Further Resources for Event Organizers

We have compiled some resources of services that are not provided by us but might be useful for conference organizers. Please note that we do not have a business relationship with these companies, we only consider these products or services to be helpful.

Payment Services

We do not provide any banking services, so you will need a (national) bank account to receive payments. If you want to receive payments by credit card, you also need a merchant account with a payment service provider (acquirer). "PayPal", "Stripe", "PayMill" and "Braintree" are four payment processing companies that provide such services in many countries without setup or monthly costs. However, as with all such transactions, there are fees that depend on the amount of revenue generated. The ConfTool Pro system can be connected to these (and many other) systems. We charge an extra fee for linking ConfTool Pro to your PayMill or Braintree account as well as for other gateway systems.
You can find more information on our page about receiving credit card payments. We have also compiled a list of services that can be used locally at the conference venue to process credit card payments.

Event Apps

You can use the scheduling module of ConfTool Pro to inform authors and participants about the event schedule. Furthermore, you can employ the ConfTool agenda to provide up-to-date information during the conference on site, which requires an Internet connection and Wi-Fi. Both must be powerful enough to serve all participants.
Therefore, we recommend that you offer a conference app. These apps run directly on the mobile devices of the participants, and the data of the conference schedule are downloaded and stored locally in one go. This means less bandwidth is required and participants can also use the conference agenda offline. What’s more, these apps often provide additional features like venue maps, news tickers and lists of participants.
Currently, one app that provides an interface to automatically download the conference schedule data from ConfTool Pro is Conference4me.

Furthermore, ConfTool Pro has export functions for the import interfaces of the Apps Whova and Sched. As an organizer, you will have to import the ConfTool schedule manually but the process is simple and straightforward.

HeyConference is an app available for Android and iOS that allows browsing agenda, participants, and further information related to your event. It is free of charge for participants and organizers alike. The backend system has a simple user interface that allows you to easily publish information about the event. In addition, the app can be used to get feedback on the extent to which participants were able to use the event (access to sessions and participant information, community evolution, ratings, etc.).

Hosting Virtual Conferences

You can use the ConfTool Pro agenda to inform authors and participants about the event schedule. For each presentation, you can include uploads to presentation slides, e.g. PowerPoint files with an audio track or short MP4 videos. ConfTool does not offer live streams or video conferencing tools, but you can add links to external resources to sessions or individual presentations in the agenda. You will find more information here: How to connect ConfTool to external resources for a virtual conference.

There are specialized services available that can help you to host virtual conferences. Two examples are:

SCOOCS (formerly iChair) serves as a virtual hotel for your participants to meet online and interact with each other.  Participants sign up and join video rooms for their sessions. Track chairs moderate the sessions and can record them. SCOOCS works with external videoconferencing and chat services, e.g. Zoom, Whereby or Google Hangouts. Everyone gets to engage in virtual networking sessions and a dedicated conference forum. You can upload all papers and provide links to all recorded sessions so that a conversation can continue even after the conference is over.

Whova is an all-in-one event management solution that connects easily with data from ConfTool. You can enter links to live streams and recorded videos of your sessions. Attendees can access them through the Whova mobile event app or through the web browsers on their laptops. You can inform participants via push messages and e-mails, integrate virtual meet-ups via a community board, activate live Q&A as well as live polls, session feedbacks and surveys. The app features a networking opportunity, so that attendees with commonalities can interact individually.

Presentation Tools

If you are looking for ways to improve the interaction between presenter and audience, the following services may be of interest to you:
Beamium (formerly Slideflight) is a web-based application that can be used at the conference site to display the presentation projected on a screen simultaneously on every laptop and mobile device used in the audience.
Teambits offers digital moderation solutions at your conference site and helps to establish interaction between audience and presenter.

Membership Management Systems

Wild Apricot is a popular web-based software that helps small associations and non-profit organizations to manage their members, their website, events and other activities. Wild Apricot pricing plans start at $40 per month.

Conference Recording

If you are looking for a possibility to record your conference lectures probably the Conference Recording Service by the TIB (Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, University Library) is an excellent choice. This service provides you to carry out the recording by specialists and the subsequent provision for thematically suitable lectures on the video portal AV-Portal.