Cvent's AI Makeover Targets Planners, Hotels, and the Future of Sourcing
The launch of CventIQ represents a significant bet on AI becoming the backbone of Cvent's entire ecosystem, predictable buzzwords included.
Cvent has launched CventIQ, embedding AI across its event management and sourcing ecosystem.
At the Skift Meetings Forum last September, Aggarwal acknowledged that the company had lagged in AI innovation. At that point, Cvent only offered AI through writing assistants and basic integrations. The new updates represent a significant expansion of AI capabilities across the platform.
The reveal was the main focus of its Cvent CONNECT hybrid conference that drew 10,000 attendees to San Antonio last week. This was the conference's second year in the Texan city, but it will move to Nashville in 2026.
Innovative Sessions Snapshots
Among the new AI-powered mentioned in Aggarwal's keynote, "session snapshots" stood out as particularly innovative. This feature works through the Cvent mobile app, where attendees can view a live transcript of session content. When they hear something noteworthy, they tap the screen to bookmark that moment. The AI automatically generates a note from that section and saves it. The system collects saved snapshots together and then aggregates them into personalized highlight reels and daily session summaries.
The snapshots feature is intriguing and potentially a game changer because it uses proven AI technology for transcribing and summarizing content in a clever way. Beyond integrating it into the main event app, Cvent is empowering attendees to personalize takeaways, rather than leaving the summarizing entirely to AI.
If the system works and organizers promote app downloads, this should improve the personalized summaries and make attendees more likely to use them due to the IKEA Effect, which suggests people place higher value on things they help create.
This feature could prove popular and generate valuable data for planners, provided it works well and attendees embrace the technology. Understanding when a session resonates is key to demonstrating its value, while pinpointing the most interesting discussion points should generate uniquely useful follow-ups for attendees.
Navigating Sales
CventIQ is not only enhancing content consumption but also boosting the Cvent Supplier Network (CSN) capabilities, a platform used by more than 200,000 planners to source 48 million room nights worth $18 billion in 2024.
Targeting CSN's valuable planner user base feels similar to using LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Sales teams see comprehensive planner overviews with event details and the entire organization. They can search for planners that are a good match for the property or for those sourcing in competing markets. AI can generate email notifications with a list of recommended planners and help craft a relevant message instantly.
The Cvent Event Marketing & Management Platform connects with LinkedIn's marketing tools, enabling planners to share their database of potential event attendees to serve ads to on LinkedIn.
Boosting Property Appeal and Response Speed
CventIQ features extensively throughout Cvent's used of 3D content. The platform now offers a full 3D immersive visualization of event setups at each property, using Matterport technology for property layout viewing and its own 3D room diagrams powered by Social Tables. The result is a Google Street View-like property listing that it is actively promoting.
'Investing in 3D rich meeting content is truly table stakes for being considered for high-value RFPs,' said Julide Tyrell, senior director, sales, hospitality cloud, Cvent.
3D is embedded in room diagrams with an AI-powered Diagram Assistant feature that allows planners to visualize rooms in various layouts through natural language conversations. This functionality is linked to pre-populated AI-generated proposals that sales teams can create almost instantly.
Cvent wants sales teams to know that response speed is key to winning bids. Cvent said 79% of RFPs are won by the first 3 hotel responses and that using Cvent's new AI Response Assistant, sales teams can reduce proposal creation time to 81 min, which beats the average first response time of four hours and 10 minutes. Fast responses also trigger a 'Top Responder' icon, adding visibility to properties investing in these tools.
The battle for planner attention on CSN is fast-paced, and using AI is becoming necessary to keep up. Smaller properties with limited resources will struggle, but fast movers embracing CventIQ should be ahead, at least for now. To balance the focus on automation and speed, Aggarwal reassured attendees that Cvent believes in a human-led future.
Cvent is providing opportunities for properties to gain more visibility in CSN not only through 3D immersion and AI-generated proposals. Cvent announced a 'Sustainability certified' icon for listings to showcase sustainability initiatives, driven by a partnership with BeCause.
The Bigger Picture
Amid the updates and new features, some seem basic and overdue, like custom pages in the exhibitor portal for FAQs. Yet, among the mundane, there are tools that are part of a bigger picture.
The most significant update is Cvent Essentials, a simplified, low-cost, pay-as-you-go version of the Cvent Event Marketing & Management Platform. The product is designed to bring smaller events — including field marketing events — into the Cvent ecosystem. Cvent wants their larger clients to use the platform for all their simpler events, so these events can contribute data to each client's central hub, 'Events+.'
Cvent also announced Cvent Passkey Rooming List Essentials, a simplified version of the Cvent Passkey room block management software, aimed at smaller hotel properties.
Simplified Cvent tools may not feel revolutionary, but they're essential for a complete strategic meetings management program. Large companies can roll out Cvent across different teams and geographies with varying resources, all on-brand with strict guardrails. The same applies to hotels and venues, where large chains and properties likely already use Cvent for RFPs. Now smaller properties can interface with planners using standardized room block tools.
Some announcements reveal integration of recent acquisitions into Cvent platforms. The AI-powered attendance insights feature from Splash is now integrated into Cvent, predicting final registration numbers four weeks out. Jifflenow's meetings management and Reposite vendor marketplace are integrated, with vendors partnering with a property featured in the property's CSN listing, boosting visibility.
Cvent appears to have made good use of its 200 staff dedicated to AI, with CventIQ's AI upgrades visible across most of the Cvent ecosystem.
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