Vendini vs. Whova

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

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.

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

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

• 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

• 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

• 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

• 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