December 12, 2024
By Olivia Cal

With almost 2,000 in-person attendees and hours of content, Cvent CONNECT Europe 2024 made for yet another fun, informative, action-packed conference. 

Event and hospitality professionals from all over Europe flocked to the Hilton London Metropole to gain fresh insights, share best practices, and discover the latest trends shaping their industry. And if they couldn’t be there in person, viewers tuned in for the virtual CONNECT Europe experience. 

Setting the tone for this year’s conference was none other than broadcaster and TV presenter, Dermot O’Leary, who kicked things off with energy and humour.

Between sessions, attendees explored cutting-edge event technology in the Innovation Pavilion, joined guided Tech Tours led by Cvent experts, and engaged in lively discussions, idea-sharing during networking roundtables, and the Cvent Excellence Awards.

Read on for some top highlights from this year’s CONNECT Europe. 

The keynotes

Reggie Aggarwal, CEO and Founder of Cvent, delivered and optimistic opening address about the state of the meetings and events industry. 

From business travel predicted to exceed pre-pandemic levels to the event industry generating £62 billion in total event revenue this year, he explained that there’s a lot to be excited about in 2025. He also attributes some of this excitement to recent advancements in technology.

“With all this momentum across the industry, it feels like 2019, which was a record year for event attendance and MICE revenue. But here’s what’s different today: we’re in an era of technological innovation. [...] Our industry is constantly reinventing itself and evolving to something more powerful.”

Reggie calls this “a better normal” for our industry, with three key market dynamics shaping this transformation:

  1. Artificial intelligence has skyrocketed in the past few years, changing workloads for the better.

  2. Impact and return on investment (ROI) are the focus of every organisation when it comes their events.

  3. The resurgence of the experience economy where attendees want the events they attend to leave a lasting impression.

From Pressure to Brilliance: Turning Challenges into Diamonds with Latin Dance Champion, Oti Mabuse

Latin dance champion and talent show judge, Oti Mabuse, was this year’s Celebrity Keynote. Moderated by O’Leary, her session took the audience through her career in dance from her humble beginnings competing in South Africa to securing a coveted spot at the Strictly Come Dancing judges table. 

Deciding to switch careers and move to Europe to pursue her dance career was a no-brainer for Mabuse, but it also took guts:

“I had no family support. I had no financial support, meaning this could not fail. I had no other choice. I had to succeed. I had to make a living out of myself. It was the biggest risk and I always say that taking those risks is always worth it. Even if you don’t win something, you learn something.”

The Product Roadmaps

Two of the most anticipated sessions at Cvent CONNECT Europe each year are the Product Roadmap talks, where Cvent experts discuss updates and outline new platform developments coming soon for marketers and event managers, plus venues and suppliers. 

In the Product Roadmap session for Event Marketing and Management, one of the biggest announcements was Cvent Essentials, a tool designed for high-volume, repeatable field marketing events. The session also covered the ways in which Cvent is helping event planners and marketers deliver more engaging, personalised events all while being more efficient with AI.

The biggest theme for the Supplier and Venue Solutions Product Roadmap was AI and its applications within the hospitality and MICE industry.

The topics that won you over

This year’s Cvent CONNECT Europe covered a multitude of topics, from AI to women in the workplace. There was something for everyone. Here were some of the most popular topics and sessions:

AI

  • Your Checklist for Creating Events with AI: Wondered how to use AI in each step of the event planning process to help save you time and make more impactful events? This session is for you.

Accessibility

  • How to Create an Accessible Experience: An insightful and heartfelt discussion where our panellists explored practical strategies for advancing accessibility in meetings, events, and hospitality. 

  • Don't Get Sued: Everything You Need to Know About Event Accessibility Laws: Stephen Cutchins, Senior Manager of Accessibility at Cvent demystified the legal requirements around accessibility, explored the current state of digital accessibility, and helped you stay ahead of emerging trends in related lawsuits. 

Women in the workplace

  • Empowering Female Leaders: Navigating Career and Life with Compassion and Balance: Our women-led panel discussed the main challenges facing women leaders in the workplace: imposter syndrome, menopause, hormonal imbalances, facing infertility issues, and the demands of motherhood.

  • Destroying the Glass Ceiling: How to Transform Gender Parity: We opened the floor up to senior women leaders within the events sector who all had their own stories and advice on how women can rise up.

Professional development

  • How to Be a Great Speaker: This session explored the different stages of speaking success, from the perspective of celebrity professional, Dermot O’Leary, an industry veteran, Gareth Davies and Fay Sharpe, founder of FastFoward15. Gareth was also joined by Dermot O'Leary, industry leader, Fay Sharpe, and rising expert, Felicia Asiedu. In this session, Gareth Davies, one of the UK's most respected TV Producers, shared his insider secrets on becoming a captivating speaker. 

  • Are You Being Taken Seriously? Richard John, CEO of Realise.me.uk, discussed three factors consultants use to 'command the room' and make an impact including strategy, powerful questions, and control.

Large-scale events

  • Building a City of Experiences: Crafting Immersive Events: This session explored the multifaceted elements involved in creating a large-scale event, drawing parallels to the intricate design and management of a thriving city.

  • Best Practices for Running Large Scale Events: We heard from event experts on how they keep things running smoothly whilst dealing with added complexities such as hybrid requirements, streamlining processes with multiple stakeholders, and maximising engagement at scale - all whilst minimising friction to attendees.

For event marketers, we ran sessions like:

  • Repurpose Your Event Content Like a Pro

  • Using Integrations to Boost Event Marketing Performance

  • How to Work with Sales: Lessons from Cvent’s Sales and Marketing Teams

  • Event Personalisation: Something for Everyone

And for hoteliers and suppliers, we ran sessions such as:

  • The Influence of AI and Technology on Hospitality 

  • The Road Ahead - European Hospitality Trends with Cvent and STR

Introducing… content specifically for associations!

Each year, we group content into categories designed for event planners, event marketers, and hoteliers and suppliers. But this year, we created three dedicated sessions specifically for associations. These sessions covered hot topics for associations, including how to get more from sponsorships and how to grow membership. 

  • Easy Sponsorship Wins with Coffee and Sausage

  • Maximising Association Conferences for Membership Growth

  • Navigating Association Events with Technology and Human Insights

CONNECT TV: Something for the virtual audience

At Cvent CONNECT, it’s never just about the in-person experience. We want to make the virtual experience as engaging as possible. That’s why CONNECT TV is such a hit. 

This year, we ran ten episodes for our virtual audience featuring 2025 predictions, interviews with the Cvent Excellence Awards finalists, an interview on accessibility with motivational speaker and disability activist, Shani Dhanda, and much more. 

Thank you

Cvent CONNECT Europe 2024, once again, exceeded our expectations. From the conversations and laughs had to the insights and experience shared, it was another conference to remember. Next year's Cvent CONNECT Europe will take place on the 15-16 October at the InterContinental London - The O2. Pre-register here!

As attendees, speakers, sponsors and partners, you each played a significant and much-appreciated part in our conference’s success, and we thank you for being in the room or online, engaging with what proved to be a phenomenal content programme. 

If you'd like to watch some of our most popular sessions, you can catch up on-demand here

Olivia Cal Headshot

Olivia Cal

Olivia is a copywriter and content marketer specialising in hospitality, events, and retail. After five years of in-house experience, she now works independently, writing articles, eBooks, case studies, and more for a wide range of clients.

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