She shared that they've already sent 246 RFPs and awarded 8 programs through CSN, and that the ability to export and consolidate venue recommendations for planners "makes my job so much easier." Awarding the RFP in CSN keeps everything in one place and opens up streamlined chat with venues, including the option to loop in Hilton/Marriott reps and NSO contracts when needed.
Before CSN, UF relied on a custom RFP document and manual outreach to multiple contacts. Building an RFP was time‑consuming and repetitive. Now, Katie can build and send an RFP in about 30 minutes, adjust details herself, and move on to higher‑value work-because, as she put it, "Saving time on manual tasks is a huge advantage."
The Impact
As Katie reflected on her team's experience, a clear story emerged: CSN gives them access to a global vendor marketplace, helps them work with far greater time efficiency, and supports data‑driven decision making when it's time to compare options and negotiate. Keeping everything in one platform has also strengthened their negotiation leverage and integrated communication and tracking with hotel partners.
Most of UF's hotel partners are already active in Cvent across CSN, Passkey, and Diagramming, and response times still vary by event and location-but Katie noted they can request quick responses directly in the RFP when timelines are tight.
She closed with a simple takeaway: it just takes one event for CSN to prove its worth.
If you'd like to compare approaches or share how your institution is using CSN for academic or research‑driven events, feel free to add your experience in the comments.
Missed the conversation? Catch the full recording here: Community Conversations_ Education Networking Meetups - Spring 2026.mp4 | Powered by Box
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Kylie Ott
Lead Customer Success Advisor
Richmond, VA
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