How to Prep for Cvent Connect 2026: My Agenda Walkthrough

Cvent Connect 2026 is headed to Nashville July 13–16, and as a Cvent Hosted Creator, I got early access to the agenda. I spent the better part of a week inside the Attendee Hub, reviewing every speaker, session and experience, and I built the Cvent Connect 2026 agenda I think will deliver the most value for a marketing, data and ROI-focused attendee. That is me. That is this post.

I am also going to answer a question that has been haunting me since the agenda went live: why on Earth did puppy yoga sell out first? More on that at the bottom.

Let’s get into it.

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First, Fix Your Cvent Connect 2026 Attendee Hub Profile

Before you touch a single session, go set up your profile.

The interest markers and self-selected topics inside your profile feed the recommendation engine across the platform. They also make you discoverable to other attendees who want to connect in Nashville. Skip this step and the rest of the experience works against you.

A small request to the Cvent team while we’re here: you already have a mountain of data on me. You enrich my information for sponsors and exhibitors. Next year, enrich it for me too. Even better, add an intent field (why am I here — networking, education, discovery, power user?) so the recommendation engine knows what I am trying to get out of this. That one field would dramatically improve the entire experience.

For now, fill it in manually. Do not skip it.

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The Pre-Agenda Programming Most People Miss

Before you start stacking concurrent sessions, look under the More and Programming tabs. This is where the highest-ROI pre-event content lives.

Tech Tours

Cvent builds Cvent Connect on its own product stack. These tours walk you through exactly how they do it. If you use Cvent to run your own events, this is one of the most practical sessions on the entire agenda. I did one last year and it changed how I thought about what the platform could actually do.

Training Camps

If you are a daily Cvent power user, block time here. These go deep on specific solutions and are not watered down. I don’t live in the platform every day, so this isn’t my top priority. For users who do, it’s mandatory.

Evening Events — Nash Vegas Is Going to Show Out

Opening Night: Neon Lights theme. I am manifesting glow sticks. Rachel and the team will send a Pinterest board (I hope). Follow the theme. People commit, and for introverts, a theme is the easiest conversation starter in the world.

We also have the Innovation Pavilion reception and a closing-night Carly Pearce concert. I will be doing homework between now and July.

One quiet detail I noticed: the event copy specifically calls out mocktails. I am very much not drinking these days and I appreciate that they named it up front.

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Inside the Innovation Pavilion

The Innovation Pavilion is the hub of Cvent Connect. It is where you will find:

• Every Cvent product with real humans to walk you through it
• The Headshot Experience and live painting (both were hits at Cvent Connect London)
• A podcast and media studio — as the host of the Event About It podcast, this is on my list
• F1 racing simulators (a whole moment right now)
• Pickleball courts. I will be there. Answer is yes to every invite. Even in heels. But let’s dink responsibly — there are receptions happening in the same space.

I am also watching closely to see how On24 and GoldCast are integrated following the late-2025 acquisition. That alone will tell us a lot about where Cvent is headed on the content and webinar side.

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Featured Exhibitors and Partners Worth Your Time

The Exhibit Hall is its own universe, but a few names I will be making time for:

• Bear Analytics — audience journey profiles, persona-based reporting, and event portfolio measurement. If you manage more than one event a year, or if your leadership keeps asking for a real CMO or CEO-ready readout, this is the stop. [Full disclosure: I serve as Head of Partnerships at Bear.]
• SessionBoard and Ingo — both were in the Innovation Pavilion last year rather than the main exhibit hall, so keep your eyes peeled in both spaces.

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How I Actually Built My Cvent Connect 2026 Agenda

Here is the workflow I use inside the Attendee Hub — in order.

Step 1: Start with Speakers, Not Sessions

This is the move most attendees miss. The speaker list is where you find the people you already follow, the case studies you want to hear, and the practitioners you want to meet in person. I scroll the whole list, favorite my people, and that gives me a baseline agenda before I even touch the session filters.

(One quiet wish for Cvent: let this page connect to my LinkedIn and show me who I’m already connected with. It would save me an hour.)

Step 2: Use the Session Guides as a Head Start (Not a Final Answer)

The session guides (by persona — sourcing, marketing, technology, life sciences) are a solid starting point. Treat them as a recommendation, not a rule. Then layer in the filters: day, time, role, industry, topic, session type, format, level, speaker.

Step 3: The On-Demand Hack for Concurrent Sessions

There are 15+ concurrent sessions at any given time. Conflicts are inevitable. When two sessions I want overlap, I check which one is being recorded for on-demand. I add the non-recorded one to my in-person agenda and catch the recorded one later.

Yes, I always say I’ll watch them in the evening. No, I never do. I watch them when I get home. That’s the reality, and building your agenda around it is smart, not lazy.

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My Day-by-Day Cvent Connect 2026 Agenda

My focus this year: event marketing, pipeline influence, ROI, first-party data, and content strategy. If that matches your world, steal this agenda. If you are focused elsewhere, three other Cvent Hosted Creators to follow:

• David Stevens — wellness track
• Anca Trifan — AI track
• Leanne Velky — Cvent power user / platform mastery

Monday — Partner Summit

If you partner with Cvent in any capacity (agency, tech, services), the Partner Summit is the highest-density networking day of the week. Sessions haven’t been released yet, but this is a confirmed stop for me.

Tuesday — General Session + Marketing & ROI Sessions

Mornings kick off with the Cvent general session. This is where Reggie and the leadership team walk through the product roadmap, industry trends and the data they’re seeing. It is always one of the most informative hours of the week.

Afternoons are where I’m stacking my sessions:

• How Modern Marketers Win Mind Share
• From Metrics to Meaning
• Events That Move the Needle
• Meetup for Marketers (I wish these meetups weren’t stacked against sessions, but we will make it work)

Wednesday — The AdvaMed Session You Cannot Miss

I’m going to spend extra time on this one. Wednesday afternoon’s session, “The Event and Marketing Dream Team: How AdvaMed Fueled Growth Across Its Event Programs,” with Erin Lee (VP of Marketing at AdvaMed) and team is the session I am not missing.

AdvaMed is doing event marketing right. Erin and Sarah’s team are playing at a different level. If you care about event portfolio strategy, event-led growth, or connecting events to pipeline, this is your session.

The rest of Wednesday is a mix of keynotes (still to be announced — the celebrity keynoters are usually revealed closer to the event) and community conversation sessions. I am glad to see these on the agenda. Not every slot is a panel or a case study. Some of the best learning at an event like this happens in participatory formats.

Thursday — AI Learning Labs + Southern Charm

A lot of people head home Thursday. Don’t.

Two reasons to stay:

• AI Learning Labs. AI is moving fast enough that I cannot consume enough hands-on content. This is a hands-on lab, not a theory session.
• Nashville City Tours. Cvent is running multiple excursions so you can experience Nashville as a destination and bring ideas back to your own programs. I’m doing Southern Charm and Backyard Vibes. I’m a Bravo girl. I cannot help myself. Come find me.

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The Puppy Yoga Mystery (Seriously, Explain This)

Here is the part I cannot let go of.

Within 24 hours of the Cvent Connect 2026 agenda going live, I logged into the Attendee Hub to see what was filling up. First session completely sold out? Not the keynote. Not the AI Learning Labs. Not the data sessions.

Puppy yoga. Specifically puppy yoga. The regular yoga sessions still had open spots. It was puppy yoga that caused the stampede.

Love yoga. Love puppies. Not sure I love them together at a business conference. But clearly, a critical mass of you do — so I am going to show up to one of the sessions and conduct what I am generously calling field research. If you signed up, I’m going to be asking you, on camera, why. This is my sincere attempt to understand a cultural moment.

If you have a theory, drop it on my LinkedIn or YouTube comments. This is the most interesting data point of the whole agenda so far.

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Should You Register for Cvent Connect 2026?

If you work in B2B events, event marketing, event technology, or event strategy, yes. Nashville July 13–16. Virtual attendance is free and fully hybrid — real networking rooms, real breakouts, not a passive watch-a-stream experience.

If you register with my Hosted Creator link, it helps me continue creating content like this. And more importantly, it gives you the same view of the agenda I used to build this post.

👉 Register for Cvent Connect 2026 with my link

Then follow along on [YouTube], [Instagram] and [LinkedIn] as I keep documenting the road to Nashville, the packing, the neon outfits, and the full behind-the-scenes from on the ground.

See you in Nashville. Or virtually. Either way, I’m excited.

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Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, host of the Event About It podcast, and a 2026 Cvent Connect Hosted Creator. She writes and speaks on event-led growth, event portfolio strategy, and the intersection of events, marketing and data.