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Your best cvent hack

  • 1.  Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 06-29-2019 09:57
    Edited by Kameron Kidd 01-18-2024 14:08
    What is your best cvent hack?

    For me it is feedback questions and the badge wizard. I'll save the badge wizard hack for another day. :)

    We are a car club. Every registration gets a number beginning from 1 on their name badge.
    Low numbers tend to be bragging rights and some people have reserved numbers they use year to year.
    Attendees get a number decal for their car. We sometimes have attendance prizes and call out the registration number.
    Easier to call a number than a name. We've been doing this for 50 years!

    Before learning about feedback questions I had to export the attendee list.
    Sort by date registered. Manually enter a registration number in a hidden question for every attendee.
    Because the number decals are printed sequentially, if someone cancelled I would have to update everyone's numbers.
    We had 1000 people for this event. I was doing this multiple times. I hated life.

    The following year I learned about feedback questions.
    I exported my attendee list, sorted by date. I added the registration number in excel and imported it back to the attendee registration using the confirmation number.  Now whenever I had to update the number, it only takes a few minutes.
    Life it is good. This has save me countless hours and eliminated me assigning the same number to multiple people.

    I use feedback questions for all sorts of things.
    I need to know if a person is a First Timer, Sponsor, Board Member, Staff.
    Using the same method I can update each person.
    I use those questions to create my badge ribbons that are printed on the name badge.
    Another hack that has saved me countless hours.
    #Miscellaneous #Feedback

    ------------------------------
    Steven Schlossman
    Jack of all trades. Master of none.
    BMW Car Club of America
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-01-2019 08:34
    My best #cventhack is to use the Certificate functionality to automate VISA letters. I just make a standard VISA letter and use data tags (i.e. First Name Last Name is invited to Event Name by Main StakeHolder for the purpose of <I write the justification>. Data tags can be used for attendee name, location, the inviting party (i.e. my VP), etc. Put a button on the registration confirmation page. You can also create a custom page on the registration website so that the attendees have instructions to log using their reg confirmation code and hit the button, which I renamed "Visa Request Letter."​​​

    ------------------------------
    Brenda Ainsburg
    Channel Program Manager
    brenda.ainsburg@siemens.com
    Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    United States
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-01-2019 10:48
    I use the Datatags across multiple areas...you only have to update the content once and it will update everything it is pulled! :-) Best #cventhack ever! I also agree with Brenda's suggestion, we also do this for "statements" since we get asked for these all the time for reimbursement purposes.


    ------------------------------
    Lindsay Buchanan
    Manager, Meetings, Association Management, and Groups
    Travelink
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-01-2019 12:06
    Agree with @Lindsay Buchanan! I also create event level custom tags. For example, we had 3 local airports and several different dates that weren't in the system. I created custom data tags for those so I could use them easily. Typing out airport names in multiple places risks a lot of errors in static data.

    ------------------------------
    Brenda Ainsburg
    Channel Program Manager
    brenda.ainsburg@siemens.com
    Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    United States
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-02-2019 19:05
    #Datatags I had to update our website and registration with a new price. Something external from cvent. I was dreading looking for all the instances. I forgot I created a datatag knowing in advance that the price might change. Just had to update the text in the tag. :)

    When I started this thread I should have explained what a cvent hack was to me.
    It's using cvent where it may not have been intended. My post was about importing text as feedback answers, 500 at a time. Not necessarily using feedback questions for a survey.

    Regardless, I'm glad to see so many people contributing. BTW-Datatags rule. :)​

    ------------------------------
    Steven Schlossman
    Jack of all trades. Master of none.
    BMW Car Club of America
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 11-06-2019 11:01
    Hi Lindsay,
    I would love to be able to do this and have tried formatting the invoices/statements in the past but they looked really bad.  Do you have an example you could possibly share with me on how your finished product looks?

    Thanks!

    Marie

    ------------------------------
    Marie Jeffery
    Director of Customer Experience
    The Knowledge Management Institute
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-18-2019 08:15
    I didn't even realize there was certificate functionality until just now. *facepalm* Thanks for sharing!

    ------------------------------
    Kelly Ohlert
    Supervisor Operations, Groups
    Stryker
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-01-2019 10:59
    Take the time to create general meeting templates for the different kind of meetings you have (for my company, it is Advisory Board, Speaker Training, Dinner, etc) and then always use those templates when creating a new event, via Use an Existing Event. It saves so much time down the road!

    ------------------------------
    Dana Kanter
    Meeting Coordinator
    ClinicalMind, LLC
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    User Group Member
    Posted 07-01-2019 17:16
    My new favorite hacks is the use of data tags. Yes, they can used in so many ways. They can be a URL or a link data tag. You can always insert a different data tag (with over 400 data tags available) or create a custom one. See links:

    https://support.cvent.com/apex/CommunityArticle?id=000002648
    https://support.cvent.com/apex/CommunityArticle?id=000025265&Lang=en_US&searchTerm=Data%20tags

    We use them when building name badges, building generic reports, etc. The options are limitless.

    ------------------------------
    Jacqueline C. Ward, CMP
    Director, Continuing Legal Education & Special Events, School of Law, UNC-CH
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-01-2019 18:11
    Recently learned how to use "Certificate of Completion" to get people to fill out our feedback surveys. It's increased our feedback survey rate by at least 25%. 

    Set up a certificate in "Badges & Certificates"

    In the feedback survey email let people know they will receive a link to their completion certificate once they fill out the survey.

    Create an event email that goes out when someone finishes their survey with a link to their certificate.

    AWESOME!

    ------------------------------
    Danelle Bowron
    Educational Services Associate
    ACSA
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-01-2019 21:40
    Brilliant!

    ------------------------------
    Brenda Ainsburg
    Channel Program Manager
    brenda.ainsburg@siemens.com
    Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    United States
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-02-2019 09:55
    This is such a great idea!  Thanks for sharing!

    ------------------------------
    Marisa Lancaster
    Senior Associate, Operations, Event & Meetings
    KPMG LLP - NJ
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    User Group Member
    Posted 07-16-2019 08:30
    Fantastic idea Danelle!

    ------------------------------
    ~
    Jo Anna Chapin
    Meeting Technology Consultant
    ------------------------------



  • 14.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-19-2019 14:49
    Hi Danielle, 

    Are you able to automate this email? I see that you can send an email manually or at a scheduled time to go out to people who have completed the survey. But is there a way to make it send automatically after someone finishes the survey? 

    Thanks!

    ------------------------------
    Alyssa Manse
    Implementation Specialist
    The Commons Learning Center at The University of Texas at Austin
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-19-2019 15:32
    Edited by Kameron Kidd 01-18-2024 14:08
    Hello Alyssa,

    Yes. When you first create the email make sure you select the audience type - "Complete Response."  Then there is a question in the settings that asks "When do you want to send this email?" Make sure the radio button "Automatically when someone changes to this audience type" is selected.  The email should go out automatically when the person completes the survey.


    ------------------------------
    James Castignoli
    Contractor
    Harvard Medical School
    ------------------------------



  • 16.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    User Group Member
    Posted 07-02-2019 07:54
    My newest hack is using the invoice feature.  I created an account level template to use across multiple events and include a link in the confirmation email and a button on the confirmation page to download.  If I get an outside email request for an invoice, I can easily go back into their registration and create the PDF with 2 clicks.  I only wish I used this sooner!

    (P.S. This is a great thread!)

    ------------------------------
    Heather Darrow
    Conference Coordinator
    Cornell University - Department Of Animal Science
    ------------------------------



  • 17.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-02-2019 08:53
    I really like the ability to utilize buttons where Cvent has not provided a widget to use a button. I used the website: https://dabuttonfactory.com/ to create a button image and the in the site designer I insert the image button and add a link to where I need the button to go. For us we needed to provide a link in the confirmation emails to another site and this worked perfectly. It made it look a lot more professional.

    ------------------------------
    Stephanie Stribling
    Registration Account Manager
    MCI USA
    ------------------------------



  • 18.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-02-2019 09:03
    I am bookmarking that button creator site, @Stephanie Stribling! We had some old and ugly html coding in our corporate template that included pretty ugly buttons. I disabled the Advanced mode in Cvent Classic (since some of the CSS broke the Cvent navigation and custom page groups). I had been using just hyperlinks for Yes and No (re "Are you attending) but having custom buttons seems much cleaner! And one could put them into a table with no borders to keep their placement consistent as invitees view the invitation in different platforms (computer VS mobile phone VS tablet).​

    ------------------------------
    Brenda Ainsburg
    Channel Program Manager
    brenda.ainsburg@siemens.com
    Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    United States
    ------------------------------



  • 19.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-02-2019 10:12
    Using logic tags in e-mails to cut down on very specific e-mails and more custom e-mails than necessary.

    ------------------------------
    Julie Schnepp
    Conference Coordinator
    Acton Institute
    ------------------------------



  • 20.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-02-2019 11:43
    Custom Data Tags

    I created two sites for an event last year, one in English and one in Japanese. Since there is a character limit of 2500 for admission and session descriptions the Japanese version could not fit all the characters.

    I created a custom data tags, dumped all the Japanese descriptions in for each, which always 5000 characters, and was able to add those custom data tags to the admission description and session description instead. 



    ------------------------------
    James Rose
    Senior Web Developer and Content Manager
    University of Michigan (Office of Development)
    ------------------------------



  • 21.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-08-2019 14:21
    You can actually use any data tag with the generated logic template by placing it in the parenthesis of the EVALUATE directive:
    {%IF:EVALUATE([Any Data Tag Here]) [EQUAL_TO|NOT_EQUAL_TO] "Predicate value here"%}
    Content if true
    {%ELSE%}
    Content if false (ELSE is optional)
    {%ENDIF%}​
    So you can insert content conditionally based on any survey-type question, last hotel request, etc. Only works in email templates though.

    ------------------------------
    Richard Carls
    Senior Web Developer
    Citibank, N.A.
    ------------------------------



  • 22.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    User Group Member
    Posted 12-03-2019 17:52
    @Richard Carls, I know you posted this a while ago, but I just saw it. FANTASTIC. This could potentially change the way I do emails. If I can evaluate Internal Information fields within an event instead of having only those from the picklist (which are mostly on the contact level), my job will be so much easier! Cannot wait to try this. Thank you! Now, if I could only assign registration types this way... ​

    ------------------------------
    Karyn Calaway
    Event Systems Specialist
    ACT, Inc.
    ------------------------------



  • 23.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-08-2019 11:27
    In the past I used the Regret Survey, and now Inquisium for scholarship applicants for our Summer Conference.  In both I set up planner alerts to let me know who applied and when (it's first come, first served), and all of the details of their applications.  It's been great way to create our scholarship online and have all the info stored in Cvent!

    ------------------------------
    Ina Wertz
    Conference Planner
    Family Design Resources Inc
    ------------------------------



  • 24.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-08-2019 16:11
    Edited by Kameron Kidd 01-18-2024 14:10

    I love reading all the responses to these types of questions! My favorite #cventhack is to ​use the event summary on each event page to help track your registration progress from previous years!

    I can change my event summary chart to different intervals and types of registrations. When you click "Compare to Past events" you can select that event in the previous year.

    We use this all the time to help us track where we are (if we are falling behind, had more applications....etc.) The only note here is that if your date of the event changes - you just need to account for the time change. 
    ------------------------------

    Megan Vivier
    Senior Programs & Advancement Specialist
    Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation
    ------------------------------



  • 25.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    User Group Member
    Posted 07-16-2019 08:27
    Great tip!

    ------------------------------
    ~
    Jo Anna Chapin
    Meeting Technology Consultant
    ------------------------------



  • 26.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 07-15-2019 22:07
    Since Flex does not yet offer all of the features we need (especially PNR integration) we have created a workaround to be able to use Flex for the website build only. We create the registration in classic and create a custom register button on the Flex site and link it back to the classic registration. We have used this for a number of events this year and it has worked great. We wanted to at least be able to showcase all of the capabilities of the Flex registration site even though we can't quite use the registration portion yet.

    ------------------------------
    Kelly Ohmes
    Client Services Supervisor
    Meridian Enterprises Corporation
    ------------------------------



  • 27.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-18-2019 08:26
    Great thread Steven!  My #cventhack would be for expirations. Since there's currently not a way to automatically expire invitations (like you have 10 days to register, and then we're going to open it up to another person), we create an "expired" invitation list/registration type, and do not assign an admission item to it. We use the meeting language to update the no admission item error to read something like "thank you for your interest in this event. Your invitation has been expired since being sent more than x days ago. If you would still like to attend, please contact your sales rep to be added back on to the waitlist."  Once it is all set up, whenever someone needs to be expired, all we have to do is change them to the expired invitation list. This way we're preventing them from registering, getting them the message they need, and tracking who has previously been invited. A bit manual to keep track of who needs to be expired when though. ​

    ------------------------------
    Kelly Ohlert
    Supervisor Operations, Groups
    Stryker
    ------------------------------



  • 28.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-18-2019 18:06
    @Kelly Ohlert  That would be a good one for the ideas section.

    ------------------------------
    Steven Schlossman
    Jack of all trades. Master of none.
    BMW Car Club of America
    ------------------------------



  • 29.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 07-23-2019 08:34
    This has now been added to the ideas section as 

    Automatically Expire Invitations
    if anyone is interested in upvoting :-)



    ------------------------------
    Kelly Ohlert
    Supervisor Operations, Groups
    Stryker
    ------------------------------



  • 30.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 10-21-2019 17:23
    Thought of another useful hack that I used with my last event.

    I print agendas for all attendees. Most invitees bring guests.
    When I print the agendas, they are all in alphabetical order.

    In the past I would create a registration packet for each person.
    This year I wanted to combine the invitee with the guests.

    This brought the number of envelopes down to 799 from 1326. That is a lot of space saved when we are transporting registration packets. Plus a lot less space on the table.

    Only issue is matching the guests to the invitee since the last names could be different.

    SOLUTION: Feedback question "Sort order". :)

    My custom report sorts by Primary Registrant then guest/invitee.
    Add a column Sort Number to the report.
    Then number each row, 1 through 1326.
    Import back the sort number using confirmation number, first and last name.

    When I print the agenda, I also print the sort order number.
    Obviously the agendas are in alphabetical order, but I reorder them numerically.
    Now I have every guest behind the correct invitee.
    I also import the guest names into a custom field in the contact record so I can print them on the agenda to double check the names.

    My envelopes have a clear front so I can see who belongs to each packet.


    ------------------------------
    Steven Schlossman
    Jack of all trades. Master of none.
    BMW Car Club of America
    ------------------------------



  • 31.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 01-20-2020 10:56
    Thought of something new, although maybe not a hack since it's a feature.

    When I first started using cvent I wanted to import answers to internal questions. At the time I don't think I could import to guests.
    So I used feedback questions. I think I may have suggested to cvent to used confirmation number to relate the answers.
    The up side was super easy to import answers to invitee and guest registrations. The downside was the all attendees could see those answers. Some of the answers changed or where entirely internal. It was confusing for attendees.

    Now in 2020 I can import answers into internal questions for invitees and guests. :) This keeps behind the scenes truly behind the scenes.

    My latest use of internal questions were used to assign ticket numbers and a parking pass.
    Now I can look at someones registration in OnArrival and know what ticket or parking pass I assigned.
    Useful if I find a ticket left behind or need to identify who belongs to a parking pass.

    ------------------------------
    Steven Schlossman
    Jack of all trades. Master of none.
    BMW Car Club of America
    ------------------------------



  • 32.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Posted 04-10-2020 15:41
    Edited by Kameron Kidd 01-18-2024 14:09

    Steven,

    I went through circles with the same situation and not being able to upload information for Guests easily. I now use internal questions. As long as you pull the guest confirmation number, you're able to upload! It has made our processes much easier. The nice thing is that you can filter using the invitee management by internal questions also!



    ------------------------------
    Thu Nguyen
    Account Support Specialist
    INCOMM INCENTIVES
    ------------------------------



  • 33.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    User Group Member
    Posted 01-26-2021 14:09
    I'm sure others know of this one - but this is my favorite quick "hack" to see my registration numbers by type! From the home page, click chart type "area", breakdown by registration type. Hover over the chart points, and you can see the live numbers. 


    ------------------------------
    Rebecca Quinn
    Corporate Events Manager
    Transplace Texas, LP
    ------------------------------


  • 34.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 02-23-2021 17:36

    I want to add an additional #cventhack.
    You can use a 3rd party platform, such as Zoom with "interpretation" to produce content in the VAH in multiple languages.
    Go into the translation company's zoom account (or have them set it up) and use THAT link in your VAH session. It will have to be a Cvent Video Conferencing session type. 
    Use the email marketing tools in Cvent to explain how to choose a language .

    If you need to have live on the fly translation during a Cvent Advanced Production (Cvent Video Player - Live using the SocialLive integration), you can put a "language translation" link into the session description to take those attendees into a Zoom session. You as the Zoom host will be IN the VAH and you can fullscreen the streaming Advanced Production while the translation team translates on the fly. 

    Also use Cvent's custom data tags for "language" or advanced filtering to choose countries that share a common language and send those folks the Zoom meeting link for the translated session. You'll want them in a Zoom room to select INTERPRETATION and their language of choice while you fullscreen the Cvent Advanced Production content from the VAH.



    ------------------------------
    Brenda Ainsburg
    Channel Program Manager
    brenda.ainsburg@siemens.com
    Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    United States
    ------------------------------



  • 35.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    User Group Member
    Posted 02-25-2021 10:07
    We do hacks for special things we asked during registration that we want people to confirm at check-in when we're getting them their badges. So at registration we have people choose activity/sessions for one afternoon, food/dietary information and other things related to their checkin.

    We then assign a "letter" code description for each of these items. Then below the QR code we have the letter code prints so as the badges are printing out at check-in so as it starts to print and we're talking to them we could be like "You signed up for the dolphin tour. are you still interested in doing that" and then we have the dinner menus available and could be like "We see you picked vegetarian meal, just want to confirm this dinner would be OK with you." Helps us get answers to confirm our counts for activities and other things and helps our guest feel like we almost know and remember their choices by heart.

    ------------------------------
    Rachel Sigley
    Director, Brand Marketing
    Tata America International Corporation
    NJ
    ------------------------------



  • 36.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 02-25-2021 11:18
    @Rachel Sigley We sometimes print in a small font the session the attendee is registered for. And usually in gray. This is my backup incase we get overloaded or something goes wrong at session check in. That and we can move people in quick. I also use conditional images. If someone purchases our meal package, I have plate with a knife and fork. If someone is going on a tour, I may have a small bus. Then those checking passengers on the bus only need to look at their badge. When dealing with volunteers, I try to make it as easy as possible. And I'm more of a visual person.

    For the dolphin tour, I'd have ​a dolphin. :)


    ------------------------------
    Steven Schlossman
    Jack of all trades. Master of none.
    BMW Car Club of America
    ------------------------------



  • 37.  RE: Your best cvent hack

    Community MVP
    Posted 02-25-2021 15:50
    @Steven Schlossman -  You just made my day!

    For the dolphin tour, I'd have ​a dolphin. :)

    ------------------------------
    James Rose | Senior Web Developer and Content Management
    Digital Infrastructure
    Office of University Development | University of Michigan
    ------------------------------