Converia as a Connfair alternative

Just as the first people are about to register for your conference, a nasty surprise hits your planning: the provider of your participant management solution has filed for insolvency—because pandemic aid suddenly had to be repaid. What sounds like a farce has unfortunately become a sad reality for Connfair users over the past year. So, what now?

Is Converia exactly the same as Connfair?

Let’s be clear from the start: Converia is also participant management software and shares similar functions with Connfair. However, Converia is not the right alternative to Connfair for every event.

Just like Connfair, Converia consists of various modules. And just as Converia has some functions that Connfair lacks, there are features that Converia does not offer.

For which events is Converia a Connfair alternative?

People are registering for your event.

Converia provides you with the complete toolkit for this: You set up the entire registration process with all options (participation types, offers, ticket categories, prices, discounts, etc.). Once a booking is completed, Converia automatically generates documents such as booking confirmations or invoices. If you wish, you can also use Converia to build a complete event website.

You want to offer various payment methods.

As with Connfair, it is possible with Converia to offer participants various payment methods for their registration fees. You do not need your own credit card contracts. What you also don't need: the feeling that 90% of your workday consists of tasks and questions regarding your conference's registration fees.

We work with a service provider where your event registration fees are received in a legally compliant and insolvency-proof manner in a dedicated account and are later disbursed to you. For you, this means: your conference revenue is guaranteed to reach you—and you don't have to deal with the formalities and accounting.

You are collecting contributions or presentations.

You actively invite people to submit individual papers, presentations, or entire sessions in advance. Perhaps there is a program committee that reviews and selects the conference content beforehand? Connfair did not have the necessary functions for this in its portfolio. Organizers had to rely on external tools.

The big problem here: the data all belongs to the same event but is spread across multiple tools. You have to ensure that everything eventually comes together in one central location. What sounds manageable at first can sometimes prove to be a real challenge in practice. Not all software providers have a function that exports data as a list at the push of a button. Or the tools work with different file formats.

You are creating the complete program schedule.

Once the program is finalized, you can create the schedule using Converia. You can even automatically schedule previously submitted and accepted contributions if you wish. Participants can access the current program at any time, filter it by topic or day, and use the favorites function to put together their own personal event schedule.

A personal contact person will take care of your questions.

Event organizers can address their questions directly to their contact person on the Converia team. We develop and sell the software ourselves, so you will always receive answers from Converia experts. There is no call center in the background or constantly changing staff to whom you have to explain your request over and over again. This direct line to our team is always included at no extra cost.

You organize multiple events per year.

Many of our long-term clients are congress agencies or PCOs that use Converia year-round and benefit from a framework agreement with favorable terms. The advantage: All general terms and conditions are negotiated just once in advance. After that, setting up new events in Converia is quick and easy.

When Converia is not the right Connfair alternative for your event

You are expecting more than 10,000 participants.

Large congresses are generally no problem for Converia. Our software has already successfully supported events with several thousand people on multiple occasions. However, for particularly large events with over 10,000 participants, Converia may reach its performance limits.

A seat selection feature is a must for you.

With Connfair, participants could choose their own seats when purchasing tickets. This is particularly practical if the event is taking place in an arena or a huge hall. However, because Converia works best for events with fewer than 10,000 people—as described above—we do not offer ticketing with seat selection.

Your event has very complex admission requirements.

Connfair has an admission traffic light system that helps to better manage visitor flows on-site. Converia does not have such a hardware solution. What is possible: recording check-ins and check-outs for all individuals – including for different days or program items. A self-service solution for fast on-site check-in without queues is also no problem.

Events without Connfair: How to make the transition a success

Is Converia a viable alternative to Connfair for your planned event? Don't worry if you can't answer that just yet: Why not try out the software yourself or ask us your questions directly?