Cvent Releases Year-Round Audience Engagement and Instant Booking Tools 

Cvent, the world’s largest event technology company, is partnering with Choice Hotels International to roll out Cvent Instant Book across Choice’s global portfolio of franchised hotels. This new direct booking integration will be available in the third quarter of this year and will offer a simplified booking experience for meeting planners to find and book guest room blocks online at Choice Hotels properties.

Details were released at the annual Cvent Connect, the company’s customer and industry conference taking place at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas.

Planners can search, compare real-time rates and availability, and book rooms at Choice Hotels’ properties with a few clicks, bypassing the request for proposal (RFP) process typically required for larger, more complex events. Embedding the technology into Choice Hotels booking platform also enables hoteliers to increase their visibility and attract more group business by showcasing their properties to Cvent’s extensive global network of event planners. Hotels joining the Choice distribution engine after the acquisition of Radisson Hotels Americas will gain access to Cvent Instant Book soon.

“This new functionality reflects our shared vision of making booking and managing meetings and events easier – for both planners and hoteliers alike,” said Jim Abramson, Cvent vice president of product management. 

This isn’t the first time Cvent and its more than 21,000 customers and Choice and its more than 7,400 hotels and 625,000 guestrooms in 45 countries and territories have worked together as all Choice properties are listed on the Cvent Supplier Network, where planners go to find and book meeting and event venues. 

Leveraging Content to Increase Brand Awareness

Cvent has also unveiled Cvent Events+ that aims to leverage existing event content in a fully branded, on-demand video library, enabling event organizers to engage audiences better and generate interest for future events.

Events+ works with Cvent Registration, the Cvent Attendee Hub, and Cvent Webinar. It also includes a feature that allows logged-in guests to see who from their prior event connections are planning to attend upcoming events.

“Many of today’s event organizers and marketers are hosting more events — across more formats — than ever before, which can make it challenging to capitalize on all the incredible content and leverage it to increase brand awareness and drive attendees to their upcoming events,” said Patrick Smith, Cvent’s chief marketing officer. “Events+ acts as a digital extension of an organization’s event program where attendees will go to binge on curated ‘best of’ on-demand event video content and easily find and register for upcoming events.”

In addition, a new webinar platform was unveiled built directly on the Cvent platform, enabling users to manage all of their events and webinars in one place. With one integrated event marketing and management system, there is standardized registration, attendee insights, and feedback data to help track attendee behavior and event performance.

“At Cvent, we understand the immense potential that webinars and virtual events hold for organizations looking to expand their reach and engage with audiences online,” said Smith. “Cvent Webinar has been built to meet the needs of today’s modern marketer, HR leader, sales representative, and other professionals — making it easy for roles across the organization to deliver impactful webinars with minimal effort.”

Cvent Webinar allows organizers to build a webinar in just minutes, with no prior or specialty training. It offers easy-to-use production tools and multiple presentation types. Cvent Webinar also features a full suite of engagement tools, including live polls, Q&A with voting capabilities, audience reactions, interactive chat, and feedback surveys.

In March, Cvent announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Blackstone in a transaction valued at approximately $4.6 billion.