I noticed an active discussion thread on the LinkedIn group for B2B Lead Generation. Somebody asked for recommendations on event management software that runs over the web. There were many comments from helpful participants, which I will list in a moment.
Many of the lower cost web conferencing applications have no built-in facilities for letting people sign up in advance to attend your web seminars. Others may have basic functionality, but are missing advanced features such as full customization of registration pages, predefined dropdowns for common selectors such as Country and State, source tracking (a parameter that lets you figure out which promotional channel led to someone accessing the registration page), or flexible reporting layouts.
When using a third-party registration system in conjunction with your web seminar, there are additional considerations that may not be immediately apparent. For instance, it is very helpful if people can attend your event by using a pass-through link that sends them through the event management system so that it can record who attended and who did not. That is an uncommon feature for third-party systems and you typically need to search for an event management system that is already integrated with your preferred web conferencing technology.
Some of the event management systems I know of that are specifically designed to integrate with web conferencing packages include:
Act-On Software (works best with WebEx)
Attendee Metrics Platform from Corvent (works best with Microsoft Live Meeting)
EventPlanner from MeetingOne (works best with Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro)
Here is a list of other online registration and event management systems that were suggested on the LinkedIn thread. These do not constitute my personal recommendations, and in many cases I have never worked with them. But it’s nice to have a starting point for research. I have omitted ones designed primarily for tradeshows and physical events or for personal dinner/birthday parties.
- Cvent
- Eventbrite
- evocos (based in the UK)
- RegOnline
- Event Wizard
- Event Wax
- etouches
Please feel free to add comments with your experiences or additional recommendations.
