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  • 1.  #ShareAndTell

    Posted 06-01-2023 11:52

    - Job Title: Meetings Manager

    - Event Description: I'm currently using Cvent as a third-party planner, but have previously used it for a private insurance company (2014-2018)

    - Event Dates: various from 2014-2018 and 2023-present

    - Phase of Event Planning:  Previously, I was in Cvent admin for the insurance company I worked for.  I implemented Cvent as the registration platform used for the company's events and later adopted CrowdCompass.  As a non-tech person, there was a little bit of a learning curve, but most things I was able to figure out as I played around in the system.  I loved being able to have shareholders access reporting data on-demand so I wouldn't have to drop what I was working on to run a report.  Post-event, it was easy to submit final attendance reports to our department who maintained records.  I'm now working for a third-party company as a planner.  We have a team that does event builds in Cvent, but I serve as a liaison and make tweaks as needed (it's quicker and easier sometimes to make the changes myself in lieu of going through the procedures and waiting for a designer to become available).  The reporting links make it much easier for clients to access reports and prevents me from pulling reports for the wrong client.  

    - Type of Event: Thus far, at my previous company and my current one, I've only had in-person events - trainings and conferences.

    - What Worked for You:

    1.) Adoption rates for CrowdCompass at our lower level trainings was amazing.  We had an increase in surveys (which were much quicker to compile by running a report instead of taking paper surveys and filling in answers in Excel), more questions being asked during sessions (submitted via app), and more networking by attendees. 

    2.) There was a substantial cost saving associated with using Cvent as it significantly reduced printing and shipping costs.  For one 150pax event, we saved $23,000+ in printing/shipping as we did not need to create binders with all slides, ship the binders, then ship back anything not taken by attendees for shredding.  Likewise, we saved approximately 120 man hours of assembling binders pre-event and an unknown number of hours on-site from updating binders as speakers made edits.

    - What to Avoid: 

    1.)  Adoption rates for our board of directors meetings was extremely low.  Approximately 160-200 attended the board of directors meetings, many of whom were well over 60 years of age in the mid-2010s.  That was a demographic that did not appreciate change or technology. 

    2.) Don't try to go at building new events on your own if you aren't well-versed in admission items and registration types.  We had a meeting where we essentially took two events and combined them.  All attendees were invited to the first two days, only higher-ranking attendees were invited to the final days.  I built two separate events in Cvent (used the smaller event as a template for the longer event), but it was a nightmare on the backend as we needed to change some registrants from the two meeting to the 5 day meeting.  We had to basically cancel their registration then have them re-register for the new event.  A few months later I found out I could use registration types and admission items to easily change them from one attendee type to the next without them re-registering.  It was less work for me, and less frustration for the attendees.


    #Miscellaneous

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    Julie-Michelle Davis, CMP
    Meetings Manager
    Amex GBT - USA
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