Item: Whova
Rating: 5
Author: Mark Michelson

Overall Satisfaction with Whova

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I've been using Whova for 5 years now. We originally bought into the platform to manage our speakers, sponsors, and agenda and provide a networking tool for our attendees. Whova saves us time and allows our speakers and sponsors the ability to update their own profiles at any time. Now Whova hosts virtual and hybrid events. Looking forward to our first hybrid event in 2 years this coming April.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Manage speakers
Manage sponsors
Manage agenda
Integrates well with our website
Allows gamification and networking

Cons

Payment is required to have any website functions. In the past, we could manage content with Whova before an event to help sell tickets. Now they have changed this policy to 100% in advance.
Whova cares more about taking our money than allowing us access to use the platform after we paid fully. I paid to have access to the platforms this week, thinking that it would allow me to show speakers and sponsors on our website, however, the website function has still not been turned on - so we are still not able to show speakers or sponsors for our upcoming events. Very frustrating.
There are some headlines that are not customizable that should be - for instance the Sponsor web page doesn't allow customization of the main section headline.

Return on Investment

Saves time with managing speakers, sponsors and agenda
Helps us manage multiple events at the same time.
We are producing 7 in-person hybrid events in 2022 and are already behind schedule. Now we are running into technical issues with Whova that are preventing us from using the main functions of showing the speakers, sponsors, and agenda on our websites.

Support Rating

Rarely get answers to questions. Haven't had replies to multiple requests for customer support. Quite frustrating to have these problems, after paying 100% in advance. They don't seem to care about the customer (me) after getting my payments. Hoping that someone will respond to my requests for support sometime, but not holding my breath. They have these virtual "workshops" which are supposed to be a substitute for training. It's actually a sales presentation. You can't really interact with the presenter as they are more interested in the new prospects rather than existing customers.

Implementation Rating

I am having second thoughts about paying Whova several thousand dollars. They have not helped with our implementation in any way. It seems like they would offer more support, but they only have group workshops (which are really selling events, not for training). Very disappointed and nervous now with only 80 days until our first event. They ignore me now that I've paid.

Key Insights

Do you think Whova delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Whova's feature set?

Yes

Did Whova live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of Whova go as expected?

Would you buy Whova again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Google Sheets, Mailchimp, Eventbrite, Canva

Likelihood to Recommend

Whova worked great in the past for managing speakers and sponsors, particularly having an api that rendered the speakers in a format that fit well on our website. Whova changed their policy which used to allow event organizers the ability to use the platform to show speakers/sponsors and agenda before paying 100%. We didn't need to have the app turned on until we had attendees. It's a chicken and egg thing - can't attract attendees and sponsors without showing speakers and the agenda. Unfortunately, this function doesn't seem to work anymore, even after paying for 4 events in full in advance to turn on the web pages so we can promote the events. I sent a request through the platform asking when they would turn on our functionality and received no reply in the past 3 days.

Comments

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Whova hasn't delivered after paying for access