American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events and Cvent to Launch Integrated Solution for Meetings Sourcing and Management

Custom Web Portal, Meetings Estimator Tool, Mobile Apps, and More Provide Customers with Comprehensive Data and an Easier User Experience 

October 9, 2012 – NEW YORK and MCLEAN, VA – American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events, a leading full-service global meetings and events management provider, and Cvent, a top meetings technology company, announced today an agreement to offer an integrated service and technology solution for the management of meetings and events.  This agreement extends the companies’ existing relationship, under which American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events’ global team is now using Cvent’s Supplier Network, to one where Cvent is also developing a set of customized tools and capabilities that can help American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events clients more effectively and easily manage their meetings and events investments.

This expanded relationship launches in November with a meeting planning web portal customized by Cvent for American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events clients.  This web portal will include such features as a centralized calendar; a Meeting Requestor tool to help automate meetings sourcing; and a Request History tool, which provides a database of past meeting requests.  American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events clients also will have limited-time exclusive access to Cvent’s Meeting Cost Estimator.  Additional online tools and enhancements aimed at improving meetings management and the experience of planners and event attendees are expected to launch in the coming months.  American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events customers also will be able to take advantage of Cvent’s event-specific mobile applications, which give meeting attendees easy access to information like event schedules, venue floor plans, and the ability to message and connect with other attendees.

“This collaboration between our best-in-class meetings and expense management services and Cvent’s cutting-edge and intuitive technology brings even more extensive capabilities to our existing MEETINGS EXPERT solution,” said Issa Jouaneh, Vice President and General Manager, American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events.  “Organizations have different needs and objectives when it comes to managing their meetings, but regardless of whether a client has an established Strategic Meetings Management program or are managing meetings on an individual basis, there continues to be opportunity to activate levers for increased control, insight, and cost savings.  This integrated solution provides a strong and flexible foundation of service and technology to address those diverse needs.”

“We believe that Cvent joining forces with American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events is a game-changer for the industry,” said Chuck Ghoorah, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Cvent.  “By marrying their service offering with our comprehensive and easy-to-use online technology, we will help our clients save time and money through both an improved user experience and access to more insightful information, as well as through increased adoption.  With more scale, clients can gain greater overall flexibility while maintaining the same high-quality service and support.”

More details regarding some of the tools comprising the web portal are described below.  Stay tuned for more exciting developments to come.

• Meeting Requestor: enables a client to initiate a request for sophisticated meetings directly from the portal.
• Request History: allows a client to access all prior requests, see the status of those requests, and clone requests.
• Meeting Cost Estimator: before a proposal is submitted, itemizes a budget for a future meeting based on historical data.  American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events clients will have exclusive access to this feature for six months after it is launched in November 2012.

For further information about this integrated offering, please visit American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events at https://www.amexglobalbusinesstravel.com/meetings-and-events/ or Cvent at www.cvent.com. 

About American Express Global Business Travel Meetings and Events
American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events, a division of American Express Global Business Travel, offers longstanding experience, expertise and leading capabilities spanning program implementation to budget optimization to deliver powerful meetings and events experiences for clients. The team is comprised of more than 1000 employees world-wide focused on meetings and events sourcing, planning, contract negotiations, budgeting, expense management, reporting and benchmarking, combined with strategic counsel and integration of leading technology.  This end-to-end approach focuses on creating visibility, driving savings and enabling effective meeting experiences.

With more than 40 years in the industry and an in-market presence in over 50 countries, American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events is uniquely positioned to manage meetings and events locally, regionally, internationally and across the globe. American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events works with market leaders to enhance its offering to clients.  To learn more about the services offered by American Express Global Business Travel Meetings & Events, visit https://www.amexglobalbusinesstravel.com/meetings-and-events/.

About American Express Global Business Travel

Positioned at the intersection of commerce and travel, American Express Global Business Travel offers its customers a comprehensive network, dependability, and deep insights to help move people and businesses forward. American Express Global Business Travel provides leading travel solutions, integrated consulting services, proprietary research, and end-to-end meetings and events capabilities. These innovative offerings enable clients to optimize the return on their travel and meetings investments. Learn more at www.americanexpress.com/businesstravel.

American Express Global Business Travel is part of one of the world’s largest travel agency networks with locations in over 140 countries worldwide. Total travel sales volume processed in 2011 was $29.3 billion, including consolidated volume and non-consolidated volume processed through joint ventures and its partner network.

American Express Global Business Travel is a global services company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success.  Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, foursquare.com/americanexpress, linkedin.com/companies/american-express, twitter.com/americanexpress, and youtube.com/americanexpress.

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About Cvent

Founded in 1999, Cvent is the world’s largest meetings and event management technology company and has over 1,000 employees worldwide. Cvent offers web-based software for online event registration, meeting site selection, event management, mobile apps for events, e-mail marketing, and web surveys, and helps over 10,000 clients in 90 countries manage hundreds of thousands of events, surveys and e-mail campaigns. The company has processed over $2 billion in online payments and has managed over 30 million event registrations and survey responses for its clients. Cvent’s client base ranges from small non-profits to large corporations, and includes over 30 companies from the Fortune 100. For more information, please visit www.cvent.com. 

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