Vendini vs. Webex Events (formerly Socio)

For smaller sports organizations or event productions Vendini is appropriate. It is also better suited for venues where the inventory is primarily general admission or very basic section/row/seat. The platform does not allow for much seating customization on the user's end. I would definitely not recommend Vendini for larger venues.

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

• Interface is pretty easy to use.
• Event creation process is straightforward.
• Ability to use on multiple devices (laptop, phone, etc.) is a plus.

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

• System is often very slow.
• Limited user ability to customize ticket promotions within the platform.
• Major issue - not friendly with certain firewalls. Iona received dozens of phone calls this year from fans unable to purchase tickets online because Vendini changed something which made the platform blocked by several servers being used by fans.

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

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

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

I've used ProVenue in the professional sports world (working with the NY Mets). ProVenue has drastically more capabilities and is a much more powerful system than Vendini, but such capabilities would not be necessary for smaller arenas or productions

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

• Allowed Iona to compare YOY sales and attendance figures. Something we were not able to do before.
• We have been able to create events from remote locations (i.e. conference tournament bus trip ticket sales). The ability to just set up an event from wherever one can access the internet is very convenient and has increased our ticket sales for certain events.
• The Vendini reporting has increased the efficiency of internal and external audits when it comes to ticket sales and revenue.

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.