There’s a chance we’re biased here, but we think Cvent CONNECT, our annual conference held this year from July 24-27 in Las Vegas, is one of the best opportunities for hoteliers to learn and grow in the group business industry. And there are tons of reasons to go—ironically, the least of which is that we swear, you will have fun—but we want to highlight one of our favorites: the chance to get some quality time with event planners is abundant.
Sponsor and exhibit at Cvent CONNECT 2024
Four top opportunities to get to know some event planners at Cvent CONNECT 2023!
#1 Meet Event Planners Galore
Lucky for you, Cvent CONNECT has a high event planner to supplier ratio, meaning you get to network with plenty of planners while you’re there. We’ve got over 1,500 registered already, and that number is climbing by the day. With over a thousand in-person event planner attendees in 2022 and even more attending virtually, it’s not an exaggeration to say you’ll have many potential partners to get to know.
You might have heard about our tradeshow, which takes place on the second day of the conference. We have limited booth availability, but you’ll be able to show event planners exactly what makes your venue so special. We try to limit programming on this day so you’ll have all kinds of foot traffic in the room.
And even if you’re not exhibiting, you’ll have tons of opportunities to meet and connect with planners. There’s no replacement for the on-the-fly conversations you have in the hallway or the quick meet-ups between sessions. One of the biggest complaints from all-virtual conferences during the pandemic was the inability to have spontaneous meetings and discussions with peers.
#2 Networking Is a Load-Bearing Column for Your Venue
And speaking of networking, we’ve got even more opportunities for you to connect with event planners. We’ve built dedicated networking time, networking sessions, roundtables, and more into this year’s agenda. We’re estimating about 17 opportunities to network that are already included in the conference’s schedule (psst: if you haven’t checked it out yet, the agenda for this year’s conference is live. You can select the sessions you’re most interested to curate an agenda just for you).
Off-the-cuff discussions and casually running into an acquaintance at the venue are great ways to network, there’s no denying that. But structured networking sessions are equally important, and they provide a space where you know everyone in attendance is there to get to know some new faces. Meet and greet to your heart’s content!
Join us in San Antonio in 2024!
#3 We’ll Talk You Up, Too
We all need a good wing man sometimes, and Cvent has got you covered there. Talking about and knowing how to market yourself is essential—but sometimes, it just makes more of an impact coming from someone else. This year’s Cvent CONNECT Excellence Awards is an excellent opportunity to make an impact.
After a hiatus for hoteliers, we re-introduced hotel-specific Excellence Awards at last year’s Cvent CONNECT. We like to think of them as our Oscars, though hopefully without all the bad jokes and unfortunately-timed slaps. With categories celebrating many forms of hospitality excellence, the Excellence Award winners and nominees are leaders in their area. The deadline for nominations this year is May 8, so don’t wait to nominate!
Aside from the awesome feeling of winning an award, the Excellence Awards make you look great to the planners in attendance. We want to help you look like such an awesome future partner that planners can’t ignore you—as any good wingman does.
#4 From the Mouths of Planners
Between networking, exhibiting, and being a star at the Excellence Awards, there can’t possibly be any other options to get to know planners—right? Nope, there's more!
We also put together some sessions to let event planners tell you what they want from you. It’s not second-hand data—though we have plenty of industry data available to help you and event planners make informed decisions—it’s coming right from the planners themselves. They tell you, in their own words, exactly what they want and need from the venues they work with.
Seriously, as a business, what’s better than when your customer tells you specifically what they’re looking for? We’re really not sure there’s anything more helpful.
When planners aren’t giving you insight into their opinions on the industry, we’ve also got plenty of case studies and customer testimonials to check out to see just how valuable Cvent CONNECT can be at producing lasting relationships between event planners and suppliers.
That’s Our CONNECT Four
You’re right, that’s a bad joke. But what we lack in humor, we make up for in our many opportunities to build meaningful and lasting connections with event planners. These are our favorite four ways for you to connect, but we’re sure that all of you will find many more ways to get some quality face time. Registration is now open for Cvent CONNECT 2024!
