Online Conference Registration Systems
From Extension Collaborative Wiki
The following are responses to a query that was posted to the extech mailing list by Larry Lippke. That query stated:
I am looking for an online conference registration system that processes credit cards for payment, provides a lot of flexibility for optional fees, allows for concurrent session signup, accommodates "early bird" discounted registration fees, etc. Preferably looking for open source products that we can customize to integrate with some existing databases. Anyone have any suggestions?
The following are responses received by email. You are welcome to add further responses to this page or to its related discussion page.
If Extension staff want an on-line registration, they may contact Mary Seaton, manager of Conferences & Short Courses for information on using their CVENT system. There is a small participant charge for the registration, but that is quite reasonable ($5/participant). It will most likely give staff the capabilities they want/need and be available now (in time for fall Assoc mtgs, etc). Staff can contact Mary directly (mbs13@psu.edu) to discuss.
Not sure if you it's what you need or want but it's the only one I've heard of.
Jacki Weikert
IT Specialist
Penn State University - CAS ICT Computing
RD1 Box 51B Tionesta PA 16353
814-755-3794
jweikert@psu.edu
Larry, We might have been running into a similar problem. Currently we create a custom form to people to sign up for a conference and then pass them off to an eCommerce where they have to re-enter most of the conference information in order to pay the fees. We are in the process of updating our eCommerce software and have found a product that meets our needs (https://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com/default.aspx). It is quite flexible allowing for optional fees, discounts based upon criteria, etc. It also allows the addition of extra fields to collect information such as special dietary needs or in the case of a vendor registration equipment, power, space needed, etc. So far we have had access to a test site and have run through a number of scenarios for conferences but so far it has met everything that the specialists have thrown at me. It is pretty flexible for traditional eCommerce applications as well, like having the ability to sell hard copy publications as well as free downloads and allowing for discounts if a county office wants to purchase a publications. Since we are a dotNet and MSSQL shop the software fits in with our architecture. Future plans include customizing some of the reports so that counties, departments and those responsible for the conference can download the information they need directly.
John J. Toman, Ph.D.
Director, UTIA Information Technology
224 Morgan Hall
2621 Morgan Circle
Knoxville, TN 37996-4515
Phone: (865)974-7308
Fax: (865)974-8391
http://agriculture.tennessee.edu
jtoman@utk.edu
Please share the results of your research. FYI - In Minnesota, our former Extension conferencing group (before it was phased out) had used a proprietary product several years ago. It was a conference registration system with a web add-on module (it wasn’t very secure, however). We then looked at other home grown solutions but didn’t get to implementation. Currently, our marketing people are looking at a fee-for-service Application Service Provider: http://www.countmein.com at least as an interim solution.
One other thought: since eXtension is looking at an online e-commerce solution (Kevin mentioned this on the iTeam Breeze/conference call this week), could that be a possible answer for our state Extension services?
Bob Rubinyi
University of Minnesota Extension Service
405 Coffey Hall
1420 Eckles Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108-6068
rmr@umn.edu
612-624-2708
We are in the process of writing this software. Last year we had the system up for conference registration. It was networked based and used internally for managing conferences by our pesticide education program. This year we are developing a web interface for it where participants can register themselves. It does have e-commerce hooks that refer to a WSU credit card server via XML calls.
Our ultimate goal would be for any county office wishing to have on-line registration for any event and wishes to charge for that event, the participants will register and pay on-line, then the money will be deposited directly into the unit's respective self-sustaining income account.
It is being written in .Net and will use MS SQL as the database. The web server is MS IIS on Windows Server 2003.
Tony Wright
Washington State University
I've worked with www.RegOnline.com for a couple of years. This is an online system. You can create your own registration form that's a bit complex but can be customized six ways from Sunday. Great customer service.
I analyzed their fee structure and below 100 attendees it's cheaper to avoid the initial service charge and accept slightly higher credit card fees. Above 100 attendees it's cheaper to accept the initial service charge ($150 last time I used them) and slightly lower credit card fees. If you do the same event year after year, they save the registration form so you don't have to re-create the wheel.
We hold an annual event that attracts 500 attendees. The clientele was clamoring to pay online. The first year 120 paid online, last year 260 paid online. We used to do the complete registration in-house. I can't tell you how much time and aggravation we saved our staff by going online.
By the way, we only accepted credit card payments online. If we accepted other forms of payment, like checks, we'd have to pay the fee anyway.
In total I think the system cost us an extra $5-$6 per attendee, but then our registration fee for that event is quite low - $25-$35. I believe we saved more in wear & tear on the staff than the event cost us. This year we'll raise the registration fee to cover the costs.
I hope that helps. If you have other questions, e-mail or call.
David Palmer, UFL
Here are two to look at. I don't have any personal experience with either. But, both are free and open source under GNU GPL license. Both require Linux, Unix, BSD or MacOS X. Both are written in Perl.
Interchange http://www.icdevgroup.org/i/dev/index
AgoraCart http://www.agoracart.com/
John Dorner, NCSU
We have just created such a package for Illinois. If you are interested we can set up a demo for you...
Jane A. Scherer <jscherer@uiuc.edu>
Extension Specialist, Urban Programming/Web Coordination
University of Illinois Extension
Office of Urban Programs
549 Bevier Hall | 905 S. Goodwin Avenue | Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: 217-244-2849 Fax: 217-244-0191
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/
http://www.extension.uiuc.edu/
I know the U of M Extension has also been looking for good solutions for educational event registration and e-commerce. A couple of leads:
1) ADEC and the University of Minnesota (but not currently MN Extension) is using open source software from osCommerce (see http://www.oscommerce.com/ and ADEC store constructed with this at http://estore.adec.edu/). Current event registration with this e-commerce system is limited to "purchasing" a course through a shopping cart system. Works fine for basic registration but doesn't currently support more advanced conference registration features.
2) Our Extension Resource Development Unit has been piloting (at least for an interim solution) the Count Me In software from an Applications Service Provider: http://www.countmein.com/
Let us know what you find out.
Bob Rubinyi
In Wisconsin, Extension has a couple of things going in regard to event registration. We are currently in the process of issuing an RFP for a large scale registration system to be used by our Extension Conference Centers, UW-Madison and UW-Milwuakee for continuing education programs like our engineering professional development program. I'll share the results when known but it will probably be awhile.
We also have in use a product called PeopleWare which I believe is now being called EventsPro.
Greg Johll
