The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) is a prestigious public research university located in Austin, Texas. Established in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System, which encompasses a network of thirteen academic institutions and five health institutions across the state. UT Austin serves over 50,000 students and offers an array of undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees.

GOALS

From an events standpoint, the directive was clear: UT Austin needed a unified event technology platform that could be managed and supported centrally while allowing for distributed control. The University’s Commons Event Services (CES) unit, driven by the vision of “building a world-changing community, one meeting at a time,” wholeheartedly embraced this direction.

CES, a service-focused unit, adopted Cvent’s Event Marketing & Management platform through a Master Service Agreement, thereby making it available to every department across the entire University of Texas system. “By purchasing a Cvent enterprise-level license with a higher volume contract, we are able to offer Cvent to event planners across the system at a lower cost,” explains Jessica Van Amburgh, Business Development Manager. This move enabled many who previously couldn’t afford Cvent to now have access to the platform.

Jessica and her team of two provide a variety of wrap-around services to their university customers. They assist in building events, train new Cvent users, and ultimately empower CES’ customers to take control of their own events.

The team emphasizes the importance of the platform’s extensive features, which extend from pre-event marketing and registration to post-event surveys and analytics. The seamless integration between Cvent’s Registration tool, Attendee Hub, and Event App solutions has been invaluable. This integration not only creates a smooth experience for attendees but also provides event planners with clear engagement data that spans the entire event.

One of the most beneficial aspects of using Cvent for the CES team is the ability to quickly onboard a department and train their users to build and manage their own events while ultimately allowing the owners the needed control to execute their events. Event owners benefit from the support and expertise of the central team but appreciate the autonomy to set up, brand (within acceptable limits), run, and report on their events independently.

Powerful event registration, including efficient payment processing

For UT Austin, Registration is the most heavily used tool among all Cvent products licensed. From event marketing and website creation to event registration, each of the university’s hundreds of diverse events begins with Registration. The CES team collaborates with university constituents to identify the features that will help them achieve their event goals while adhering to the unique policies of the UT system. They assist in branding the registration website and marketing materials to align with the specific school or department, create personalized journeys for different invitee segments, and more. Most impactfully, they train users to manage their events on their own and empower departments to create events that are unique to their college, school, or unit’s brand. “The flexibility Cvent Registration offers our customers is incredible—it’s a game changer,” says Jessica. 

Delivering the mobile experience today’s attendees expect with the Attendee Hub

CES is witnessing significant growth in the use of the Cvent Attendee Hub Event App, particularly for any event with 200 attendees or more. While some utilize Attendee Hub web platform for virtual experiences, many within the UT System also leverage the native Event App to provide a powerful in-person tool.

In familiarizing themselves with its features, they relied on Cvent’s support specialist for guidance. Jessica says, “They had nothing but positive feedback about Cvent’s Attendee Hub support specialist.”  in fact, they were so pleased with the experience that they are already brainstorming different ways to use the app for next year’s conference. “The MD Anderson team was thrilled with Attendee Hub,” Jessica shares.

Streamlining event check-in with OnArrival 

No one enjoys long lines for event check-in, and UT Austin’s constituents are no exception. To address this, the CES team invested in Cvent’s OnArrival check-in and badging solution, specifically leveraging the Event in a Box tool. For smaller events of less than 500 people, this solution provides the hardware for UT Austin’s event support staff to use for fast attendee check-in and on-demand badge printing. This includes iPads with tabletop stands, printers, routers, and badge stock for on-demand printing. They also have access to 24/7 customer support and other resources to ensure everything goes smoothly.

Synergizing both Cvent Premium and in-house support for top-notch service 

The CES team has implemented an efficient tiered support model to maximize productivity and ensure successful events. Once the CES team trains UT event professionals on Cvent, they are then given the control to manage their own events—including access to Cvent’s Premium Support for technical assistance. The Cvent Premium Support team then serves as the tier-one support system.

This support model empowers individual event planners to manage and run their events independently, and it affords the CES team the time to concentrate on the most complex events as they aren’t fielding every support question. “We truly could not manage this without the support of our Cvent Account Manager, Client Success Manager, and the Premium Support client services team,” says Jessica. “Having them handle everyday questions enables my team to focus on more strategic initiatives, such as ensuring our events are accessible.” 

RESULTS

Proof that UT Austin’s event strategy is working: 80 is the magic number

Numbers tell the story, and for UT Austin, they reveal a successful event strategy. The CES team now supports over 80 colleges, schools, and units (CSUs) using Cvent, with an impressive 80% year-over-year renewal rate. Additionally, 20 new departments have adopted Cvent through CES’s offering just this past year. As far as extending usage, CES has expanded the use of Cvent to other UT campuses, including UT Dallas, UT Arlington, UT San Antonio, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. 

The UT System, and UT Austin in particular, have realized significant efficiency gains by consolidating seven Cvent licenses and numerous other event technology licenses into a single Cvent platform, all under one contract managed by a dedicated team of three. “Our partnership with the Cvent support team has been crucial to our success,” insists Jessica “Cvent meets a wide range of needs and empowers users to utilize the system in the way that best suits their events.”

UT Austin is excited about the next phase of its growing program success and encourages other higher education institutions to consider Cvent's all-in-one event management capabilities to manage their events programs. “Cvent surpasses any other platform available,” Jessica insists. "It is unquestionably the event platform of choice.”

PRODUCTS USED