Cvent Onsite Solutions vs. Whova

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

Overall having the Whova app was extremely helpful to provide information and drive engagement in the audience/attendees both on-site and remote. The ability to connect with like-minded attendees both pre-event and during the event was particularly helpful. Clarifying directions for "entering" events remotely would negate user anxiety.

• 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

• facilitated the sharing of research, perspectives, and resources on topics of interest
• enabled easier connection to new and existing relationships with conference delegates and speakers
• allowed me to catch up on content I missed due to time conflicts for concurrent sessions

• 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

• Literature and pictures uploaded but no easy way to download the collection.
• No easy way to access information after the period after the conference ended.
• No easy way to access the list of participants and contact information - could be pdf'd.
• There was a little connectivity issues but not much.
• Some of the meetings were scheduled while we slept.
• The cost of using Whova for small meetings.

Incentivized

We already registered with Whova for our 2024 event and we will continue to use Whova for the foreseeable future as long as the price doesn't rise too high. It was a bit of a shock to see the difference between last year's price and this year's price - nearly 2k increase! We were able to negotiate, thankfully, to lower the price.

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.

Whova is quite user friendly, and helpful for the conference planner. It has features such as sample emails to attendees and import abilities if you have your sessions on a spreadsheet to avoid having to enter each session manually. Another thing we didn't like was the inability to allow attendees to enter a pre-recorded session only when it is scheduled to be presented. It's either all pre-recorded can be viewed once the conference opens, or none.

We had no availability issues!

We had no performance issues with our event delivery. We did have some meet-ups that had some glitches for some attendees, but I believe they were quickly resolved and were more on the part of user error than anything. Once they got the hang of it, their meet-ups went more smoothly.

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

I only had a single issue regarding a photograph that was handled immediately and a colleague somehow ended up with two profiles which was also handled right away. Those two instances are all I have to go by. Other than that it was smooth but I did have ample information regarding who to contact if I experienced an issue

I found Whova to be similar to many social media apps that I already use. It was easy to navigate. This was my second experience using Whova in my presenter role. I liked the icebreaker section to connect with other participants before the event started. I look forward to next year’s event.

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

I can't recall the other apps, I've used before, but did have two prior conferences with different apps. I would definitely choose Whova over those other experiences because of the overall package. I also can't say enough about the opportunity to create personal groups to meet with attendees directly. It can often be very intimidating to connect on a larger scale when you don't know anyone, but that option along with the roster (plus option to bookmark people) helped me learn more of my colleagues.

Everyone on our team had their assigned tasks to complete in Whova on a weekly basis and did so with ease and confidence.

• 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

• Whova made our virtual and hybrid events possible! Our virtual attendees loved the ability to interact and engage with each other, the exhibitors, the speakers and organizers of the event. It also allowed our in-person attendees to do the same, and navigate the conference on-site.
• Whova made organizing the conference possible for our small staffed organization! We only have 1.25 FTEs and were able to pull off a hybrid conference in 2022. It wouldn’t have been possible without Whova!

Incentivized