★★★★★
“Sessionboard has been one of our most successful investments this year, making our team more efficient and allowing us to focus on the most critical components of our events.”
Whova packages registration, a mobile app, and abstract submission for association conferences.
Whova — their scope
Program, CRM & marketing
Whova is an all-in-one event platform — registration, mobile app, agenda, and basic abstract submission for associations and conferences. Sessionboard displaces Whova on the program layer when multi-round review, speaker CRM, transcription, Attendee Hub, and Advocacy matter. Whova fits smaller meetings wanting one vendor; Sessionboard fits medical, scientific, and multi-track events where program depth beats app-first packaging.
Match your role to the job Sessionboard solves — program ops, content reuse, or marketing attribution.
Whova abstract forms exist — multi-round review and chair workflow still happen outside the product.
Speaker portal is thin — you need materials, bios, and agenda truth from acceptance through show day.
App engagement metrics without registration attribution — Advocacy needs tracked faculty shares.
500+ abstracts and 50+ reviewers — you need committee ops, not app-first abstract intake.
“Sessionboard has been one of our most successful investments this year, making our team more efficient and allowing us to focus on the most critical components of our events.”
“Sessionboard saves significant planning time and makes it easier than ever for speakers and sponsors to participate in our clients' events.”
“We used Sessionboard daily. It served as our source of truth for tracking speakers, sending emails, and accessing reports. The ability to set a weekly digest email was a huge time saver.”
“Honestly, I loved it! Getting everything out of the spreadsheet. It collects all the information and gives you a visual of who you might want to invite.”
What Whova does well — and where Sessionboard is the better fit for program teams.
Registration, mobile app, and agenda in one contract for mid-market associations.
Branded app, networking, and agenda for smaller conferences.
App-first buyers who prioritize launch speed over review depth.
Chair workflows, COI capture, and rubrics — not lightweight submission forms only.
Faculty history persists across annual cycles — not reset when the next Whova event opens.
Transcription, Attendee Hub, Create, and tracked peer shares on the session graph.
Program, speaker CRM, content — plus Advocacy and Dispatch marketing tools competitors treat as afterthoughts.
Call for papers (CFP), multi-round review, chair workflows, conflict of interest (COI) tracking, and published agenda — work competitors leave in spreadsheets.
One faculty record: portal, bio, materials, and communications across years — not a fresh CSV every submission cycle.
Live transcription, Media Library, clips, Attendee Hub, and Create on the session record you already manage.
Peer shares from speakers, sponsors, and faculty — tracked links to registration when sessions are accepted or confirmed.
Internal team distribution — automated share recipes for staff when content is ready, beside Hootsuite or Sprout for always-on social.
Sessionboard connects to the assistants your team already uses through MCP (Model Context Protocol). Sessions, speakers, and agenda data stay in Sessionboard — Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot read it live.
Sign in with OAuth — no API keys to copy. Ask about session status, speaker readiness, committee progress, or agenda gaps in plain English.
Registration and capture tools stay in place. Sessionboard holds the program graph — sync transcripts and media back when you run another vendor beside us.
See how Sessionboard fits beside your existing stack — no rip-and-replace required.
Honest split: what stays on their contract vs what moves to Sessionboard when you need program depth, speaker CRM, and content marketing.
Evaluating Sessionboard against Whova for the program layer — not a forced rip-and-replace.
Often on the program layer — yes. Some teams keep a mobile app vendor and run Sessionboard as system of record for sessions and speakers.
Sessionboard publishes the program graph; app vendors consume via export or integration — same pattern as Sherpa coexistence.
Sessionboard replaces review workflow and speaker ops that Whova abstract modules do not cover in depth.
Teams with 500+ abstracts and formal committees typically need Sessionboard program depth — not app-first tooling alone.
Pilot one meeting on Sessionboard for CFP and speaker ops; keep registration elsewhere until renewal.
Talk through your event workflow — abstracts, speakers, content, and marketing on one program graph.
Evaluating Whova alternatives?
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