TEDxSydney is a one day event, with a complicated ticketing/purchasing process and many categories of attendees. In the past, we have managed this complexity via a combination of spreadsheets and home-grown databases, which has often resulted in loss of information or registrants on the day, as well as created challenges with reconciling multiple lists of registrants. We used etouches for our event this year, and it made such a difference to have one source of truth for all our registrations, payments and refunds, and to allow us to have an easy and quick snapshot of all our attendees at our fingertips.

I enjoyed having a one-stop shop for all our registrations and the super-flexible configuration capability that handled most of our complex needs. We were able to accommodate all of the attendee categories with the variety of set-up options within eReg. I also liked the ability to link events to mailing lists in eMarketing, which we only really scratched the surface with this year. Next year, we plan to integrate them together even more. We also really benefitted from the ability to print badges for the event on the day directly from etouches. Again, we did not use this to its full potential this year, so looking forward to utilising the software even more in this area next year.

One big challenge we had was the requirement to have at least one public category of attendee that, apparently, cannot be sold out. There had to be an option for people to select when they went to register. Our event is not a public event and purchases/registrations are by invite only, but invitations sometimes went out to more people than we had tickets available for or, alternatively, had an expiry date set for them. If these categories hit capacity or expired, there was no clean way to display a simple unavailable or sold out message without offering another public option. While the software is very customisable, this flexibility does come with some downsides. There are a number of different areas/screens we had to remember to change and update if we added new categories. This was probably made more difficult by the fact that we had a lot of categories, but it did mean that a few categories did not get set-up correctly because we missed one of these many steps.

Mostly positive experience. Interface is relatively modern looking - I think it got a facelift recently. Aventri is a solid product. Big companies use it, presumably they have done their due diligence when selecting an events management platform. I also evaluated others like Cvent, eventbrite, etc. Naturally it’s way more capable than simpler yet way more affordable systems that are bolted on like Wix or Constant Contact. It is mostly geared towards larger events that require some relatively complex logistical planning. Organizing Conferences, trade shows, summits etc. Anything with 70+ people with different attendee types, it will have more value. It is still suitable for running things like smaller events like lunches, or dinners for under 50 people. Its a very good RSVP system to track various attendees types, needs and selection choices. It has good logic built in for mailing invitations and sending invites or messages to specific groups of attendees. The hardest part will be standing up the system, populating it with data, and getting your team properly trained and using it competently.

Mostly easy to use - lots of online resources and guides to self-learn - online and phone support is quite responsive and knowledgeable. Robust feature set. - rsvp reporting is solid - custom field questions is solid - pre populated field in registration form is useful - almost any sort of option has been built in - I primarily focus on RSVP, attendance and invites - can set agendas for breakout sessions etc. - can build a website based on backend info of the event - i.e. update info in the backend and it is immediately reflected on website and reg form. - easy to send invite and rsvp reports by specific filters (e.g. sales rep) - integrates with boomset which makes badge printing almost completely painless

- Can be expensive to purchase - Does take time to learn the platform - Website builder needs updating for responsive design (beta was released and it’s good) - Difficult to access event information or update event via mobile device - i.e. there is no mobile app for the event planner. This is a huge pain, actually - mostly for getting guest list or dashboard level info. - costs even more for additional features compared to similar competitors

Overall experience: terrible. Benefits I've realized: literally any other software would be better than this. I'm counting down the days until our contract is up.

The ONLY positive thing I have to say about this software is this: The customer service team seems to have it pretty much together...which they'd have to because I can imagine they are quite busy with all the customers trying to figure out their convoluted system.

Where do I begin? - Upon trying to get out of our 3-year contract (after suffering through months of painful training), we were told by our sales rep that "Aventri is incredibly intuitive" and "there are endless features if you'd just go through the training". Well we did go through the training. The free training, that is. Aventri wanted another $2,500 for private training with our team! If your product is so intuitive, why would we need 16 hours of training valued at $2,500? - I absolutely abhor this software. I dread having to figure out new features. 90% of the time, I end up emailing customer service because I cannot find what I need. This software makes about as much sense as a purple llama named Tuesday that didn't like his doorknob for the fuzzy coffee cup. - Their "client support portal" is a joke. Supposedly you type in a phrase and it comes back with helpful tips and articles to solve your problem. Well, in my opinion someone screwed with the algorithm and it spits back the most useless junk you've ever seen. It is NEVER relevant or helpful.

Kellen has partnered with etouches since 2012. We have seen the company grow & prosper, and we are very pleased with the results. Top successes include continued ease of use, great customer support, good online learning, useful API, great integration between modules, great onsite experience. Some of the challenges include lack of development of the online booth sales & management module (ebooth), slow development of integration with association management systems (AMSs, such as NetForum, YourMembership, i4a...), limited scope of the appointment-scheduling module (esocial). We have used other systems, and for an all-around event management solution, or just as a registration management tool, we feel etouches can't be outdone. We feel we've been part of their development, through sharing challenges and helping design solutions. They've come a long way with their Call for Abstracts module (eselect), and we provided a lot of feedback on that in the early stages. We use ehome quite often, and it's very easy to learn & use, in support of the ereg module. We do not use the task management or budgeting solutions. We have used both emarketing and escan successfully. Their customer service department is responsive, and we are happy to report that senior management is also very responsive to inquiries (when we feel more urgency is required). We process around 10,000 registrations, plus 1000 eselect uses, annually. We chose etouches based on projected ROI and have not been disappointed. We also appreciate and utilize the system's ability to work with multiple currencies, multiple global payment gateways, and multiple languages, including Chinese.

I have been able to better coordinate discount codes for certain registrants plus offer various registration types, which has saved me a lot of time and communication. Another prior issue was CEU scanning, which with Aventri will be much more streamlined, will reduce congestion and will require less staff volunteers.

The most helpful tool for me is their Custom Reporting feature. I can find exactly what I need, when I need it. I also really enjoy being able to see the website update automatically as I make any changes or updates. The new BETA version is so much better!

I have no complaints at this time other than its high price. Any issues I encounter are quickly remedied by their fantastic support staff. They typically respond pretty quickly and escalate the issue if needed. I also appreciate the opportunity to leave feedback on each ticket.

easy

I find the support staff very quick and efficient when you need help. They always seem to have a solution to my problem.

I've been working in etouches since 2012, so I have become very accustomed to its functions and terminology. However it can be quite confusing in the beginning. When we dealt with the account level and different uploads that had to happen to attached speakers to sessions, it was a very cumbersome process. I feel like etouches is always changing though and improving these processes, so that is very encouraging.

We are organizing around 10 events per year which are our touchpoint with our members and all the community. Etouches has been first our registration software. What we value most is: Registration setup : - managing members only rate with automated filters - easy design of the pages - setup administrative invoices and other documents - management of complex information gathering (session, extra-data, share-transportation...) And also a templating of these setup to allow us to duplicate all or parts of these setup... Communication management: - manage layout of emails easily with global templates or event-specific customization - send out invitation and monitor answers - manage the "no" answer (great one) to allow you to remind only the one that did not answer in & single click - manage automated email for incomplete registration, confirmation, changes in the programme... Financial & reporting: - really easy automated report - daily email custom report (just magic for other stakeholders) and live private lists - finance management with our context (taxes are complex for association)... Sponsor management: - we also used etouches to manage sponsorship - from confirmation of packages - invoices - quota management for badges and VIP pass CRM management: we use the option of "global database" : - this include that our global DB is automaticaly updated by every single registration - we have cross events data - we can monitor engagement, loyalty - we can detect low engaged people to be proactive in the communication with them before they leave the association - we can provide detailed data about quality, quantity and interest of our community to our potential sponsors --> fully integrated with no import / export / excel skills (and time spent)

I am not the one on my team that builds the websites, but i do utilize it daily for reporting and assist with editing prior to going live. Happy with the experience.

It is a simple software that is easy to navigate and use on a daily basis. It has all the features for what a meeting planner needs for their programs.

I do not have any negative comments at this time.

eTouches is very user friendly and easy to explain to someone how to use the registration. Easy to walk attendees through the process. Many ways to customize each event as we need,

Sometimes the email system does not work with some firewalls. eTouches is sometimes hard to get to merge with other programs that we use for different parts of our events.

Etouches (now Aventri) gets the job done. It's not as comprehensive or intuitive as some other event management platforms we've used, but it has a lot of necessary functionality.

The two pieces that lack significantly are the website builder and email builder. We have had to use a lot of workarounds. They are not super intuitive and the templates they've provided us are pretty restrictive.

While the intention of the eTouches software modules are right on target they have not been successful (yet) at thinking though the processes all the way to the finish line. If you choose to use this software be prepared to spend a lot of time working out the nuances to fit your needs. Tech support is lovely and helpful but the documentation is poor at best. They have a lot of information but the information doesn't let you understand how the actions in one area affect the outputs in other areas. Which items you must layout first to insure success in the later aspects of your planning. eSelect has a long way to go and I have been assured that the next version will be vastly improved. For instance, don't bother to create the "custom merge codes" for each custom field, they don't work; tech support knew that immediately when we called. However we only called after spending a considerable amount of time setting the fields and custom emails up. There is no indication in the software that these fields are un-usable and in fact you are prompted to create the "custom merge code" each time you create a field. I am keen to see the next version of the software because these folks are close but at this point the software has cost us more time than it has saved us. We ended up re-creating all of our own email downloading two different reports from eSelect, manually merging the reports into spreadsheets in order to generate the needed emails to authors. It took 6+ hours to re-do the job and in the end we used MS Word and Outlook to address the process. Wishing them luck - but will need some good proof before our company pays considerable money to wind up being a beta tester for their products again.

I enjoy all the features and modules that Aventri has to offer. They also provide great customer support. It is end user friendly which made it easy to integrate into our non-profit associations.

The website editing and formatting can be frustrating at times.

Very very positive. My company was already using Aventri when I joined and the on-boarding was very smooth and straight forward.

The support centre for Aventri is fantastic. They are always willing to help and are very efficient with resolutions.

The main pain point is the email functions. There is a limit to the type of HTML you can include and you need to double and triple check often that the work you have done has been saved properly.

Easy to use, user-friendly event registration software with a great support team and great customer service. I love the reporting features and how I can quickly send a snapshot of the meeting details to show where we are.

It has been a pleasure to use so far. I haven't had any bad experiences with customer support like some others have mentioned.

We have used etouches for many events over the last three years. Powerful and flexible, it is easy to use out of the box for simpler meetings, while its rich set of features is capable of supporting the most complex of meetings - and much more. And, as a bonus, if you have a problem that isn't covered by their extensive knowledge-base, the etouches support team is helpful and responsive - round the clock. This isn't a toy, it will reward the curious, the demanding and those ready to explore its full potential to enhance their meeting design. Pros: Great communications tools, great registration form designer, great custom report generator. An almost perfect set of all the basics that every event manager needs; plus so much more that can be used to add value to any meeting. Cons: Nothing significant that comes to my mind; and if there are any, etouches will be working hard to address them

The speed at which Aventri (formerly eTouches) responds to support requests is fantastic and a real asset. While they don't always have the perfect answer, they are very consistent in their follow up until the customer is satisfied.

Very little to dislike about this software. Only negatives encountered would be the rare occasion that emails sent via their marketing system get filtered out in recipient's spam folder.