With six weeks to go for a virtual 4-day conference, Whova met all the requirements we were looking for in a virtual conference experience for both the organization and the attendees. The price point was ideal for a small organization, and their a la cart pricing helps keep within any budget. It was a very successful event for the organization and discussion is to have some virtual option moving forward, even if we still hold an in-person event.

A Small non-profit I work with moved their in-person event to virtual event for 2020. With 6 weeks until the event start in September, a decision was made to move it to a more robust option allowing for sponsor interaction. Whova came through for us in many ways - financially, user-friendly for both back end and attendee end, integration with already existing registration platform - RegFox, Zoom interface, meeting rooms, session surveys and robust reporting. Any issues we had and sent support emails were addressed in a timely manner. They offer several help documents and videos to walk you through various set-up and troubleshooting.

Be aware that Whova has their own drip-campaign of emails they send to those attending your event. We were not aware of these prior to them sending, and it cause a bit of confusion and frustration on our end. We are not able to see in advance nor edit those emails, which also contained information not pertinent to our virtual event. We did address this with our sales person in our post-event meeting, and this is an issue they are aware of and addressing.

Overall, I highly recommend the app to anyone facilitating a large event with multiple panels and speaking engagements. It made the event feel more personal. Its a great way to keep people hyped about the event and also create a buzz around all the events and meet-up opportunities.

As an event attendee, the Whova app played a pivotal role in my attendance. The app allowed me to prepare well in advance, get familiar with each speaking engagement, and connect with other attendees. All of which, really encouraged my involvement with the week-long events. One great opportunity was the virtual meet-ups that I was able to create. Also, the leaderboard was a great idea. This kept attendees coming back to the app every day if not multiple times a day.

Really, the downside was more technical issues. App refresh issues, continuity between app and full website, and things of that nature. Not being able to click on a user's name or photo within chats to get to their full profile. Things that would make it easier to navigate. One major issue was when I set up my virtual meet-up I was not able to find info on how to facilitate. I need to plan things out, so I wasn't sure how the meeting would go. And, quite honestly between the time I made the meet-up to the night before, I forgot that the Whova app would be able to host the virtual meetup so I decided to host it on Zoom.

Wonderful

Creating a Leaderboard and various ways to set-up meet-ups and polls was wonderful. Live streaming, chat, etc. was a great integrated feature along with setting up your agenda ahead of time to save time and organize your day.

Our group reached maximum number of polls and topic could not be organized by users. There should be an easy button to change notification settings as well.

As a user of Whova, there are several benefits that I feel would be great for any organization who wants to manage an event with several attendees. As mentioned in previous comments, I really enjoyed the agenda and networking capabilities of Whova.

I really enjoyed the agenda feature in Whova. As a person who likes to plan ahead, it's important for me to be able to organize my day and know what's ahead. Using Whova, I could not only see the entire agenda for the conference, but I could select which courses/workshops I wanted to attend and create my own personal agenda which filtered out the classes I was not attending.

Honestly, there wasn't much I didn't like about Whova. If I had to pick something, it would be the hundreds of notifications I could receive throughout the day. But there are ways to turn those off too... so it's not all that bad. However, if you're one that likes to clear out all the red notification marks, you could potentially spend a lot of time going through the app.

It was very helpful for the conference and easy to use

It gave accurate agenda as well as options to communicate with other attending the conference

uploading pictures section was my least favorite.

stay connected during the conference

messaging, agenda availability, communication with other attendees

Meet up function needs to only go those invited for RSVP

Loved it and would hope that all conferences use it in the future.

I liked that the app kept things organized for the event. It was great to be able to pull up the power point, as a question to the presenter and find people on linked in.

The community page was ALL over the place. Looking at mine now, it literally has 3909 new comments. You couldn't easily sort. There should be categories, like social, professional, local events etc. Then have a trending section. Would have also liked to have a mass Ad on Linked In, that could be an opt in or opt out feature but there were over 400 participants, and I couldn't click on all of them. Maybe before the event poll people and ask who they are planning to meet with, what topics they want to know most about, local events they are wanting to check out etc.

Super easy to use. We used this app for our conference last year so I was very pleased to see that it was being used again this year because I remember how easy it was to navigate. In our industry (construction) we live by our outlook/google calendars - so to have something look very similar to the platforms we use everyday, made it that much better to adapt too. I love the set up of the days at the top and the times with details listed underneath - just makes everything organized.

Honestly - nothing. As mentioned on the previous page, we had a glitch with a real time update that didn't take place so it confused some people on which room to go to as it was showing the same seminar with the same speaker but in two different rooms. Once the room was changed, the app should have deleted the old room location so that people knew the proper place to go. But no big deal - we helped each other out via the messaging feature!

I love having everything in one place. It's easy to move between the tabs, integrates messaging capability, shows full schedule and allows you to customize your own schedule, easy to find the powerpoints and additional documentation from the presenters.

I would love to be able to set up a group chat in the messaging feature.

The app is optimized for business events (were no abstract handling is required), however, we used it successfully to manage our attendees in a small scientific conference. We loved checking in our attendees ultra-fast, posting last-minute changes and useful information in the app and share event photos. It helped a lot in creating the name badges (maybe could consider a certificate feature according to the registration category as well?). As organizers, we would prefer a bit more flexibility and one cost for all the features, however, all of our participants loved the application and we received very positive feedback from them

The QR code attendee check-in is probably the highlight of Whova's features. It checks in the attendees a matter of seconds, skipping the long lines in the registration counters. The updated version of Whova includes features that can be used directly to the event's website (e.g. Agenda webpage). Great customer service experience with online training on how to use the app.

Several features require in-app purchases and purchases per-use (e.g the paid tickets or the sponsors' features). This may be a struggle for small events (less than 500 participants) who need to have an idea of the overall cost in advance. As a customer, I would greatly appreciate the flexibility to rename and create new or delete categories in all the fields of the event content, as well as flexibility to include the same person under two or three attendee categories (organizers, volunteers, speaker, secretariat) as the posts are normally shared among a small group of people who assist in the organization. Lastly, even though it is helpful attendees to register via facebook many of them use nicknames which ends up printing wrong badges. I have not used the app as an attendee, so I suggest to offer an option to register via LinkedIn, Academia or other professional websites, inform that the name used should be the same one used during registration and that will be printed in the name badge requesting their approval.

Terrible!

Expansive features, front end support was outstanding

They are West Coast and we are located on the East coast. Their tech support opens when the rest of the company opens 4 hours after we start on the East Coast. Every problem we encountered was our fault. We change a setting, we didn’t sign in right, the excuses went on and on. They instituted two upgrades one the night before our conference and one the night of our first day. Both updates threw our who backend of the app into complete disarray. They reply? Sorry. I’m going back to conference Tracker and would not recommend this app if you are doing a virtual event.

Hated it.

Lots of features are available. But the cons far outweigh the features.

Sponsor logo size is way too small to be viewed as a benefit to anyone considering a paid sponsorship. Registrants who want to pay by PO/check have to be entered into the platform manually as “order.” BUT, when done that way they show up as FREE tickets, completely destroying the integrity of the reporting system. Also, when I manually entered a team of 16 people from one organization, I had to enter all the company info 16 times. The method for adding people is beyond cumbersome. We have people who are speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors. Rather than just having a PEOPLE category, where those roles are selected, the person has to be entered three times in three categories. And they can’t access their collective profile — they have to update in three categories… Are you kidding me?? (when setting up an exhibitor, can check “sponsor” but it does nothing, as they still have to be entered as such manually.) Updating speaker at session level doesn’t allow for the addition of their email address, which has to be done at the speaker level later. When creating a new speaker, there is a button to add a session, but when you click it, it says to save the speaker first. When you do that, the window closes, so what’s the point of that useless button? Our account manager wasn’t identified WELL into the event building process , nor did they actively participate in the creating of our event. MANY attendees and speakers/exhibitors report not receiving emails send from the platform

Fantactic Tool.I would quickly propose this application for any social affair event for the ease of use and the ability to improve relationship with members and organizers. whenever we coordinate an event we use it to help with indicating the schedule, the arrangement, and the region of each and every gathering. It is so valuable in keeping us on track .

Its a Powerful Software that is designed such that its easy to use.

The desktop app could need More features.

At the Cority conference in Nashville, I was able to set my schedule for sessions that related to me and take notes at those conferences from the app. It allowed me to set up networking with others in my field. The opportunity that Whova extends for engagement between attendees is phenomenal. All attendees were able to communicate like issues with current software usage, likes, dislikes, schedule meetups, give tips, and just share fun things about each other within the community. Attendees have the ability to message each other within the app, as well as, exchange information. Whova is wonderful organizational and communication tool for conferences. It allows you the functionality and flexibility to stay connected. Even after the conference, I am still able to stay connected and message with my new networking contacts within the app.

Whova is great for the ease of setting schedules, networking opportunities, functionality, flexibility, user friendly interface, ability to create meetups, ability to share memories through photo sharing, and the engagement opportunities with other attendees at the conference. I also like that you can still communicate with other attendees (networking opportunities) even after the conference is over.

I have used the Whova app at several Cority conferences, and I have yet to find any negative issues.

The cost of attending conferences can be staggering. Not only for registration but travel and staying at the conference. Using Whova to organize the conference allows the attendees much more freedom and ease in attending and tracking where you need to be.

Whova is a wonderful addition for any conference. I first used Whova in 2018 while attending RTUC in Las Vegas. As you can imagine, this is an enormous place with lots of things to do for a first time visitor. Whova let me organize my agenda, set up meetings and after hours get togethers, all in one place. I loved being able to look in one place to find what was coming up. This year our conference was done online only. The usual get togethers and lunches were missing but Whova still made it personal. We had pictures, messages, events, question and answers from sessions and even a leader board to show who was doing the best. I would love to attend future events online as long as Whova is a part of them. You truly have a very easy to use and appealing app. Thank you for making attending yearly Conferences more enjoyable even during the Pandemic.

I don't really have any complaints. I think Whova has a very appealing look and very user friendly

Great - when we started using WHOVA for conferences a few years ago, it was a game-changer for vendors.

two key features that are invaluable when attending a conference/event (speaking as a vendor):1) being able to capture new leads, contacts, gather their information, follow up, manage leads using the lead capture, especially when the attendees have the QR codes on their badges (the QR code is critical).2) having up to date event schedule on the app - with updates, reminders, note-taking, and more really facilitates and adds value to our attendance as vendors. no more carrying around a paper schedule, taking notes in the sessions

It would be easier for a vendor to have the lead capture always readily accessible on the app and not have to go to the home page, then go to the leads. Also, at the last conference, the attendees did NOT have the QR codes on their badges (not sure if the conference organizer chose not to do so) and this made it very inconvenience and annoying for attendees to provide the QR codes in their app. we lost alot of leads that way - so QR code on badges is ESSENTIAL!

This app helped me a lot in the meeting. The best meeting app I've seen so far. I liked being able to easily create calendars, connect with people, scan business cards. It was VERY helpful to have photos of people also in the participants section. I managed to connect with many people with this simple plugin. Actually, I still use it to connect with people! Whova has significantly changed my experience at the conference and I will always strongly recommend this to anyone attending a conference.

I only think good things about this software, I haven't had a bad experience.

Whova is straight forward and a great choice for general networking events. For more complicated events that have on-site interviews, career fairs, breakout sessions, etc I think there's work to be done in the app to be able to properly accommodate the additional complexity.

Whova is easy to use and very intuitive. Everything is laid out in a clear and easy way. From an attendee/user perspective it's easy to see who else is attenging, interact with fellow attendees, and contact the organizers.

There are other event apps that have features I have not yet seen with Whova such as: - Integrations: Youtube, Vimeo, Ical, LinkedIn- Event maps - Conversation Mapping (threads, subthreads, group messaging)

Overall, Whova is an excellent platform for online and offline event management, with a comprehensive range of features that greatly facilitate event planning and management. Although some features may be difficult to customize and Whova's fees may be high for small events, this is largely offset by the quality of the platform and overall user satisfaction. I therefore recommend Whova to anyone looking to organize large-scale events, whether online or offline.

The positive aspect of Whova is that it is a comprehensive and easy-to-use platform for managing both online and offline events. Whova's features, such as registration and ticketing, event agenda, real-time communication with attendees, and live streaming, are all very useful and well-designed. Additionally, the Whova mobile app is very convenient for attendees as it allows them to easily follow the program, connect with other participants, and ask questions to speakers.

A negative aspect of Whova is that some features can be a bit complicated to set up and customize according to the needs of the event. Additionally, Whova's fees can be high for small events, which may not be accessible to all budgets.