Cvent

"Human connection builds trust beyond the room." 45 seconds from the CONNECT session marketers kept quoting: the brands that win aren't the ones with the most touchpoints, they're the ones people remember. #Cvent #CventCONNECT #MarTech #EventLedGrowth

The question isn't really "will AI take my job?" It's "who's willing to do the work to make AI worth it." Research* shows what happens when companies actually adopt AI. The pattern is clear. High-intensity adopters grew headcount 10.2% in the first 24 months after adoption. Entry-level headcount rose 12.0%. The preferred results show no evidence that AI adoption is causing layoffs. Read that again: the firms leaning hardest into AI are hiring more people, not fewer. ✅ That tracks with what we see. AI doesn't shrink the work worth doing. It raises the ceiling on it. The teams that commit get more done and grow to match. ⚡️ So the real 2026 question isn't whether AI is coming for your job. It's how far you'll lean in. *Research: A New Look at AI's Impact on Jobs: Firm-Level AI Spending and Workforce Adjustment, Ramp and Revelio Labs, June 2026 #AI #Martech #EventLedGrowth

A lot of event teams try to fix post-event reporting by moving faster. Akash Kanojia, Manager of Event Technology at Cvent, explains why speed alone isn't the fix and what actually makes post-event reporting trustworthy again. Some principles behind Cvent's approach to event data: 1️⃣ One shared data layer beats five different recap formats 🔎 Every output should be drafted from the same source of truth 📊 The numbers in every report need to match, every time, with no reconciliation 🧠 AI should draft the report - but the event lead still owns the story #Cvent #CventCONNECT #EventTech #EventMarketing

Intent isn’t the beginning of demand. By the time a buyer shows intent, they’ve already formed opinions about the brands they trust, the solutions they’ll consider, and the companies that make their shortlist. At Cvent CONNECT, Kelly Cheng and Jay Schwedelson explain why marketers need to focus on winning mindshare before buyers show intent. A few key takeaways: 1️⃣ Show up before buyers are actively searching 🧠 Build trust through memorable, human experiences 📋 Create content around what your audience cares about 🎯 Stay top of mind before the buying moment arrives #Cvent #CventCONNECT #Martech

What if being ready for AI meant slowing down first? 🤔 Slowing down to get clear on what matters, what deserves action now, and what should come next. That’s where strong leadership lives. Being ready for AI isn’t about chasing every new tool. It’s about judgment, priorities, and leading people through change without adding more noise. #Cvent #EventProfs #AI #Martech

Cvent CONNECT is a wrap. 12,000 in attendance; almost 5,000 in-person in Nashville. Forbes wrote a great article and captured what we see changing in our industry. It's worth a read. Link in comments.    Roger Dooley really nailed it. Being present is the rarest signal in modern business. Whether you're there in person or attending virtually, you've chosen to be present. That's what the Presence Premium™ is really about.    The more AI proliferates, the more valuable authentic experiences and REAL human connection become. Because trust matters now more than ever.     Our industry is changing fast. Buckle up.    #Cvent #CventCONNECT #PresencePremium #EventLedGrowth

Day one at #CventCONNECT26 gave us a lot to talk about. The obvious headline was the rebrand. Cvent moved from blue to green live, in front of nearly 5,000 attendees, and the execution was the part that had all of us event people paying attention. The thing that got us talking during our Day One Debrief was the timing. Most companies would have saved a rebrand for the closing keynote. Safer. Cleaner. Less risk. Reveal it, send people home, avoid having to change the entire live experience while thousands of attendees are still onsite. Cvent did the opposite. They launched it at the beginning. Then every part of the conference had to reflect the new brand immediately. The app changed. The signage changed. The registration counters changed. The shirts changed. The social channels changed. The physical space changed. And the attendee experience had to keep moving while all of it happened. We were literaly watching the amount of coordination it takes to make a brand shift hold up in public, in real time, across a live conference with nearly 5,000 people in the building. During our first Cvent CONNECT Field Notes debrief, Peter Wilhelm, Mahoganey Jones, CMP, DES, HMCC, Megan Martin, CMP, DES, MPA, and I kept circling back to the same question: How did they pull this off while the event kept running? The real issue is execution. A brand can make a promise on stage, but the event has to prove it across every screen, sign, app update, badge counter, staff cue, and attendee touchpoint. Cvent is clearly repositioning itself beyond event tech and into the larger marketing technology conversation. The acquisitions of Goldcast and ON24 make that direction harder to ignore. The message is moving toward full event lifecycle, content, buyer journey, marketing data, and proof of business impact. And yet, what did the event professionals in the room obsess over first? The execution. The app switch. The iPads. The badge counters. The banners. The hidden prep. The humans probably waiting for the exact cue to press the button. That tells us something about this industry. We can talk about AI, data, and transformation all day, but event professionals still judge credibility by whether the thing works in the room. AI is going to matter. Data is going to matter. Connected platforms are going to matter. But the winners will be the teams that can turn information into better timing, better decisions, better audience flow, and better business outcomes while the event is still alive. Day one at Cvent CONNECT was not just a rebrand reveal. It was a stress test. Of the platform. Of the team. Of the message. Of the industry’s appetite for change. And it raised a bigger question for all of us: Are we using our event data to decorate the post-event report, or are we using it to make the live experience better while people are still in the room? Our first Cvent CONNECT Field Notes debrief is now live. https://lnkd.in/gGqHVZni

Research surveying nearly 1000 marketers and event professionals across 12 countries: - 85% say the rise of AI content has made audience trust harder to earn. - 81% say trust in their brand increased after an in-person event. The more content floods the feed, the more presence becomes the differentiator. This was one of the central conversations at #CventCONNECT this week. Learn how industry leaders are dealing with AI and trust paradox. Link in the comments. #Cvent #CventCONNECT #AI #EventMarketing