Cvent Onsite Solutions vs. Webex Events (formerly Socio)

As mentioned in the first question, I think CVENT Onsite is best to use when the group is over 400 people. Anything under that we can manage by pre-printing. But when it's over 400 and you have a quick registration timeline, onsite solutions are your only option (in my opinion).

Incentivized

I think it would work for:

• Workshops with many people.
• Quarterly's meetings with people all around the world.
• If you want to create a digital training with lots of participants...

I feel like it's not as needed in videocalls that can be fixed with webex teams because of the number of participants or at events that need a more personal approach where you need everyone constantly interacting.

Incentivized

• Allows a quick check-in process in the app rather than dealing with pesky paper badges
• Provides a digital itinerary for attendees rather than having to print them out individually
• Offers attendee tracking to better tailor future events

Incentivized

• It has quite a few optional and customizable features that can be utilized.
• It's easy to integrate your existing tools like Zoom, YouTube, Vimeo, and streaming services.
• It's flexible in the way that you upload content in that you can enter things one at a time on the website, or use a spreadsheet to upload a larger amount of content.

Incentivized

• Pricing. If we can get lower pricing, we can use for more events.
• Buying our own on-site kits vs having Cvent team needing to be onsite.

Incentivized

• The standard template to build out the community is pretty rigid. We had to adjust some of our styling and graphics to account for what Socio's template allowed.
• Inability for event admins to make account changes for users. Several times we had users change jobs, therefore, changing their emails. Each time, we had to go through Socio support to get them access to their account.
• Documentation and knowledgebase could be more substantive.

Of course something could happen to our orgs ability to put on a conference or Socio could fundamentally change their product or their customer service - but barring any magor shift there is nothing that is even close to competing for our attention here.

Incentivized

Cvent Onsite Solutions is very user friendly and easy for those who are not very tech savvy. My first time using On-Arrival went very smoothly while onsite for a program due to the prior training that was provided by Cvent Onsite Solutions in our OSS training. Overall, it allows for tech integrations to be utilized easily.

Some Android users could not get the app to work, so they had to use the web-based version of our conference guide. Most functionality was still there, but they could not pull up the QR code, which impeded the registration process. The presence of the log in with Apple ID button caused issues because most work emails were not attached to Apple ID, which caused access issues.

Incentivized

The person onsite can be hit or miss. We have had a few really wonderful support technicians that came prepared, were helpful, and jumped in where needed. We have had others that sat back, didn't offer advice or best practices tips, and were not pleasant to work with. It's very hit or miss.

Incentivized

Socio (now WebexEvents) is one of two products I use that gets customer service right. Not only can you get an answer from an actual person quickly during business hours - but if you are asking after hours, you know the response will be waiting for you in the morning. Not only are they fast, but they are also smart about their products and customers. There is very little back and forth trying to explain the problem I am having, or the new way I am trying to use their product, that may even be novel for them.

Incentivized

My organization also uses the Cvent Event Management platform. We did try using another platform called "STAR" which had very limited offerings compared to the Cvent Onsite Solutions. STAR did not have a user-friendly layout nor was it easy to digitally manage our events. Maybe the STAR platform works better on a smaller scale, but we are a large organization so it simply wasn't efficient for us

Incentivized

WebEx Events has the same functionality as many other platforms, but with a more affordable price tag. I have also found it to be more intuitive and easy to use on the user side. I don't have experience on the administrative side with other platforms but we have been very satisfied with our experience with WebEx Events.

Incentivized

• It allows our organization to lower overtime pay to employees who needed to stay at the registration area
• Allows us to allocate our resources to other functions that bring in revenue
• Pre-conference time usually wasted on pre-packing is now freed up to focus on more important functions within our organization

Incentivized

• We had more sponsorship applications than usual due to using Webex and the multiple sponsorship capabilities.
• We had more attendance than in previous years due to using Webex since it is so incredibly user-friendly.
• We increased ROI by using Webex over other platforms due to pricing and features.