Blackthorn, the Salesforce®-native event management platform, is launching a suite of advanced event capabilities that empower planners to drive engagement and show impact from their system of record.
These new offerings include Event Navigator, a new attendee mobile app that pulls event details directly from Blackthorn, eliminating the need for additional manual setup or extra integrations. Organizers can update agendas, send notifications, and manage event details in Salesforce, while attendees can access their schedules, session information, and speaker details from their mobile devices — keeping everything organized and up-to-date in one place.
In addition, Blackthorn is expanding access to its Messaging app, which enables native 1-to-1 and 1-to-many SMS communication that can be managed and scheduled directly from Salesforce. Customers are being given 1,000 free messages to use for events and other communications.
Alongside Event Navigator and Messaging, Blackthorn has also introduced split payments, which allows organizers to separate donations from event-related payments during registration, eliminating the need for manual fund reconciliation.
“Events are business-critical for many organizations, but traditional solutions force planners to work in fragmented, disconnected systems,” said Blackthorn CEO and cofounder Chris Federspiel. “At Blackthorn, we’re eliminating that friction — bringing event management fully into Salesforce so planners can stop wrestling with data gaps and unreliable integrations and focus on creating impactful experiences.”
Blackthorn Deepens Event Industry Expertise with Executive Hires
With Blackthorn’s rapid growth in the event tech space, the company is bolstering its leadership team with two industry veterans who bring a combined 15+ years of experience at leading event technology companies. Chris Kearney has been appointed Senior Vice President of Sales. Kearney spent more than 12 years at Cvent in various sales roles in the mid-market and enterprise segments. During his tenure he helped launch Cvent’s London office and expand the company’s European footprint.
“Event planners are becoming part-time data scientists because there is a clear need to demonstrate return-on-event,” Kearney said. “I am excited to help more organizations create impactful, data-driven events and help event planners articulate their impact on the organizations they support.”
Lauren McCullough has been named Senior Vice President of Marketing. McCullough was most recently the Vice President of Marketing at Bizzabo, where she helped launch and drive demand for the Event Experience OS and Klik, Bizzabo’s Smartbadge technology.
“Events are one of the most impactful marketing channels, but that impact is often hard to quantify,” McCullough said. “Blackthorn eliminates the manual work and lengthy delays from wonky integrations, letting you build and manage events directly from Salesforce. It’s a no-brainer for any marketer, and I’m thrilled to help ensure every organizer can use it.”
Blackthorn Hosts Inaugural Customer Conference
Blackthorn’s impact is already being felt across the industry. Earlier this month, the company hosted Homecoming 2025, its first-ever customer conference, bringing together leaders from 35+ top colleges and universities. Attendees explored the future of event tech, including how Blackthorn is integrating AI-powered event assistants via Salesforce’s Agentforce.
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