Why Converia | Converia

Can you help organize a conference for 500 people?

That question became Converia. Over the past 20 years, we have supported thousands of conferences—each one unique, yet almost always sharing the same fundamental issue: the industry treats a conference like any other event. It isn't. Here is what we have learned—and why Converia exists.

Conferences are editorial work, not event marketing.

You start with a question: Who has something to say that this community needs to hear right now? You end with a program that someone has to take responsibility for. In between lie abstracts, reviewers, biases, conflicts, and consensus. This is not the same job as organizing a trade fair or selling tickets. And it cannot be mapped with a platform built for the latter.

Speakers, reviewers, and attendees are often the same people.

Just in different roles, depending on the day and the contribution. Software that doesn't understand this forces you to duplicate data: three records for one person, each with its own mandatory fields. That’s not just inconvenient; it’s the root of the Excel chaos every conference office knows.

In Germany, special cases are not edge cases; they are the norm.

Recurring conferences hosted at a different university each year. Invoicing on behalf of the professional society with correct VAT. Framework agreements with university procurement departments. Conflict of interest rules in peer review. All of this is standard in the German conference industry—and it is built into our software, not offered as an "extra-cost customization."

A great conference doesn't start with a tool. It starts with a conversation.

We build software, but we also provide consulting. If you are organizing an annual conference for the first time, you need both. If you are organizing it for the twentieth time, you have your own experience—and you need someone who takes it seriously, not a standard demo.

Reliability isn't exciting. But it is what counts.

Converia has been around since 2009. The core team—the people who built the first conference software with the professor—has been together since the early 2000s. If you are organizing an annual conference, you cannot afford a tool that will be acquired or discontinued next year. Our support team is based in Germany, speaks German, and hasn't disappeared into an outsourcing loop.

What we have seen time and again over 20 years.

Four patterns repeat themselves:

Tools that feature "conference" on the website and provide event ticketing.

Conference teams juggling Excel because no software understands multi-role logic.

Accounting departments asking for help in January because data is scattered across six different systems.

Program committees working with their predecessor's bias table without knowing if it is still current.

These patterns are not the problem of individual teams. They are the result of software built for the wrong task.

That is why we built Converia.

20+ years of experience

1K+ conferences per year

Servers in the EU

Conference management software where abstract submission, speaker management, programming, attendee registration, ticketing, invoicing, and check-in all run on a single database. No six different tools. No spreadsheet ping-pong. No duplicate data entry.

20 years of conference expertise built directly into the software, not just buried in a consulting memo: conflict-of-interest rules, VAT-compliant invoicing for professional societies, rotating trophy logic, and multi-client management for PCOs.

Plus consulting that starts with your first conference—not just when the first escalation ticket is raised.

Who we build Converia for

For universities and research institutions that organize scientific conferences – often as recurring events between departments, held in a different location each year.

For professional societies and associations with recurring annual meetings, volunteer program committees and an office that no longer wishes to answer accounting inquiries in January.

For PCOs and convention agencies that run multiple conferences in parallel and need one operating system, not a patchwork of tools.

And for first-time organizers who are taking on the responsibility for the first time and want advice, not just a demonstration.

Let's talk.

Whether you are organizing a conference for the first time or the twentieth, we will work with you to determine if Converia is the right fit for your event.

Schedule a consultation

Rainer Kretzer

Managing Director

Managing Director. On board since the early days. Bridges the gap between software development and the real-world needs of conference teams.

Rainer Kretzer

Christian Burger

Managing Director

Managing Director. Founder of Converia, civil engineer, and computer scientist. Built the first version together with the very first event organizer.

Christian Burger