RainFocus, Cvent, SpotMe, and Bizzabo Lead Forrester’s All-in-One Occasion Administration Platforms Report

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The Forrester Wave: All-In-One Occasion Administration Platforms, This autumn 2024 report reveals a market adapting to post-pandemic realities. Main distributors are increasing their focus to help smaller subject advertising and marketing occasions and deepening their information integration capabilities.

4 firms emerged as “Leaders” within the analysis: RainFocus, Cvent, SpotMe, and Bizzabo. Every has distinct strengths:

  • RainFocus stands out for its advanced occasion capabilities and deep tech stack integrations.
  • Cvent maintains the broadest function set, bolstered by current acquisitions, together with Reposite and Splash.
  • SpotMe excels in industry-specific options, significantly in life sciences.
  • Bizzabo differentiates itself by means of sturdy advertising and marketing and engagement options.

Swoogo and vFairs earned the “Sturdy Performer” label, whereas Stova, Swapcard, RingCentral, Cisco, Splash, and 6Connex are “Contenders.”

Forrester chosen the 12 occasion administration platforms based mostly on shoppers’ “important curiosity,” their capabilities to help in-person, digital, and hybrid occasions, and their annual income of over $10 million.

The outcomes are much like the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Occasion Know-how Platforms report launched in March. On the time, Gartner didn’t consider the SpotMe platform, however it has now made it into the highest 4 for Forrester’s report.

What It Means for Planners

In response to the report, about three-quarters of occasion registrations are for in-person or hybrid occasions, confirming a robust return to face-to-face gatherings. Additionally, the fastest-growing section is small in-person occasions with fewer than 200 attendees, whereas digital occasions have gotten easier and shorter.

The findings counsel three key issues:

  1. Platform choice ought to align together with your occasion combine, particularly as smaller occasions develop in significance.
  2. Information integration capabilities must be a main consideration, not an afterthought.
  3. Maximizing ROI to attach occasion know-how with advertising and marketing and CRM techniques is essential.

Prioritizing Information Administration

All of the top-performing platforms are centered on maximizing occasion information worth. With rising restrictions on viewers information assortment, occasions have change into “probably the only most precious supply of zero- and first-party information.”

“The vast majority of massive enterprises proceed to deploy and use overlapping occasion applied sciences working in useful silos,” notes the report, highlighting a consolidation alternative as occasion budgets stay flat or decline for many organizations.

Buyer Suggestions Is Necessary

Forrester considers buyer suggestions, however it’s not a part of the Forrester Wave™ rating. Bizzabo is the one firm acknowledged as a buyer favourite. RainFocus and SpotMe are acknowledged for above-average suggestions. The remaining 9 didn’t excel as a vital issue for software program supporting enterprise occasions. To evaluate buyer suggestions, Forrester speaks with as much as three clients of every vendor and considers enter from earlier analysis.

What’s the Ultimate Rating?

The report helps occasion know-how customers choose the best all-in-one occasion administration platforms. It weighs an organization’s imaginative and prescient as equal to the power of its providing. Whereas an organization’s imaginative and prescient is vital to potential shoppers, who’re, in a approach, additionally buyers, this equal weighting might not at all times be acceptable.

Cvent ranks highest within the power of its providing, scoring 4.56/5. RainFocus follows intently at 4.4. Each are forward of Bizzabo (3.7), SpotMe (3.5), and Stova (3.16) when wanting on the standards individually.

Relating to technique, RainFocus leads with a rating of 4.7, adopted by Cvent at 4.4. SpotMe and Swoogo are shut behind at 4.

The next rating outcomes are based mostly on the mixed power of providing and technique scores.

  1. RainFocus: 9.1
  2. Cvent: 8.96
  3. SpotMe: 7.5
  4. Bizzabo: 7
  5. Swoogo: 6.6
  6. vFairs: 5.5
  7. Stova: 4.6
  8. Swapcard: 4.58
  9. RingCentral: 4.52
  10. Cisco: 4.48
  11. Splash: 3.32
  12. 6Connex: 3.20

Distinctive scores that stand out embody “price range administration,” for which solely RainFocus and Cvent rating prime marks. In “environmental sustainability monitoring,” solely RainFocus will get prime marks, whereas SpotMe and vFairs get something aside from the bottom rating.