Lemon Lane
Growing a start-up event agency with scalable technology
As an events agency founded in September 2020, in the midst of the global pandemic, Lemon Lane entered the events industry during turbulent times. “Like many others during the pandemic, myself and my two co-founders were unfortunately made redundant,” shares Lucy Francis, Director. “We saw a great opportunity to continue working with some long-term clients via a new company. We’re new, small, but have seen some really good growth over the past year despite the challenging circumstances.”
Implementing Cvent at a start up
When Lemon Lane was founded, one of their first technology purchases was Cvent. Lucy believed that along with the purchasing of Microsoft Office, Cvent was going to be just as fundamental a piece of software to the company’s success. “The reason we chose Cvent was that we worked with them previously and knew the software’s capabilities,” explains Lucy. “As a new company it was one of very few things we spent money on, as we knew it was a platform that would grow with us. Even though we’re still small, we’re putting a platform in place, and as we grow we won’t need to look at other technology platforms further down the road. We’re investing in infrastructure that will serve us as both a small organisation and a large one, based on long-term solutions.”
Lucy knows that Cvent can check off all the requirements that enterprise sized organisations require. “From a corporate perspective we know that Cvent is ticking those GDPR and data protection boxes, which is reassuring to large clients. We also know that our clients are confident in Cvent and won’t have trouble getting internal approval to use the platform. We also love that Cvent is always investing in their products and services. You see constant change and reinvention, which we feel helps move us along as an agency as well.”
Applying solutions flexibly across a range of events
Lemon Lane make use of a wide range of Cvent products, including the Cvent Supplier Network™, the world’s largest venue sourcing platform. “With only three of us, going out to lots of hotels and properties ahead of physical events is really challenging,” Lucy explains. “The Supplier Network enables us to view and approach lots of properties very quickly, which is particularly useful when we’re organising roadshows or events spread across multiple dates. We can ask specific questions, such as around Covid policies, commission prices and contractual terms, which enables us to adopt a consolidated approach. Having this venue information at hand all in one place allows us to be very nimble as an organisation.”
Lemon Lane also implement Cvent Attendee Hub® as their virtual and hybrid event platform. “We’ve found the Attendee Hub generates real credibility with clients,” Lucy shares. “We feel it’s a very holistic solution –it integrates with the event app and registration process, so it’s giving our clients a really strong solution from a virtual and hybrid perspective.” Lucy recently used Attendee Hub to adapt a traditionally in-person event to a virtual format for a client. “The key goal of the event was to ensure that delegates had an opportunity to network, and feel like they were at a real event, as opposed to another Zoom or Teams meeting,” Lucy recalls. “We were able to implement pre-recorded content, breakout rooms, exhibitor booths with pre-loaded content, video uploads and 1-to-1 appointments. It had the element of feeling like a real event, which the client had been lacking, so they gave very positive feedback on the platform. Additionally, delegates liked having a centralised hub where they could store a lot of the information from the event, download reading materials and view videos on-demand. It extended the event lifecycle –delegates could access the hub and associated materials both before and after the event, and actually continue to use it as a resource library for this content.”
“My favourite Attendee Hub features are the Q&A, polling and chat,” Lucy shares. During live sessions, planners can enable these engagement functions to facilitate interactions between attendees and speakers. Q&A allows attendees to pose questions during the session, which pass through to a moderator who may then approve them to carry through to the speaker. If live chat is enabled, attendees, speakers and any assigned event staff can converse openly via text during the session, supervised by a moderator. With polling, speakers can present multiple choice questions to attendees throughout the session. “Anything that adds interactivity is key, so having these features available within Attendee Hub is invaluable,” Lucy concludes.
Growing, with the right support
All Cvent users are entitled to ongoing customer support. “The support from our Account Manager has been fantastic, especially considering we’re such a small organisation,” says Lucy. “We’re able to get walkthroughs on anything we’re having trouble with, and often our Account Manager will put us in touch with a subject matter expert who can run through features in close detail –including new and upcoming updates. They’re very responsive and supportive of our growth journey.”