Blackthorn Events

The Salesforce integration and the platform's flexibility. Although it didn't cover every single use case we had, the out-of-the-box features handled about 95% of them. Some user-facing elements have subpar UX. For instance, long forms could use pagination, and the full-width layout repeats the hero image in a larger format, which seems unchangeable and makes it tough to get most images to look right. Event booking management. It streamlines event creation and management. It offers detailed attendee insights and enables us to engage those attendees with more tailored communications.

I like that Blackthorn Events integrates with Salesforce and uses the event wizard. This integration scales across our entire organization, covering five states and 25 account managers. It helps us stay organized and use existing details like phone numbers and emails to keep contacts up to date. We embed it as an iframe on our WordPress site, so we no longer need to post events to multiple websites. We set them up in Salesforce, and they appear automatically in the iframe. The initial setup was very easy, with a thorough onboarding session. Occasionally, Blackthorn has trouble matching contacts to existing Salesforce records because of alternate emails or nicknames, resulting in duplicates. Blackthorn Events makes it easy to trigger invitation emails, track registrations in real-time, stay organized with Salesforce integration, and manage events centrally without having to update multiple websites.

I really appreciate that Blackthorn Events is natively built on Salesforce, so we can embed event management directly into the platform where our constituent data already lives. This gives us more flexibility, eases data sync challenges, and allows for richer reporting and engagement tracking. The Blackthorn team has been very responsive and collaborative, especially as we've tested new features and shared feedback through the beta program. Initial setup was straightforward, and having the chance to evaluate the product in a trial environment was extremely useful. Using Blackthorn Events to leverage existing Salesforce CRM data has been instrumental in redesigning the alumni experience, giving staff an efficient way to create, manage, and support events. So far, UPenn hasn't found any major gaps or issues with the platform. Blackthorn Events lets us handle the entire event lifecycle through Salesforce, cutting down manual data entry, eliminating fragmented processes, and improving visibility into constituent interactions. It boosts operational efficiency for large-scale event management.

I especially value the smooth integration of Blackthorn Events with Salesforce. It gives our sales team visibility into which customers are interested in specific qualifications and certifications. Participant data flows easily into our sales structure. The event page templates are simple to complete, and the initial setup was fairly intuitive. Also, the seamless connection with Salesforce lets us exchange data without hassle and create customer transparency. It might be nice to have more ways to personalize the appearance of event and catalog pages. There are plenty of templates and customization options, like CSS, but it could be even more tailored. Make the web event pages more on-brand. Blackthorn Events supports our event organization, including capacity planning, and provides sales with visibility into customer interests and qualifications. Its integration with Salesforce enables easy data exchange and transparency between sales and the academy.

What I appreciate is how straightforward it is to set up a new event each time. It's also capable of handling very complex operations, especially with its Salesforce integration and payment management. Initial configuration was hassle-free and simple. Since then, we've experienced no problems, and the integration is smooth. I also like the ability to handle advanced tasks like controlling event and session visibility and the Pay Later feature for sponsorships. Over the years, Blackthorn Events has evolved significantly, and the team has been very cooperative with us in enhancing the product and aligning with Salesforce updates. I can't think of any downsides. We love how Blackthorn Events manages event registration for stakeholder events and webinars, simplifies setup, integrates seamlessly with Salesforce, and handles complex features like visibility restrictions and payment options.

Our team values Blackthorn Events' Salesforce connection, the range of customization options, and the frequent feature upgrades. We also appreciate the accessibility of Blackthorn Support and their willingness to lend a hand whenever we need it. The user interface isn't the most intuitive, especially for those less familiar with Salesforce's structure and layouts. It has been annoying when critical features go down at inconvenient moments, but we do admire Blackthorn's dedication to restoring functionality and continuously improving. Blackthorn Events fulfills our event planning needs and works hand-in-hand with Salesforce, our CRM. Thanks to this integration, account and contact records in our CRM are automatically updated with registration and attendance data. We use Blackthorn to create events with multiple ticket types and sessions, track sign-ups, and record attendance.

The biggest highlight for us is the direct Salesforce integration. Because it operates within the CRM, we can use standard Flow automation to run our event processes from start to finish, which has removed a massive amount of manual effort. The event wizard is excellent for quickly launching new registration pages, and the event cloning feature has made managing our recurring schedule much simpler compared to the old manual way. The only real issue we've encountered is that occasional updates bring minor regressions that can break existing features. It's not a deal-breaker, but it forces us to rigorously test everything in a Sandbox before deploying to Production. That's a good practice anyway, but with this tool, it's absolutely essential. We were overloaded with repeatable events and needed automated attendee tracking plus smooth web conferencing integration for hybrid sessions. Blackthorn met that need by centralizing everything in Salesforce. Now we don't have to manually sync data across systems, and we can easily measure business impact and ROI because the data sits right where our sales and marketing teams already work.

Once we've established our event framework, it's a major time saver. For our operations, the most valuable part has been the back-office handling of event registrations. It's important to recognize that the software is aimed at the education sector. Some design decisions appear tailored more towards B2C than B2B, especially regarding invoicing and payment handling. We had reached a point where the events team was spending nearly all their time on administrative tasks rather than promoting and supporting events. The automation we get for registrations and communications has cut down time the most, even though we still need to manually verify some events.

The standout aspect of Blackthorn Events is how naturally it connects with Salesforce, enabling organizations to oversee the entire event journey from a single hub. Handling registrations, payments, communications, and analytics in one spot boosts efficiency and enhances data clarity. A challenge I run into is the learning curve, especially when setting up more advanced elements like intricate event templates or bespoke workflows. It takes a while to grasp all the choices, how they interconnect, and their interactions with Salesforce. Blackthorn Events resolves the problem of juggling events across various platforms by consolidating everything within Salesforce. Instead of depending on separate tools for sign-ups, billing, messaging, and reporting, it brings these functions together into one system, simplifying management.

We can handle the whole event process, from sign-ups and attendee management to payments, messaging, and analytics, without ever having to leave Salesforce. By leveraging Salesforce Flows for automation, reusing event templates, and storing all event-related information in a single location, we've cut down on manual workload and boosted both data accuracy and reporting capabilities. In short, it's a robust, all-in-one solution that makes running both online and face-to-face events much more streamlined. That said, configuring an event can sometimes be time-consuming, and when there are setup or configuration hiccups, they can be tricky to troubleshoot without checking the documentation or reaching out to support. But once it's set up correctly, the platform is dependable and offers a rich feature set. Using Blackthorn Events has allowed us to consolidate event management within Salesforce, so we no longer bounce between various disconnected tools. It brings registration, attendee monitoring, payment handling, email outreach, and reporting all under one roof. This has minimized manual data entry, enhanced data precision, and freed up a lot of time for our team. Since all event data stays in Salesforce, we gain clearer insights into attendee behavior and can generate more detailed reports and automate follow-ups with Flows. Overall, it has made event coordination much more effective and delivered a smoother experience for both organizers and participants.