Background
Having partnered with Cvent since 2017, DAV is no stranger to the importance of a well thought out event programme to bring together their 6000+ members. Together with Cvent’s support, they deliver 8 annual events, ranging from 100-2000 participants.
Their most recent was the 2022 annual meeting, their flagship event, which drew over 1,800 attendees across 3 days of networking, technical sessions and sharing of expertise. Traditionally a purely in-person event, the pandemic forced them to go virtual, while 2022 saw DAV take the event hybrid for the first time. The last in-person conference in 2019 attracted over 1,200 participants.
DAV has a long record of trying out multiple event formats. Michael Steinmetz, CEO, explains that: “Even before the pandemic we were experimenting with different event formats. We had traditional on-site events, but also regular web sessions, and the pandemic will certainly lead to more hybrid events in the future.”
Deploying an all-in-one technical solution
The annual conference was a great success. Of the more than 1800 attendees, 600 joined in person at the Maritime Hotel in Bonn, Germany. DAV made use of Cvent OnArrival 360 to handle attendee check-in and badge printing, along with Attendee Hub as the event’s virtual platform, to which all sessions were streamed live and made available on-demand. They also implemented the event app, Attendee Hub’s mobile counterpart, which in-person attendees could use to check the agenda, their own schedules, receive live updates, participate in Q&A and network with all other attendees.
Henning Wergen, Managing Director, saw value in using a single united platform to cover multiple event functions: “Cvent offers an all-in-one solution –we have on-site check-in, registration and the event app. As organisers it’s a huge benefit to us to have this functionality, and data, in one setting.”
An all-in-one approach also increased the efficiency of the pre-event preparation. “Having this functionality under one roof means we can streamline our preparation. We can have one meeting to prepare, for instance, check-in and our livestreaming, and don’t have to run from one company to the next for every aspect of the event,” Martin explains.
Using Attendee Hub to support both in-person and virtual audiences
Attendee Hub and the event app enable all attendees, whether in-person or virtual, to interact with one another and actively participate in sessions.
Streamlining check-in with OnArrival 360
As the highest tier of Cvent’s OnArrival, OnArrival 360 covers not only event check-in and badge printing, but also a Cvent Project Manager to keep things running smoothly.
As DAV look forward to their next major project, a virtual conference in September, Michael reflects: “The technology we’re using right now is really helping to make participants proud to be part of our association, and to join such professionally organised events.”
