Cvent.com Has Roots in High-Tech Events During the day, Washington, D.C.-based corporate lawyer Reggie Aggarwal negotiated billion-dollar deals for Internet start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. On nights and weekends, he was creating a local coalition for high-tech CEOs, for whom he planned 30 networking events a year. So it made sense, after planning meetings for two years for the Indian CEO High-Tech Council, that Aggarwal would found his own Internet company. cvent.com (www.cvent.com), a new invitation-style application service provider. It is an event planning, e-marketing, and data analysis Web tool that promises to help meeting planners build attendee loyalty, and brand their organization at the same time.

The Council's events regularly drew hundreds of the most influential Washingtonians--and were free--but with virtually no staff and on a shoestring budget, the 30-year-old Aggarwal recognized the value of e-mail and the Internet for efficiently planning and marketing events. In less than a year, the Council grew from 100 to 1,500 members.

Aggarwal, who publicly launched cvent.com at the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives annual trade show, Springtime in the Park, on June 1, told the 2,000 event planners and suppliers gathered there that he realized "there must be a way to make money by making it easier to plan these events via the Web."

Clearly, he had some investor contacts in the dot-com community, and, in partnership with MicroStrategy of Washington, D.C, he created cvent.com. The service generates accurate name tags and attendee lists, collects information about each attendee to enhance that guest's experience, conducts pre- and post-event surveys, and can help tailor events to meet guests' profiles.