Blackthorn Events Reviews & Product Details

I’ve been learning Blackthorn for about a year now, and the thing I appreciate most is the support. Participating in the “office hours” sessions and getting one-on-one help has been especially useful for me in my role.

It also integrates with Salesforce, which I’ve found helpful for automating event responses directly into the database. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Blackthorn can be cumbersome to learn. There are many small settings and fields that have to be configured correctly for an event to publish and work as expected, and it is not always obvious which settings are important or how they affect one another. As a staff member who took over responsibility for Blackthorn, I have found the learning curve to be fairly steep, and it can be difficult to troubleshoot issues when you don't yet know all of the system's nuances. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The main draw is being able to manage event activity within the Salesforce environment rather than adding another disconnected place to maintain attendee data. For a business working with dealership partners and insurance-related audiences, having registration and attendance information connected to the CRM is especially useful. It gives the team a more direct path from an event interaction to the next conversation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We needed a few additional follow-ups during implementation to work through configuration details and clarify how certain parts of the process should operate. It wasn't a major blocker, but I would have preferred to settle those details with fewer rounds of clarification. Once the setup was addressed, the overall approach made sense for our Salesforce-based workflow. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The best thing for us is how easy it is to build event and registration pages. we run invitation-only events for CFOs, and each one needs a polished, professional page that matches the experience our members expect. With Blackthorn, we can set up an event and its registration page quickly without a developer or a long back-and-forth. Because it runs inside Salesforce, our event data stays connected to the rest of our member information, so we aren’t juggling separate tools. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are two small frustrations. First, the search filter collapses on us, which makes it harder to look up and narrow down events or records than it should be. Second, the registration process can take a little while for attendees to complete. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We run donor events for a nonprofit and the worst part used to be after, someone would scan a sign in sheet or export a spreadsheet from whatever event tool we used, then manually match names against our Salesforce contacts, half the time misspelling someone or creating a duplicate record by accident. Using the mobile check in app at the door meant attendance logged straight against the actual Salesforce contact in real time, so by the time the event wrapped, I already had accurate attendance sitting there, no export, no matching names by hand at midnight trying to figure out which Sarah Johnson was which. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Building out a branded event page took more fiddling than I expected the first time, the design options felt a bit boxed in compared to a standalone page builder I'd used before, so getting our specific colors and layout right took a few extra passes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The biggest advantage for us is having event information live alongside the Salesforce data we already use. That means our team doesn't have to treat an event as a separate administrative exercise and then spend time rebuilding the attendee picture afterward. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The initial setup took a few extra conversations because some of our requirements weren't completely clear the first time around. It wasn't a major problem, but we did have to revisit a few details before the configuration matched the way we wanted to run our events. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the integration with Salesforce and the simple UI for the team to follow when creating events. The event builder guides the team through the steps so it is simple to use even for new team members. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The one thing we have had several issues with is the smart scheduler. Missing off events, if changes are made to an existing event it does not update the scheduler on occasions, this means that reminder emails are not being sent to our customers. We have raised this issue a number of times with Blackthorn Support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Blackthorn Events adaptability to my business needs I liked the most as it ensures a seamless experience for hosts and participants whether it's a small gathering or a large-scale conference. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I faced an issue where, if I make changes to an already existing event, the scheduler doesn’t update the occasion. I’m not sure why this happens. We raised the issue, and I hope they fix it in the next version. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

That it's native to Salesforce, onboarding was very helpful and ongoing support team respond fast but a little too technical sometimes when providing explanations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

UX is mostly good, however, all of the custom code needed to make customizations (Custom CSS) is very time-consuming. Can't choose the order of speakers on the event page without choosing Featured, but then it still orders alphabetically. There are a lot of fields required to remember to fill out. The Add to Calendar functionality needs major improvement. "Add to Calendar" button on the confirmation page takes users to the event registration page which has caused customer complaints, so we had to use custom CSS to remove this feature and only use the confirmation email version. It would be nice to just check boxes if we want features on/off instead of doing custom code, and being able to type in hex#'s for custom colors instead of code. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We love that it lives right on the Salesforce Platform! Reports and information sharing is easy on our large distributed team. It also gives us the flexibility we need to run and manage everything from a simple webinar sign up to a multi day conference. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

With monthly updates it is sometimes hard for us to keep up with new features. There are several in the latest release that we can't wait to start using! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Blackthorn Events has an excellent support team that is quick to respond to issues and provide solutions. While it has been a difficult piece of software to work with, the people working behind the scenes have been nothing but a blessing the entire time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Unfortunately, there is much to dislike about Blackthorn Events but it all comes down to one thing: it simply does not consistently work. Core box office features, such as a waitlist for sold-out events, do not function as intended and can lead to oversold events or people cutting the line for a ticket. Connected apps, like their mobile check-in application, experience frequent service issues where attendees do not appear and therefore cannot be checked in. The overall UI design of the app, while standard for Salesforce, can be a bit clunky and unintuitive to navigate. There are different apps and objects where users can configure their settings that could be condensed into one location instead of spread throughout. Lastly, the pricing model is a bit too expensive for what feels like early adoption software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.