Cvent LeadCapture and iCapture leads into Salesforce or HubSpot
How Cvent LeadCapture and iCapture leads reach Salesforce or HubSpot, from Cvent's docs: exports, sync, field mapping, campaign status and dedupe.
- Cvent LeadCapture is licensed by the organizer for one event. Cvent's exhibitor docs describe an export from the Exhibitor Portal after the event, run by the Exhibitor Admin.
- Cvent iCapture is licensed by the exhibitor and syncs to Salesforce, HubSpot and other CRMs through native REST API integrations, with a CSV or Excel download as a fallback.
- Map qualifier answers to fields with matching picklist values, and put event outcomes in campaign member statuses that count as responded.
- Match on email against Contacts, then Leads, before creating anything. That is iCapture's default for Salesforce and the right order for a manual import too.
Cvent lead capture comes in 2 products, and they reach your CRM in different ways. Cvent LeadCapture is the organizer’s app for one event, with portal export and CRM options that depend on the setup. Cvent iCapture is the exhibitor’s app, and it syncs to Salesforce or HubSpot through native integrations.
This guide walks through both, using only what Cvent publishes in its product pages and support articles. Then it covers the CRM side: field mapping, campaign member status, dedupe and how fast the lead reaches its owner.
Cvent LeadCapture vs iCapture: which one you have
Check the exhibitor manual first. If the organizer runs the event on Cvent and sells you licenses through an Exhibitor Portal, you have LeadCapture. If your team bought iCapture and takes it to every event, you have iCapture.
| Cvent LeadCapture | Cvent iCapture | |
|---|---|---|
| Who licenses it | The organizer, for its Cvent event | Your company, across events |
| How reps scan | LeadCapture app or a rented scanner, one license per person | iCapture PowerScan app, using the event’s badge kit |
| Qualification | Questions set in the Exhibitor Portal | Lead form questions and routing rules |
| Syncing | Each device syncs to the server over Wi-Fi; unsynced leads cannot be exported | Offline captures queue on the device and sync once connected |
| How leads leave | Exhibitor Admin exports a file; confirm live export and CRM options | Native CRM and marketing automation integrations, plus CSV or Excel download |
| Pricing | On the event’s order form or portal | Not published; by quote |
Sources: Cvent’s articles on using the Exhibitor Portal, scanning LeadCapture leads, iCapture integrations, iCapture offline capture and the iCapture product page.
For what lead retrieval costs across events and contractors, see trade show lead retrieval: costs and options.
Cvent LeadCapture (The organizer licenses it for one event): 1. Scan: Booth staff scan badges in the LeadCapture app. 2. Sync: Leads sync to the event Exhibitor Portal. 3. Export: The Exhibitor Admin exports a file; timing depends on the setup. 4. Import: Someone maps and imports it into the CRM.
Cvent iCapture (You license it and take it to every event): 1. Scan: PowerScan app reads the badge through the event’s badge kit. 2. Qualify: Lead form questions and rules run in iCapture. 3. Sync: The native integration writes over the REST API. 4. CRM record: Lead or Contact, campaign, optional task.
How Cvent LeadCapture leads leave the Exhibitor Portal
On a Cvent event, the organizer adds each exhibitor, names an Exhibitor Admin and allocates Lead Gatherer licenses. Each license is one person who can scan (Setting Up LeadCapture).
The Exhibitor Admin does the rest in the Exhibitor Portal:
- Buy licenses if needed. A single license, a 3-pack, extra single licenses, or a license with a rented scanning device shipped to the event.
- Add booth staff. Each person must already be registered for the event as an attendee.
- Assign licenses. Each person gets an access code by email. The code works once, on one device.
- Write the qualification questions. Under Lead Collection, in the Lead Qualification Questions tab.
- Scan at the booth. Reps scan the QR code, answer the questions and add notes. They cannot see leads their coworkers collected.
- Sync every device. After the event, each device needs Wi-Fi to sync. Leads that never sync are missing from the export.
- Export. Log in from the Thank You email, open View leads, select the fields you want, choose the file type and export.
Steps from Cvent’s articles on the Exhibitor Portal, scanning and exporting leads post-event.
Cvent’s LeadCapture product page says exhibitors can export leads on demand to any database and sync them into a CRM. The exhibitor support articles describe the export route. Confirm which exports and integrations your event provides, and test the hand-off before the first scan.
2 details catch teams out. Only the Exhibitor Admin can export, so the person who runs the CRM import needs that login or needs that person. And a rep who flies home without syncing has leads nobody can export.
“When you're scanning people's badges based on whatever app, the process on the back end is normally just a spreadsheet that is shared between folks”
How iCapture syncs to Salesforce and HubSpot
iCapture uses native integrations over REST API. Cvent lists Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics CRM (cloud-hosted only), SugarCRM and Zoho on the CRM side, and Eloqua, Mailchimp, Marketo and Pardot on the marketing automation side (iCapture integrations).
Other systems can receive leads through an HTML form post. A CSV or Excel download is always available, with contact information, qualifying answers, capture dates and system information.
Connecting Salesforce
Cvent documents the Salesforce setup in detail (Configuring the Salesforce integration):
- iCapture writes through the Salesforce REST API, so nothing is installed in the org.
- The connecting user needs API access and read, create and edit on Leads, Contacts and Campaigns, plus access to tasks and events. Cvent recommends admin-level authority.
- If your org only allows listed OAuth apps, a Salesforce admin must approve the iCapture connected app first.
- Campaigns must be active in Salesforce to appear in the campaign picker.
The mapping is finished with Cvent’s success team. You choose the object, the action and the campaign:
| Setting | Options Cvent documents |
|---|---|
| Object | Contacts, Leads, or Contact and Lead objects |
| Action | Update if email exists, else create; always create; only update if email exists; update campaign only if email exists |
| Default for Contact and Lead | Update the Contact if the email exists, update the Lead if the email exists, otherwise create a new Lead |
| Campaign | One campaign on the master template, or a different campaign per event |
| Activities | Optionally create a task with a priority and status, and optionally an event |
When iCapture updates an existing record, its default is to leave existing data alone and append to fields that allow it. You can switch a field to replace. For picklists, the answer value in iCapture has to match the Salesforce value exactly.
Connecting HubSpot
HubSpot is on the same native integration list. The initial connection runs from the Integrations page in the iCapture Back Office, and Cvent’s success team completes the mapping (Setting up an integration).
The connecting user needs rights to read, write and assign leads and contacts to campaigns or lists in the CRM. We could not find a HubSpot-specific iCapture mapping article at the same depth as the Salesforce one, so ask Cvent for the mapping sheet before the first event.
When the event uses another lead retrieval provider
iCapture scans badges through the event’s badge kit or developer kit. If iCapture has no active connection to that provider, Cvent asks for the kit at least 4 weeks before the event, and says kits cost $400 to $1,200 depending on options (Badge scanning with iCapture).
Without a kit, reps can photograph badges or cards or enter leads manually. Leads exported from another system can also be uploaded into an iCapture event, where they run through the same rules and integrations (Uploading leads).
Field mapping: Cvent lead capture data to CRM fields
Whichever route you use, map the fields once and reuse the mapping for every event. The left column is what a booth lead carries; exact column names depend on the fields you select in the LeadCapture export or on your iCapture lead form.
| Booth lead data | Salesforce | HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| First and last name | First Name, Last Name on Lead or Contact | First name, Last name on Contact |
| Email, the match key | Email, the dedupe key on import | |
| Company | Company on Lead; Account on Contact | Company name, plus the associated company |
| Job title | Title | Job title |
| Phone | Phone | Phone number |
| The event | Campaign Member on the event campaign | Static list for the event, plus an event property |
| What happened at the booth | Campaign member status | A custom event status property |
| Qualifier answers | Custom fields, picklist values matching exactly | Custom properties, dropdown options matching exactly |
| Booth notes | Task, or a notes field the owner sees | Note on the contact |
| Captured by and capture date | Custom fields, or task owner and date | Custom properties, or task owner and date |
| Owner | Lead or Account owner from assignment rules | Contact owner |
Map the qualifier answers with care. They decide the follow-up tier later, and a picklist mismatch fails quietly. Test the mapping before the event.
Campaign member status for booth leads
The event campaign is where the report comes from. Salesforce ships campaigns with 2 member statuses, Sent and Responded, and lets you add more and choose which ones count as a response (Salesforce campaign member statuses).
- Scanned at booth: Badge scan, no real conversation. Does not count as responded.
- Qualified conversation: Qualifier answers and notes recorded. Counts as responded.
- Meeting booked: A follow-up meeting is on the calendar. Counts as responded.
- Meeting held: The meeting happened. Counts as responded.
Set the statuses before the event, on the campaign you point iCapture at or import the LeadCapture file into. The zero converted leads post covers why generic statuses make event reports unreadable.
“For me it's also a bit unclear those stages in Salesforce how leads are moving through those.”
Dedupe before you import
A booth file is full of people already in your CRM: customers, open opportunities, last year’s leads. Creating duplicates splits their history and sends them to the wrong owner. Match them before importing.
- Does the email match a Contact? If yes: Update the Contact, add it to the event campaign. If no, go to the next check.
- Does the email match a Lead? If yes: Update the Lead, add it to the event campaign. If no, go to the next check.
- Otherwise: Create a new Lead, add it to the event campaign.
On HubSpot, contact imports deduplicate on email by default, and a Record ID column takes priority when present (HubSpot deduplication). Rows without an email or another supported unique identifier can create new contacts. Preserve a valid Record ID for known contacts; review rows with no reliable identifier before importing.
For a LeadCapture file going into Salesforce manually:
- Sort by email and remove blank or duplicate rows.
- Match against Contacts first, then Leads.
- Update matched records and add them to the event campaign with the right status.
- Create Leads only for the rows left over.
- Let assignment rules set the owner, and check the new Leads landed with someone.
“We have a spreadsheet template where they're supposed to put in any new contacts that they make during the event and then we have marketing ops put that into HubSpot... but overall it's a very manual process.”
Speed to follow-up
Measure follow-up from the conversation or capture time. On the LeadCapture export route, waiting for a file uses part of that window; confirm whether your event allows exports during the event. On an integrated iCapture setup, Cvent says follow-up can happen almost immediately after a scan, often while the event is still live (iCapture product page).
Either way, the rule for who follows up and how fast should exist before the first scan.
- Meeting requested at the booth: Account owner, same day.
- Qualified conversation: Account owner or AE, within 48 hours.
- Scan only, ICP account: SDR for the territory, within 5 working days.
- Scan only, outside ICP: Marketing nurture, nurture list, week 1.
The 48-hour follow-up curve shows why the first 2 tiers matter most. What to capture at the booth besides a badge scan covers the notes that make the follow-up specific.
Where Luminik fits
Luminik is an event pipeline platform for B2B marketing and RevOps teams using Salesforce or HubSpot. It works with the lead capture the event already has, including Cvent LeadCapture.
Leads from the LeadCapture export, or captured in Luminik at the booth with QR scan and badge OCR, are matched to existing records, given an owner and written to Salesforce or HubSpot with the booth notes and a follow-up task. The attendee list work before the event and the pipeline count afterwards sit on the same record.
More on the Cvent integration, during-event capture, and the Salesforce and HubSpot write-back.
Book a 20-min walkthrough before your next Cvent event.
Cvent lead capture FAQ
What is Cvent LeadCapture?
The lead retrieval app an organizer licenses for an event run on Cvent. The Exhibitor Admin assigns licenses to booth staff and sets qualification questions in the Exhibitor Portal. Each license lets one person scan.
How do I export leads from Cvent LeadCapture?
Only the Exhibitor Admin can. After the event, log in to the Exhibitor Portal, open View leads, select the fields, choose the file type and export. Booth staff must sync their devices first.
Does Cvent LeadCapture integrate with Salesforce or HubSpot?
Cvent’s product page says exhibitors can export leads on demand and sync them into a CRM. The exhibitor support articles describe the portal export, so plan for a file that someone maps and imports.
What is the difference between Cvent LeadCapture and iCapture?
LeadCapture is licensed by the organizer for one Cvent event and exported from its Exhibitor Portal. iCapture is licensed by the exhibitor, used across events, and syncs to Salesforce, HubSpot and other systems through native integrations.
How does iCapture sync leads to Salesforce?
Through the Salesforce REST API, with no install in the org. You choose Leads, Contacts or both, an object action, a campaign and an optional task, and map fields with Cvent’s success team.
Can iCapture scan badges at any event?
It needs the event’s badge kit or developer kit. Cvent says new provider connections need the kit 4 weeks ahead, and kits cost $400 to $1,200. Without one, reps can photograph badges or cards or enter leads manually.
