Conference app features: the checklist we would use to compare apps

Feature lists on vendor sites all look the same. Agenda, networking, check-in, analytics. The list tells you nothing about whether the agenda survives a room change or whether check-in works when the venue Wi-Fi drops. The only way to find out is to test it in the demo.

This checklist is the one we would run if we were buying. For each feature it gives you what to look for, a test you can ask the salesperson to do live, and the gap we see most often. Ask the same questions of every vendor. If you want to run the tests on our product, book a demo and bring the list.

How to run the checklist in a demo

Ask for a live event in the organizer portal, not a slide deck or a recorded video. Bring a real session, speaker, and sponsor from your last event. Have one person watch the organizer screen and another open the attendee view on their own phone. Most gaps show up in the delay between the two.

Keep score. A feature is Included, Add-on, Quote, or Not included. Write down what the salesperson says and what the demo shows. They differ more often than you would expect.

Program: agenda, tracks, personal schedules, speakers, and sponsors

Agenda and tracks

Look for: tracks visible side by side, filters by day and track, room names on each session, and times in the attendee's own time zone if anyone joins remotely.

Test: add a session, move it 30 minutes later, and check the attendee view on your phone. The change should appear without a republish or a support ticket. Then change its room and check again.

Common gap: edits that take hours to reach attendees.

Personal schedules

Look for: bookmarks, a “my schedule” view, and a warning when two bookmarked sessions overlap.

Test: as an attendee, bookmark two overlapping sessions. As the organizer, move one. The bookmark should follow it to the new time.

Common gap: bookmarks that point at the old time slot after a session moves.

Speaker and sponsor profiles

Look for: speaker photo, bio, and links to every session they appear in. Sponsor tiers and a booth page with contact capture.

Test: edit a speaker bio and confirm it updates on every session at once. Open a sponsor booth as an attendee, leave contact details, then find and export those details in the organizer portal.

Common gap: sponsor pages that are a logo wall. Sponsors cannot show a result from a logo.

Registration, tickets, check-in, and room locations

Registration and tickets

Look for: free and paid ticket types, custom registration questions, promotional codes, who processes payment, the fee per ticket, and how refunds work.

Test: buy a ticket with a promo code on a phone and read the confirmation email there. Then refund the ticket and note how long it takes and who has to do it.

Common gap: a fee quoted as “plus processing” with no number attached. Ask for the fee on a $50 ticket and a $500 ticket.

Check-in

Look for: QR code scanning from a phone or tablet, search by name, walk-up registration at the door, and behavior when the connection drops.

Test: scan a ticket, then scan the same ticket again. The second scan should flag a duplicate. Then turn off Wi-Fi on the scanning device and try once more.

Common gap: check-in that needs rented hardware or a dedicated laptop at every door.

Maps and room locations

Look for: floor plan upload, a room name on every session, and a link from the session to the map.

Test: upload your venue's floor plan, put a room name on a session, and see whether an attendee can get from the session to the map in one tap.

Common gap: a static image buried in a menu with no link from the session that needs it.

Messaging, networking, and live sessions

Messaging and networking

Look for: direct messages, a directory with privacy controls, a forum, a structured format such as timed video matches, and access that continues after the event ends.

Test: send a direct message from one phone to another and time it. Set a test attendee to private and confirm they drop out of the directory. Ask what an attendee can still do the week after the event.

Common gap: networking that is a list of names with no way to start a conversation.

Live sessions, Q&A, and polls

Look for: streaming inside the app rather than a link out, the concurrent viewer limit, Q&A with upvoting, polls with live results, moderator pin and delete, and recordings afterward.

Test: start a live session. From the attendee phone, ask a question, upvote it, and answer a poll. As moderator, pin one message and delete another. Ask the viewer limit and what exceeding it costs.

Common gap: “live sessions” that open a third-party meeting link, where your branding and your data stop.

Announcements and scheduled email

Look for: event-wide announcements, scheduled emails to registered attendees, messaging to a segment such as one ticket type, and a phone preview.

Test: schedule an email to a test attendee for five minutes from now, then send an announcement. Check that both arrive and read them on a phone.

Common gap: messages that can only go to everyone, or no record of what was sent and when.

Analytics, branding, permissions, and integrations

Analytics and export

Look for: registrations over time, session attendance, check-in counts, sponsor contact captures, poll results, and an export of all of it.

Test: export attendees, sessions, and check-ins to CSV during the demo and open the file. Check that the columns are the ones a post-event report needs.

Common gap: a dashboard you can look at but not export, or a report you have to request from support.

Branding

Look for: removing the vendor's logo, your event color, your banner, and a registration website that looks like your event rather than the vendor's.

Test: change the event color and banner, then reload the attendee view. Ask whether the vendor logo can be removed and whether that costs extra.

Common gap: branding sold as an add-on after you have priced everything else.

Organizer permissions

Look for: how many organizer accounts you get, whether a check-in volunteer can get access without the ability to edit the agenda, and whether changes are logged.

Test: add a second organizer with a limited role and see what they can and cannot touch.

Common gap: per-seat pricing that pushes five people to share one login.

Integrations

Look for: Zapier or a documented API, a way to get registrations into your CRM or mailing list, and single sign-on if your organization requires it.

Test: ask the salesperson to show a new registration flowing into a spreadsheet or CRM, live. If the answer is “we have an API,” ask for the documentation and read it after the call.

Common gap: a page of integration logos where the actual connector is a paid add-on.

Support and onboarding

Look for: who sets the event up with you, whether training is 1:1 or a video library, a named contact, support hours on event day, and a response time in writing.

Test: during the trial, send a support message and time the reply. Ask who picks up if check-in fails at 7 a.m. on day one.

Common gap: onboarding that turns out to be a help center and a chatbot.

What ConferenceTap includes

This section is about our own product. Read it as a vendor's claim and run the tests above on it.

Both paid plans, One Event and Unlimited Events, include unlimited registrations, unlimited organizers, events up to 72 hours, in-person, virtual, and hybrid formats, white-label branding with our logo removed and your own color and banner, 1:1 onboarding and training, a designated customer success manager, advanced analytics with data export, and email and chat support. Paid plans are quoted, not listed, with a nonprofit discount on request.

Against the checklist: multi-track agenda, personal schedules with bookmarks, speaker profiles, sponsors, and expo booths with lead capture are included. Free and paid tickets, custom registration questions, promotional codes, and payment through Stripe at a 3.5% ticketing fee plus Stripe processing fees are included. QR code check-in from a phone or tablet, floor plan upload, and session room locations are included. Direct messages, 1:1 speed networking with random five-minute video matches, a community forum, and connections after the event are included. Unlimited live video sessions with up to 15,000 attendees in one session, breakout rooms, in-session Q&A, polls, persistent chat with moderator pin and delete, and recordings are included. Scheduled attendee emails, event-wide announcements, and a Zapier integration are included. Attendees use it in the browser on their phone or laptop, with a free account created at registration.

Our free trial covers up to 100 registrations and events up to two hours with self-guided onboarding, so you can run most of these tests before talking to anyone. Details are in our knowledge base. To run them with us, book a demo.