Weeks after a recent move, Reggie Aggarwal’s office remains cluttered with still-packed moving boxes. Taped to a wall at Cvent.com, an online event-planning company, is the only wall hanging: the firm’s one-page telephone chart. Large framed photographs, gifts from employees, lean against the wall behind his desk.

For Aggarwal, there’s hardly time to worry about details such as unpacking or decorating. He’s working 18-hour days to grow the Arlington-based start-up. Speaking at near lightning speed, he tells how Cvent.com is revolutionizing the event and meeting industry.

His impatience is what has led the 30-year-old former corporate lawyer to found Cvent.com. While working more than 60 hours a week practicing law, Aggarwal spent countless hours personalizing e-mail invitations — mostly cutting and pasting — to invite dozens of influential corporate executives to Indian CEO High Tech Council events. As membership grew from a few dozen to close to 900 and then 1,500, he knew there had to be a better way to invite people to the 30 or so networking events he organized annually and to track members’ interests. "It was a very frustrating process because all of my time was getting people there. About 10 percent of my time was on the event," Aggarwal says.

What sets Cvent.com’s event software apart from others — and from Aggarwal’s own tedious cut-and-paste methods — is how the software inexpensively automates the invitation process. It allows clients such as Nasdaq, the Greater Washington Board of Trade or the Republican National Committee to load customer databases into Cvent.com’s Web site, design an invitation in a matter of minutes and e-mail it. These e-invites can be simple or personalized by culling information from the customer’s database to provide driving directions or hotel recommendations. "We solve the pain ... We’re transforming an industry," says Aggarwal. Plus, he adds, "There’s no more licking 6,000 envelopes."

Using Cvent.com’s software to send e-mail invitations requires that customers upload their membership, client or employee lists depending on the target audience. Providing such proprietary information is often unsettling to Cvent.com customers who worry about privacy issues and losing control of their databases. But Cvent.com has largely been able to assuage such concerns by highlighting the network security steps it takes. The company notes that customers such as Nasdaq or prominent law firms put their trust in Cvent.com. Aggarwal’s reputation in high-tech and legal circles has also been helpful. He was still working for Washington’s Shaw Pitman law firm when Cvent.com got off the ground in September 1999.

Like many Internet start-ups, most Cvent.com employees are young. The average age is about 30. The company’s youthful demographics are one reason why it seemed more appropriate to stage a "bring your parents to work day" as opposed to the more common events that encourage employees to bring their children to the office. Most Cvent.com employees work long, caffeine-fueled hours at their desks. A typical day for Aggarwal and many of his underlings often ends around midnight, but nobody is complaining. They probably would not find a sympathetic ear from Aggarwal, either, since he is usually the one setting the pace. In addition to heading Cvent.com, Aggarwal also is the company cheerleader and its leading sales and public relations person. Public relations chief Nick Findlay sat in on a recent interview with Aggarwal, but uttered barely a peep. He didn’t need to, thanks to Aggarwal.

The boss’s intensity is necessary to beat back fast-moving competitors such as Evite or Event411.com which are also vying for a share of the online event-planning market, Evite is primarily geared to consumers and Event411.com lacks the ability to track e-mail invitations with the level of the detail that Cvent.com can. Other competition comes from companies that handle conference registrations and travel planning for group meetings.

Perhaps more important is that Cvent.com’s software provides users such as alumni associations, trade groups or large businesses the ability to gain information about their members. It automatically sends pre- and post- event queries, tracking their responses and building powerful databases that give associations a better understanding about the wants and needs of members.

E-mail recipients who do not respond receive reminders. Respond "yes" and you receive a confirmation, possibly a list of friends who will be attending and maybe questions to help tailor the program. Negative responses receive follow up e-mails asking why the recipient is not attending or thanking him anyway. Users can even tell who opened the e-mail, but did not respond at all. After an event, there are more queries soliciting feedback. The system can also handle conference registrations.

These persistent and personalized campaigns can help meeting planners change the agenda, learn about their clients and plan future events. It’s all a marketing exercise and an effort to build relationships. "Lack of attendance at events is ignorance," says Aggarwal. "An event is a marketing campaign — not just getting people there but understanding what people want."

In addition to providing a trove of marketing data, e-mailed invitations speed communications, allowing organizations to instantaneously contact thousands of members. E-mail also eliminates costly printing and mailing expenses. Yet even Aggarwal, who lives and breathes confidence in Cvent.com’s product, concedes printed invitations are not likely to disappear anytime soon.

The University of Virginia graduate expresses frustration as he holds up a recent UVA announcement. He already counts Duke University, the University of Maryland, Georgetown and George Washington universities as clients; he is still pitching his alma mater.

Online meeting planning may save time and thousands of dollars, but it’s not cheap. Customers license Cvent.com’s programming through the company’s Web site for annual fees ranging from $2,500 to $50,000. The fees depend on the number of events planned.

While Cvent.com has a long way to go toward achieving Aggarwal’s goal of 5,000 to 10,000 clients in the next few years — up from around 150 today— he has already attracted a great deal of support. Cvent.com’s financial backers include a who’s who of the Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia technology world. The list of investors who provided Cvent.com with $12 million during a recent round of financing includes Mike Daniels, chairman of Network Solutions; Morgan O’Brien, the co-founder of Nextel Communications; and Sanju Bansal, a cofounder and chief operating officer of MicroStrategy Inc.

It’s not surprising that Bansal would support Cvent.com since technology provided by MicroStrategy plays a key role in Cvent.com’s software. Bansal was one of Aggarwal’s earliest financial backers.

So far Cvent.com has only a small sliver of the $45 billion planning and registration sector of the $150 billion meeting and conference industry. So reaching 10,000 new clients in three years may seem unrealistic, but don’t tell Aggarwal or his boosters. The company has grown to about 100 employees since its launch with a single employee. And while other Internet ventures are retrenching, Aggarwal boasts of continued expansion and expects to grow aggressively by hiring about 10 people each month.

For now, Cvent.com is more focused on building its business, not its image. No flashy signs or fancy reception areas greet visitors. In fact, nobody greets visitors, who wander in and around the office unquestioned. Cvent.com has no receptionist. Even when the company enjoyed plush office space in the Watergate, it had no receptionist or formal entryway. The casual atmosphere extends throughout the office — from dress to work space. Aggarwal is one of the few people with private offices. Most employees work on large, open cubicles with Palm Pilots and laptops adorning desks made from joining two tables together.

Aggarwal’s concern for his work force is so keen that he applies Cvent.com’s programming to make them feel part of the squad. He uses its software for internal employee surveys soliciting feedback and ideas as well as to plan employee outings such as paintball or the "bring your parents to work" event. "It’s all about team building and getting people to know each other better," says Aggarwal. Given his penchant for working at breakneck speed, that’s something he’ll need to do.