The OpenWater Blog

The Best Higher Education Event Management Software Features

Every day, we meet with institutions looking for higher education event software solutions. Often, they don’t know what features to look for. When they do know what to look for, sometimes they don’t grasp why they’re important for hosting a successful event.

Most higher education event planners know what’s best for their institution’s events. However, the popularity of virtual conference platform products are still relatively new, so I’d like to fill in the gaps for those who feel lost when searching for the right higher education event management system.

More than anything, it’s important for higher education event management software to have features that cater to attendees.

Nowadays, institutions face the obstacle of hosting events that cater to attendees in a virtual environment. To tackle this obstacle, you must know what features to look for and why they’re important.

Higher Education Events

Here is a list of events that would benefit from higher education event management tools:

• Conferences
• Symposiums
• Career fairs
• Continuing education
• Fundraising events
• Career fairs
• Orientation

Table of Contents

I selected 3 key features you should look out for in a higher education event software. In the next section, we’ll go through each feature individually to (1) discuss why it’s important for higher ed events and (2) show an example of how it’s used.

See below for the list of features outlined in this article:

1. Customization
2. Accessibility
3. Registration

Without further ado, let’s jump in!

3 Key features of higher ed event management software

Customization

The first thing you might want to look for in a higher education event software is its customization features.

Building a customized event page that matches the look and feel of your website is a great way to expand your institution’s brand and legitimize your event. Furthermore, you might want your attendees to experience a strong first impression that’ll knock their socks off.

However, we often meet with people that don’t have the ability to customize a webpage or website. In that case, it’s important to find a higher ed event software provider that has customizable options AND an easy way to customize.

For example, at OpenWater, we can help you match the look and feel of your institution’s website. And if you can do it yourself, then we’ll let you!

In conclusion, a higher education event software should (1) grant you the ability to customize your event web pages and (2) have an easy way for it to be done for you, without requiring web development knowledge.

If you’d like to see some examples of what a customized look and feel looks like, check out our article with examples of virtual conferences.

Accessibility

Going virtual with your event is likely to attract attendees that are unable to attend the event in-person. To make the most of this, you should make sure the higher education event software has accessibility options to ensure everyone can participate.

For example, OpenWater is partnered with Zoom to bring accessible communications to virtual events. Zoom has features such as third party closed captioning, keyboard shortcuts, and a whole “accessibility settings” section in their platform. To learn more about Zoom’s accessibility settings, visit their webpage.

Something else to look out for that is key for accessibility are virtual conference platforms with breakout rooms. Breakout rooms are a great way to get attendees engaged with one another from the comfort of their home.

All in all, it’s important to make sure your virtual event platform is accessible to all your attendees — especially if you’re a higher education institution.

Registration

Another thing to take a look at is how an event platform handles registration.

A higher education event registration software should have a simple integration process for you to keep track and attendees and payments with ease. Understandably, it’s difficult and tedious to do this work without a great registration system.

To learn more about how OpenWater handles higher education event registration, check out our post about Academic Conference Management Software for Higher Ed Events.

Will Flaherty

Will is a Digital Marketing Specialist at OpenWater. He can be contacted at will@getopenwater.com.

Hybrid Conference Examples for Your 2021 Event

Virtual Summit Software: The Best Platform and Tools