Meetings management technology giant Cvent
has acquired Splash, an event marketing technology the company in a press
release called “easy to use” and which the company said it would be investing
in developing as a suite of tools that “go beyond centralized events teams and
into the field… [to] increase engagement and drive pipeline.”
The acquisition is part of an overall acknowledgement among
Cvent—a platform that operates most often as a centralized meetings technology
that requires training and expertise—that smaller, less complex events are
gaining ground in the broader meetings landscape. Until now, Cvent has addressed
that market with a “module” approach that has required meeting managers to
create their own processes and homegrown best practices. Cvent has been eager
to move beyond the module approach, however, and this summer at its user conference
in San Antonio announced the upcoming launch of a simplified platform called
Cvent Essentials. The platform was advertised to include customizable templates
and configurable workflows that will be built into a more turnkey product.
An acquisition like Splash fits into this “self-serve”
platform strategy and, based on Cvent’s previous strategies with smaller acquisitions,
the technology is likely to be leveraged ultimately as part of that larger product
play.
For the moment, Cvent touted Splash’s independent bona fides
as an intuitive tool that streamlines event registration, attendee management
and supportive of repeatable event programs, with the ability to generate brand
awareness with templates and customizable asset libraries. Cvent also called
out the quality of Splash’s event measurement and its ability to integrate with
numerous marketing technology stacks.
