Build Voice Agents in ElevenLabs with access to Live Cvent Data

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable ElevenLabs agents to securely access live Cvent data.

ElevenLabs is a leading AI audio platform that enables developers to build conversational voice agents capable of natural, human-like interactions. The ElevenLabs Conversational AI platform allows you to create voice-powered assistants that can reason through tasks, respond dynamically, and interact with external systems in real time.

By integrating ElevenLabs with CData Connect AI through the MCP (Model Context Protocol), your voice agents gain the ability to query, analyze, and act on live Cvent data during conversations. This integration bridges ElevenLabs' conversational AI framework with the governed enterprise connectivity of CData Connect AI, ensuring all data access runs securely against authorized sources without manual data movement.

This article outlines the steps to configure Cvent connectivity in Connect AI, generate the required authentication credentials, register the Connect AI MCP Server in ElevenLabs, and verify that your voice agent can successfully interact with live Cvent data during conversations.

Step 1: Configure Cvent connectivity for ElevenLabs

Connectivity to Cvent from ElevenLabs is made possible through CData Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with Cvent data from your voice agents, start by creating and configuring a Cvent connection in CData Connect AI.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
  2. Select Cvent from the Add Connection panel
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Cvent.

    Before you can authenticate to Cvent, you must create a workspace and an OAuth application.

    Creating a Workspace

    To create a workspace:

    1. Sign into Cvent and navigate to App Switcher (the blue button in the upper right corner of the page) >> Admin.
    2. In the Admin menu, navigate to Integrations >> REST API.
    3. A new tab launches for Developer Management. Click on Manage API Access in the new tab.
    4. Create a Workspace and name it. Select the scopes you would like your developers to have access to. Scopes control what data domains the developer can access.
      • Choose All to allow developers to choose any scope, and any future scopes added to the REST API.
      • Choose Custom to limit the scopes developers can choose for their OAuth apps to selected scopes. To access all tables exposed by the driver, you need to set the following scopes:
        event/attendees:readevent/attendees:writeevent/contacts:read
        event/contacts:writeevent/custom-fields:readevent/custom-fields:write
        event/events:readevent/events:writeevent/sessions:delete
        event/sessions:readevent/sessions:writeevent/speakers:delete
        event/speakers:readevent/speakers:writebudget/budget-items:read
        budget/budget-items:writeexhibitor/exhibitors:readexhibitor/exhibitors:write
        survey/surveys:readsurvey/surveys:write

    Creating an OAuth Application

    After you have set up a Workspace and invited them, developers can sign up and create a custom OAuth app. See the Creating a Custom OAuth Application section in the Help documentation for more information.

    Connecting to Cvent

    After creating an OAuth application, set the following connection properties to connect to Cvent:

    • InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
    • OAuthClientId: The Client ID associated with the OAuth application. You can find this on the Applications page in the Cvent Developer Portal.
    • OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret associated with the OAuth application. You can find this on the Applications page in the Cvent Developer Portal.
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab and update user-based permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

A Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI from ElevenLabs. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each integration to maintain granular access control.

  1. Click the gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open Settings
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT
  3. Give the PAT a descriptive name (e.g., "ElevenLabs Voice Agent") and click Create
  4. Copy the token when displayed and store it securely. It will not be shown again

With the Cvent connection configured and a PAT generated, ElevenLabs can now connect to Cvent data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Add the Connect AI MCP Server in ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs supports connecting to external MCP servers that use SSE (Server-Sent Events) or HTTP streamable transport. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server is compatible with this integration.

  1. Log into the ElevenLabs platform and navigate to your agent dashboard
  2. Go to Integrations and click + Add Integration to access the MCP server integrations section
  3. Click on Custom MCP Server to add a new integration
  4. Enter the following configuration:
    • Name: CData Connect AI
    • Description: Access live enterprise data from hundreds of sources
    • Server URL: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/sse
    • Secret Token: Leave empty (authentication is handled via headers)
    • HTTP Headers: Add a header with key Authorization and value Basic your_email:your_PAT
  5. Replace your_email:your_PAT with your Connect AI login email and the Personal Access Token you created earlier. For example: Basic [email protected]:ABC123...XYZ789
  6. Click Save to test the connection and retrieve available tools from Connect AI
  7. The CData Connect AI MCP server is now available to assign to your voice agents

Step 3: Configure your Voice Agent to use Connect AI

With the MCP server registered, you can now add it to your ElevenLabs voice agents to enable real-time data access during conversations.

  1. Create a new agent or edit an existing agent in the ElevenLabs dashboard
  2. In the agent configuration, navigate to the Tools section
  3. Add the CData Connect AI MCP server you configured in Step 2
  4. Configure the tool approval mode based on your requirements:
    • Always Ask: The agent will request permission before each data query (recommended for sensitive data)
    • Fine-Grained: Set approval requirements per tool/action
    • No Approval: The agent can query data autonomously
  5. Save your agent configuration

Step 4: Interact with live data through your Voice Agent

Your ElevenLabs voice agent can now access and query live Cvent data through the CData Connect AI MCP Server during conversations.

  1. Start a conversation with your voice agent
  2. Ask your agent data-related questions such as:
    • "What connections are available?"
    • "Show me the schemas for Cvent"
    • "Query recent records from Cvent data"
    • "Summarize our latest Data"
  3. The agent will use the Connect AI MCP tools to retrieve live data and respond conversationally

Your ElevenLabs voice agent is now fully configured to access and query live Cvent data through the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server, enabling real-time, data-driven voice interactions for your users.

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