Whova Reviews

Event Management Done Well

Comments: I’ve attended 7 or 8 virtual conferences through Whova and always found it easy to use and keep track of where I needed to be. Communication with other attendees and speakers is easy. I enjoy using the app.

Pros:

I am an attendee so my answers are from that perspective. Whova is easy to navigate and find information I need to decide which sessions I want to attend. There are mechanisms for sending questions to the speakers ahead of time. There is a good social platform so that attendees can do virtual meetups and see who else is attending. It is easy for an attendee to create a discussion topic or recommend and article or conference. Entries to questions and polls are propagated quickly through the system so there is no confusion about whether I have entered a response to a poll. I love the Leaderboard function. It encourages attendees to post on the platform and is a nice distraction from the serious nature of the conference.

Cons:

There is limited ability to respond or add anything other than text to most questions. For example, I wanted to let fellow attendees know about an upcoming conference but my only choice was to enter text to describe it. I had some graphics from the PR Kit associated with the conference that it would have been nice to upload but I could not find a way to do that.

Summary Post Conference

Comments: Very good for a conference. Really liked the scan QR code to get info on participants.

Pros:

Ease of use, good functionality for conferences with plenary speaker, breakout sessions, tracks

Cons:

Sometimes a bit difficult to navigate, but once used it a few times became easy. But at first there was a learning curve. If a short event, may not be enough time to learn all the functions. But I am not a techy so perhaps it was a user issue!

Beware of Use

Comments: We will not be using this app again and I recommend that others don't use it either. The sales folks are very much about the upgrades and will nickel and dime you for every small add on. The help desk folks try to be helpful, but are up against the tremendous limitations of the system. This is overall a product that is engineered to make money rather than support the success of the users. We knew this going in and were happy to pay for some add ons, but others were not communicated at all at any point during the process much less in any help or FAQ documents.

Pros:

While there are some pros, the cons by far overshadow anything good about this app. I was excited to use Whova as I used it as an attendee for other events. However, from the admin side, things are not as pleasant.

Cons:

There are many features that cannot be turned off. There are emails that go out to attendees without notice. Definitions vary from the proposal stage to the implementation stage: a speaker is also considered an attendee, although they may not attend and just need to be listed on the paper presentation. The most frequent response from their Help Desk begins with "Unfortunately..."

Nice conference app

Pros:

It did not crash at any point. MOst other conference apps I have used have crashed and required me to reboot or unload and reload the app.

Cons:

Could not find my payment receipt in the app.

Hey! Who Goes There! Only the Winners!

Comments: Looking forward to it remaining a tool for Hypno Thoughts Live! Cause this Hypnotist, Mitzi Egnatz, Loved meeting Hypnotists from around the world and
re-engaged with precious Hypnotist friends making my heart sing!

Pros:

Allows me to see who in my Industry I have something in common with or can learn something valuable from. Loved that are opportunities to schedule several meet ups that allowed for details. Made for fun after hour gatherings.

Cons:

There ought to be a way where the price point is enticing enough to remain live 365 days a year.

Whole School Arts Event

Comments: Fantastic - I feel great about being able to implement what I learned into my classroom and teaching experience.

Pros:

Really almost everything. Great individual Art Projects, Procedures, Lesson Plans and additional resources.

Cons:

The scavenger hunt being late in the afternoon in the hot sun. Should have been earlier in the day.

Speakers will LOVE Whova!

Comments: Fabulous! Easy to read; easy to use; easy to engage.

Pros:

Having all information in a single place to access. The ability to access from my phone. Information was updated in real-time, so I was never behind on an update.

Cons:

It may have been User Error, but I couldn't get my sessions to sort in date/start time order.

Excellent platform for symposiums and conferences without leaving home.

Comments: Overall, it was a pleasant experience, and the best part is that you can watch the recordings later to review them better.

Pros:

1-It is an easy-to-use and very intuitive platform. 2-It is free 3-Not only can you convene small symposia, but you could also convene an entire conference.

Cons:

It would be great if presentations (recordings) could be separated by speakers instead of sessions. Otherwise, I would have to watch the entire 40-minute session when I am only interested in a 10-minute presentation, which is in the middle of the recording.

A very good event app!

Comments: I enjoyed using this app for the conference. It allowed us to go paperless and allows for custom built agendas.

Pros:

It is very easy to use! I love the custom built agendas and the ability to modify those as the conference progresses.

Cons:

It is almost too easy to use - I felt overwhelmed by the number of comments and questions in the Community section - maybe that needs one more level of organization that the conference chair could implement (for us it might be "ethics" "teaching strategies" etc. The map of the conference rooms was buried in the general description of the event. It would be awesome to have a link to "conference map"

FACTS - Elevate _ Atlanta 2024

Comments: Loved it. Was able to utilize the app for all of my trainings and if I did not wish to lug my laptop around, it had everything I needed at my fingertips. Also allowing me to access the notes, handouts, presentations and participate in the Q&A without my computer.

Pros:

Loved that everything I needed for the conference was at my fingertips whether I used the App or the Website.

Cons:

Nothing. Every aspect of the website and app worked great.

A must have tool for event organisers

Comments: The app is optimized for business events (were no abstract handling is required), however, we used it successfully to manage our attendees in a small scientific conference. We loved checking in our attendees ultra-fast, posting last-minute changes and useful information in the app and share event photos. It helped a lot in creating the name badges (maybe could consider a certificate feature according to the registration category as well?). As organizers, we would prefer a bit more flexibility and one cost for all the features, however, all of our participants loved the application and we received very positive feedback from them

Pros:

The QR code attendee check-in is probably the highlight of Whova's features. It checks in the attendees a matter of seconds, skipping the long lines in the registration counters. The updated version of Whova includes features that can be used directly to the event's website (e.g. Agenda webpage). Great customer service experience with online training on how to use the app.

Cons:

Several features require in-app purchases and purchases per-use (e.g the paid tickets or the sponsors' features). This may be a struggle for small events (less than 500 participants) who need to have an idea of the overall cost in advance. As a customer, I would greatly appreciate the flexibility to rename and create new or delete categories in all the fields of the event content, as well as flexibility to include the same person under two or three attendee categories (organizers, volunteers, speaker, secretariat) as the posts are normally shared among a small group of people who assist in the organization. Lastly, even though it is helpful attendees to register via facebook many of them use nicknames which ends up printing wrong badges. I have not used the app as an attendee, so I suggest to offer an option to register via LinkedIn, Academia or other professional websites, inform that the name used should be the same one used during registration and that will be printed in the name badge requesting their approval.

Buyer Beware

Comments: Gauging an event platform and the countless variables that might be involved is a key demand for those moving into virtual or hybrid events. The marketing and sales elements are often adept at highlighting some aspects, while stepping over others. Rapport bridges the gap. So extra caution is required for decision makers.

Pros:

The sales outline and the simple step videos indicate a smooth process to get set up

Cons:

The reality, we found to be different. They recommended we use Zoom (‘you can get away with the free option too’ - sales) which quickly becomes obvious you will need to spend hundreds extra - upgrade to webinars (- support), a hidden cost. It didn’t integrate great with their system, yet they told us “that’s a Zoom support question, nothing to do with us”. There are other conflicts between Zoom and Whova (eg. using the same emails on both causes malfunctions); speakers logged-in on both get thrown out of Whova; speakers can’t see live video feed on Whova, so have to tandem two devices/browsers/apps. The Q&A is a little hard for speakers to find, unless spoonfed. The voting/polls are either scheduled at time (not ideal in live setting) or manually entered (not ideal in live setting either). We found a key member of their support unhelpful, bordering dismissive and the functionality of their platform for many of our attendees was such that a great many attendees watched off-site (on Zoom). Attendees received other attendee messages but they couldn't access access, Whova passed off as their internal marketing messages in contradiction to the received email subject notifications. Sponsors and exhibitors can't find out who visited their pages or who downloaded their uploaded content (key sales leads that Whova passed off as a 'privacy' consideration). No ability to have an overall attendee-on-the-day (as opposed to booked) list without doing it manually! Many other things.

Whova Leveled Up my Conference Experience

Comments: When getting ready for an upcoming conference, the event organizers suggested we as attendees install the conference app, Whova. I'd used similar apps in the past that were buggy, slow, and were honestly worse to interact with than the hard copy event agenda, so my expectations were not high. However, Whova blew me away. The ability to introduce myself to other attendees and see the organizations and bios of others helped me prepare for the conference in a way I had never been able to - I knew exactly who I wanted to network with in advance. I also loved the ability to customize my own event agenda, but still easily toggle back to the full agenda...we've all been in the situation at conferences where all the talks sound good and end up changing our mind, and Whova made that seamless. I honestly don't want to attend another event that DOESN'T use Whova. I loved it that much. I will note that it was clear our event organizers worked hard to make sure content was up to date, and they did a lot of legwork to get attendees to use the app - without that advance effort from the organizers I don't think Whova would have been optimally utilized and it could have completely changed my perception of the app. Go Whova and go conference organizers for making this awesome!

Pros:

The networking! I loved that I could peruse attendees like I was scrolling through a mini LinkedIn and connect with them there. It not only made it easy to find the people I wanted to talk to during the conference, but also made it easy to find people again after the conference to add them on real LinkedIn.

Cons:

While I liked the way you could take notes within each event space on the app, it would have been awesome to be able to link my notes and the pre-uploaded presentation to my own notes app. This is so minor, though.

Hooray for Whova

Comments: As a user of Whova, there are several benefits that I feel would be great for any organization who wants to manage an event with several attendees. As mentioned in previous comments, I really enjoyed the agenda and networking capabilities of Whova.

Pros:

I really enjoyed the agenda feature in Whova. As a person who likes to plan ahead, it's important for me to be able to organize my day and know what's ahead. Using Whova, I could not only see the entire agenda for the conference, but I could select which courses/workshops I wanted to attend and create my own personal agenda which filtered out the classes I was not attending.

Cons:

Honestly, there wasn't much I didn't like about Whova. If I had to pick something, it would be the hundreds of notifications I could receive throughout the day. But there are ways to turn those off too... so it's not all that bad. However, if you're one that likes to clear out all the red notification marks, you could potentially spend a lot of time going through the app.

Advantages of Using Whova at a Conference

Comments: At the Cority conference in Nashville, I was able to set my schedule for sessions that related to me and take notes at those conferences from the app. It allowed me to set up networking with others in my field. The opportunity that Whova extends for engagement between attendees is phenomenal. All attendees were able to communicate like issues with current software usage, likes, dislikes, schedule meetups, give tips, and just share fun things about each other within the community. Attendees have the ability to message each other within the app, as well as, exchange information. Whova is wonderful organizational and communication tool for conferences. It allows you the functionality and flexibility to stay connected. Even after the conference, I am still able to stay connected and message with my new networking contacts within the app.

Pros:

Whova is great for the ease of setting schedules, networking opportunities, functionality, flexibility, user friendly interface, ability to create meetups, ability to share memories through photo sharing, and the engagement opportunities with other attendees at the conference. I also like that you can still communicate with other attendees (networking opportunities) even after the conference is over.

Cons:

I have used the Whova app at several Cority conferences, and I have yet to find any negative issues.

A Powerful Events Management Solution

Pros:

I like the registration features It makes management of events easy I like the ease of handling virtual events

Cons:

No bad experiences while using Whova. It meets needs.

Attending Seminars in 21st Century

Comments: The cost of attending conferences can be staggering. Not only for registration but travel and staying
at the conference. Using Whova to organize the conference allows the attendees much more freedom and ease in attending and tracking where you need to be.

Pros:

Whova is a wonderful addition for any conference. I first used Whova in 2018 while attending RTUC in Las Vegas. As you can imagine, this is an enormous place with lots of things to do for a first time visitor. Whova let me organize my agenda, set up meetings and after hours get togethers, all in one place. I loved being able to look in one place to find what was coming up. This year our conference was done online only. The usual get togethers and lunches were missing but Whova still made it personal. We had pictures, messages, events, question and answers from sessions and even a leader board to show who was doing the best. I would love to attend future events online as long as Whova is a part of them. You truly have a very easy to use and appealing app. Thank you for making attending yearly Conferences more enjoyable even during the Pandemic.

Cons:

I don't really have any complaints. I think Whova has a very appealing look and very user friendly

Nashville

Comments: Really found it useful and thankfule Converge used it.

Pros:

The ability to lookup an agenda calendar, to see who the presenter was, and also to see the write-up summary.

Cons:

I would like to be able to sign into th Whova website after a conference and download the PDFs/Powerpoints straight to my Windows 10 laptop. Currently, I have to download them to my phone's storage and then upload them to my Google drive.

Whoa! Whova

Comments: I have begun to connect with like minded people and work on a Virtual Reality project to build an application for many programs.

Pros:

I attended the Kaltura 2020 Connect conference in New Orleans, LA. and Whova is the first interactive application I have been introduce to at a conference. The Kaltura team kept all of the attendees engaged in every event that was going on prior to the conference and throughout the 3 days using Whova. I realized how powerful Whova was when I found myself lock in to the application day after day. Need to say, Whova gave me access to so many attendees from around the world. On the application we were able to set up connect meeting to discuss common interests, share rides, discuss new technologies, etc. Whova provided you your daily agenda along with reminders on your phone, iPad, computer, smart watch, and pop ups from other attendees. Something I found uniques was it allows you to take notes for every event, meet ups, and you can provide real time feedback. I find feedback extremely important for growth. No matter what industry you are in, this application I highly recommend to increase innovation and productivity.

Cons:

The only thing I can say disappointing about this software is that I was not exposed to it first.

Successful Informative Conference provided by WHOVA Software Application

Comments: Elated by the Whova application that provided technical accomplishments with simplicity to learn how to use the application as a user. This software enabled me to attend a multiple day conference with numerous speakers during the day. What a lesson I learned by using Whova software application that allowed me to attend an informational conference that didn't have to be cancelled due to Covid-19. Bravo to conference owners and Whova's application.

Pros:

Amazing application that provided reliability and resources. As a user, I logged onto application several times a day to attend speaker resentations. The simplicity and the developmental complexity secured the underlying operation of the conference with confidence that worked every time.

Cons:

Though the Whova provided a log-in for the users guide, I neglected to read relying on operational time to use the software. However, without technical expertise, I maneuvered around the applications to attend the speaker's hourly presentation. A snapshot or bullet print-out lesson would have been helpful. I relied on the conference leader to keep me informed attendees with tips to solve any problems during the conference without disruption. That meant you provided the conference owners with excellent support which provided a great, successful conference.

I like the App

Pros:

I can create my own agenda after viewing the conference agenda; Attendee list and profile are helpful that I can send them a private message. Facility floor map is helpful.

Cons:

Conference organizers did not make announcement about the App and how should use the App.

Whova usage during large multi-agency hybrid scientific conference

Pros:

Easy to use to navigate a large conference. Liked the ability to favorite a session/topic/item which bookmark items and helped find them again when needed at a later time.

Cons:

Difficult to see all the sessions that were offered at the same time.

Don't plan a conference without Whova!

Comments: A very positive experience.
In the two weeks before the conference, I was able to create my 'booth' for others to find out more about my business.
At the conference, everyone I spoke to was happy to share their QR code (when I showed them what to do!) therefore, I had all of their details (including email addresses) for contacting them on my return home.

Pros:

As an exhibitor looking for business, I have found that conferences offering the Whova app are way better than those without. Prior to the conference, you can make links, see if there are particular people you would like to factor into your time and you can arrange meet ups with groups. Being competitive, I can't help myself but like to be on the leaderboard and message those around me!! Using the 'scan a contact' feature was brilliant! Unfortunately, the organisers didn't know about this feature to tell us until the second last day but we definitely made good use of it!

Cons:

When arranging a meet up, your numbers are limited to 50 at a time and you are only allowed to offer two meet ups until you have four people having replied to say they will be there. At a conference with 1500 attendees, being able to message just 100 of them isn't enough...particularly when some people clearly weren't looking at their app so that invite was wasted!

Whova App is Best for Professional Development

Comments: Several of our professional development circles have previously provided printed schedules, agendas, and course descriptions, which make for a lot of material to take home after a conference. With the Whova app, all of that information is now stored online which is so much easier for a traveler.

Pros:

The Whova mobile app made it easy for me to select PD sessions, take notes, and organize my thoughts while the desktop app afforded me the opportunity to immediately download materials and snip and save images. I do appreciate that Whova emailed me a copy of all of the notes I'd taken in each of my PD sessions. I also like that the information stays on my account even after the session is over. I can still see last year's pics and notes from another PD session!

Cons:

Not sure how things download from my mobile device, but the desktop app is great for saving information.

Really innovative with all the updates

Comments: Excellent in all means. Group messages are scrutinized and different tabs are followed strictly. The initial response for this app was very poor from a few of the delegates. Later on this was the only means of communication regarding the conference.Kudos to all of you.

Pros:

Globally connected .We can connect with different types of people all over the globe. We made friends from all strata of the educational industry.

Cons:

Time taken for the response. When we send a message we are not getting the reply soon. It takes sometimes a day to get the reply. This may make us little worried for an immediate reply .