SPOTLIGHT: New Exhibitor Management Experience

In this spotlight post, you will see how one planner stopped juggling tabs and started owning her exhibitor strategy.

Maya still remembers the moment it hit her.

Three weeks before her flagship trade show, Maya had 200+ exhibitors, a shifting floor plan, and a Cvent browser full of tabs—Event Management, Exhibitor Management, and outdated legacy pages that didn’t fit her workflow.

 She knew what to do and who needed attention. The real problem was how long it took to find anything:

·       Switch tabs just to check a list.

·       Click through outdated screens that didn’t match Event Management.

·       Export spreadsheets and build filters to see who was missing logos, descriptions, or booth staff.

 By the end, Maya spent more time searching for data than using it.

Enter the New Exhibitor Management Experience

Fast-forward to this year’s show.

Maya logs into Event Management and finds Exhibitors where she expects it to be. There’s no new window, no separate domain—Exhibitor Management now lives directly inside the core event experience, with the same modern navigation, styling, and frameworks her team already knows.

It feels like part of the platform, because it is.

From the left-hand navigational menu, she can move between Exhibitor List, Custom Fields, Exhibitor Portal settings, and more without ever leaving her event. The result:
One workspace. One mental model. No context switching.

What’s Changed

From “Where is that setting?” to “Found it.”

Last year, Maya joked: “If you can’t find it in Exhibitor Management, export a report and hope for the best.”

Today, that’s changed.

• Settings and tools are consolidated, with Categories and branding organized logically—no more disorganized tabs.

• A modern, consistent UI means Maya doesn’t have to relearn the system when switching tasks.

Now, Maya moves smoothly from setup to execution within Event Management.

A Smarter Exhibitor List

The Exhibitor List was just a checkpoint for CSVs.

Now, it’s her control center.

The redesigned list shows more context at a glance with new, sortable columns:

• Logos – see who’s missing branding.

• Sponsorship, leads, licenses, registration packs, and tasks – all as sortable columns, no more page hunting.

There are also new filters, sorting, and search:

• Filters for status, categories, and sponsorship levels—matching how planners segment exhibitors.

• Search to quickly find missing data or lagging tasks—no more Excel exports.

• Interactive links for overdue tasks make the list an action dashboard.

Bulk delete and copy are now supported—no more row-by-row cleanup.

For Maya, the Exhibitor List is now a live view of the show’s health, not just a static report.

Custom Fields Without the Friction

Configuring custom fields used to feel like switching to a different app:

• A separate, outdated editor.

• Hopping in and out of profiles.

• Extra clicks for similar questions.

The new editor changes this:

• A streamlined, modern UI improves usability and accessibility.

• Duplicate questions quickly—no starting from scratch.

• Capture responses directly in the exhibitor profile—keeping configuration and data together.

The result: a faster workflow with fewer errors, making it easier to scale data collection.

The Exhibitor Experience Behind the Scenes

While the New Exhibitor Management Experience focuses on planners, it ultimately delivers better outcomes for exhibitors and sponsors.

Now Maya can:

• Keep tasks, content, and staff registration organized with an intuitive back end.

• Use improved lists and filters to spot underperformers and act early—with better instructions and updated assets.

• Consolidate resources into custom Exhibitor Portal pages, centralizing FAQs and sponsor playbooks without extra emails.

Exhibitors don’t see the new planner UI—but they feel the difference: fewer emails, clearer expectations, and more confidence in the process.

Before vs. After

Before – Legacy Exhibitor Management

• Opened in a separate tab with a different look and feel from Event Management.

• The exhibitor list was basic, with limited sorting/filtering and heavy reliance on exports.

• Custom fields editor and workflows were disconnected from the main platform.

• Settings were scattered across multiple tabs, making them hard to find and train on.

After – New Exhibitor Management Experience

• Fully integrated into Event Management, providing a unified look and feel.

• Exhibitor List is rebuilt with better columns, search, filters, and direct task actions.

• Custom fields editor is updated, keeps everything in context, and supports duplication.

• Settings and tools are consolidated, with custom pages for centralized exhibitor information.

The Bottom Line: Efficiency and Usability, Not Just “New UI”

For Maya, the new experience saves her valuable time during busy weeks.

By bringing Exhibitor Management into the same modern interface she uses for the rest of her event, and by enhancing the tools she relies on most (the Exhibitor List, custom fields, and portal settings), Cvent has turned what used to be a fragmented workflow into a single, streamlined experience focused on execution, not excavation.

Or, in Maya’s words:

“I didn’t change our exhibitor strategy this year. I changed how fast I could act on it.”