Whova vs. Zoom Events & Webinars

I think it works really well as a way to organize yourself while at a conference. As well, to network with said attendees I found it very valuable to remember names. Having an automatic rolodex with everyone I met and ensure I had their info to connect later

Zoom is well-suited for any service-based business that relies on face-to-face communications, whether for client meetings or external sales calls. Zoom also provides a good platform for internal team meetings to discuss creative ideas or for one-on-one sessions. Zoom is also excellent for larger webinars where you need to present to larger audiences.

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

• Zoom calendar integration is a great way to see what calls are upcoming
• Ease of use for screen sharing and video call settings
• Zoom Workplace is reliable at blocking out external noise that should be muted from actual conversation taking place in calls

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

• I wish there were more polling options available in Zoom in general, and this extends to both webinar polling and post-webinar surveys. Could certainly do with a more robust polling feature set.
• Setting up Registration for Zoom webinars can be very tricky, and I usually advise against webinar registration. The fact that users have to manually download an .ics to add it to their O365 calendars after registering means lots of issues with users attempting to join after registering early.
• I would have complained about lack of breakout rooms for webinars, or the fact that the practice room can't be turned back on after it was turned off, but Zoom recently implemented webinar breakout rooms plus the Backstage feature, so both of these common complaints are now fully addressed!

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.

We will be renewing with Zoom as long as it continues to meet our needs for client and lead outreach needs in a robust manner. With little error and an easy to use interface, Zoom has met our needs and exceeded our expectations. The cost is right and with a short learning curve, Zoom has been an easy decision to make and maintain.

Incentivized

Most of Whova's functions are intuitive and you can self-teach about 80% of it with ease. I really was impressive with the messaging, follow up meet-up capabilities and sharing of contact information. My only few concerns were about the lack of an archive or back up, [perhaps cloud-based?] of the meeting room and round-table's presentations

Zoom Events is complex, but gets "almost easy" with experience and good guidance. I tell people, "Hosting a meeting is like driving a car; hosting a webinar is like driving an 18-wheeler; and hosting a Zoom Event is like flying a commercial airliner." You need experience, training, and ongoing guidance to be good at Zoom Events. Zoom has staff that knows everything there is to know about Zoom Events, but finding them and reaching them isn't easy. There aren't many consultants out there that are affordable and experienced.

Incentivized

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

Zoom [Video Webinar] has online web portal where user can take control of the meetings and their settings. It provides details of all the meeting happened and also provides participants list. It has support for webinars and recording also. Zoom [Video Webinar] gave special cloud permissions for paid users also from web portal and that can help in saving disk space.

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.

Implementation was very feasible during our initial usage of the Zoom after COVID-19.

Incentivized

We selected Whova for price, and ease of use. We would have chosen GoToWebinar but they did not have as many options for sponsor recognition. We will most likely use Event Rebels in the future for our needs. Tracking time and sessions viewed is a must for our industry as attendees rely on us to earn CEs to renew their licensing.

We moved away from MS Teams due to several factors: 1)The ability to have a calendar reminder pop up for the upcoming webinar. 2)The ability to have Zoom automatically send a customized one hour reminder email to everyone who registered. 3)Webinar templates that speed up the setup of each of our webinars. 4)Integrated polling and collaboration tools.

Incentivized

I especially liked the ease of communication, the ability to ask hard questions easily, and afterward the ability to survey all participants to see what we (and/or Whova) could do better going forward.

Everyone on our team had their assigned tasks to complete in Whova on a weekly basis and did so with ease and confidence.

• 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

• Prior to Zoom, the best way to train was to travel to their business. Or to do it remotely, it was to allow multiple hours and allocating time to help them set up the technology. It was a mess. We were able to shave travel costs/technology implementation costs.
• We no longer have to waste time playing technology ping pong, bouncing between different platforms. Zoom Video webinar just works.
• My tech team used to have to set up the webinar events, because of how complicated GoToWebinar can be. Zoom makes it easy that anyone can do it.

Incentivized