Skift Take
Cvent wants to make it easier for customers to use a variety of its tools, in order to leverage the wide spectrum of data it collects on attendee behavior. Owing to the complexity of its platform, this remains a work in progress.
Cvent enjoys a preeminent position in the event technology marketplace and has invested in recent years to make its platform easier to use for meeting planners. Still, the pressure is on across the sector to develop the next generation of tools to enhance the event experience.
Last week at the Cvent Connect conference in Las Vegas, the focus was on finding ways to streamline connections between the company's diverse set of products, allowing event organizers to become better equipped to deal with the challenges they face.
There's also the specter of digital tools potentially replacing elements of the traditional event or conference, and what that would mean for the sector as a whole.
Cvent CEO Reggie Aggarwal, however, doesn't think new technologies are going to replace the value of face-to-face meetings any time soon, despite years of prognostication across the sector.
"Eight or nine years ago, everyone thought [mobile] was going to disrupt everything and it did," said Aggarwal. "Do I think [virtual meetings are] going to disrupt everything in the next five years? The answer is no. 10? No, because nothing beats face-to-face meetings."
Skift spoke to Aggarwal about commission cuts, event technology moving to a software-as-a-service model, and the technology innovations to watch in coming years.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Skift: Cvent has a huge technology platform as the industry has moved towards providing a bunch of products instead of individual services. Cvent is a giant in the space, so how do you work to make sure your team keeps innovating?
Reggie Aggarwal: We want to blend the best of being a company with maturity and reliability but, at the same time, be inno
