In Search of Events Management Software

November 24, 2009 6:09 PM

What are some good software platforms/services that will help us run our conferences? My company runs a number of small conferences, and we're looking for an events management software platform to handle session content, agendas, registration, and call for proposals. Looking for suggestions along the lines of ExpectNation and Cvent. Hopefully cheaper!
posted by redarmycomrade to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Would Open Conference Systems meet your needs? If I remember, it handles a lot of the stuff you're talking about out of the box. It's free software (GPL 2) but might require a bit of working knowledge with PHP and Smarty.
posted by cavedirt at 8:19 PM on November 24, 2009

Best answer: Seconding OCS. If you like Rails, you might also want to look into Pentabarf.

Don't look at me, man, I didn't name it.
posted by the dief at 6:26 AM on November 25, 2009

Response by poster: These are great suggestions. I'm working on a tight time frame, and am willing to pay for support. I like ExpectNation and Cvent, because there's some general hosting and processing support built into the contracts. I know, that's why they're expensive, but I'm looking for something with a bit more support and service than the suggestions provided. Any other suggestions?
posted by redarmycomrade at 7:49 PM on November 28, 2009

I'm in the same boat (Non-profit) and just started at my company. Unfortunately I'm informed that one of the directors has heard of Cvent and I'm wary of them simply from the aggressive sales tactics and reviews I've seen online.

I'd personally be more akin to something that provides an API that our developer can hook into to update our propitiatory call tracking database software.
posted by wcfields at 2:00 PM on December 23, 2009