Cvent’s annual Plannie Awards celebrate clients’ successes in nine categories, including mobile technology, marketing strategy, SMM program of the year, sourcing, feedback strategy, and more. Here, Kira Frank, senior global events specialist at SevOne, a digital infrastructure management software company, accepts the Plannie for best Return on Event from Cvent CEO Reggie Aggarwal.

The Power of the Platform award for outstanding achievement across the Cvent platform went to the team from Illumina, which celebrated with a selfie with Reggie Aggarwal.

New Cvent customer Adtran took home the Rookie of the Year Plannie Award. Adtran’s Lioba Jacobi, manager of marketing programs (left), and Jenni Dettman, director, marketing operations, pose with Reggie Aggarwal.

On the stage for a Cvent Executive Panel were (from left) Ed Benack, senior vice president, client services; David Quattrone, co-founder and chief technology officer; Brian Ludwig, senior vice president, sales; Stacey Fontenot, vice president of event cloud marketing; Reggie Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO; and Donald Park, vice president, Vista Equity Partners. The execs answered questions from clients on a range of topics from pricing to customer service to Vista’s view on the use of client data. Cvent has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Vista. 

“The true value of meetings and events is that power of human connection. You know it, I know it. We all know it as discipline. I don’t think the C-suite knows it as well as they should, and I don’t think the C-suite respects it as much as they should,” said Chuck Ghoorah, co-founder and president of worldwide sales and marketing, to the Cvent Connect audience. The answer, he said, is to speak the language of the C-suite: How are your meetings increasing revenue? How are they decreasing costs?

Chip Conley, head of global hospitality & strategy at Airbnb, spoke during the first half of the Cvent Connect conference when the audience was largely Cvent’s hotel customers. Among other things, Conley talked about the benefits and challenges of Airbnb as a housing option, and his company’s experience holding a meeting in Paris during the terrorist attacks in that city last November. 

Hotels, convention bureaus, ground transportation companies, and tech services exhibited during Cvent Connect.

Health and wellness expert and television personality Jillian Michaels gave a keynote presentation at Cvent Connect, linking the ability to take your business to the next level with a focus on taking your life and health to the next level. 

In the Cvent Innovation Hub, clients could learn about Cvent’s latest products and upgrades, hold meetings, get their photo taken, even take five minutes for a chair massage.

A black-and-white theme party at Cvent Connect featured creative sets and a DJ that got the group on its feet.

Enjoying the black-and-white party at Cvent Connect are (from left) Tony Salamone, director of business development, CLI Group; Jason Whitney, manager of sales recognition programs, The Mutual of Omaha Companies, and his colleague Jodi Groski, senior business systems analyst; and Becky Vaughan-Geib, senior client success consultant at Cvent.

A duo from marketing agency Tambourine, Shannon DeFries, director of search and analytics, and Adriana Suao, director of client services, take in the black-and-white party at Cvent Connect.