Webex Events (Formerly Socio)

From the research process to executing our program, Socio exceeded expectations the entire way. We needed a solution outside of our current website/database because our program was for people outside our membership. Socio's registration component was very versatile and facilitated the unique group registrations and discounts we offered with ease. The Community platform we used for our 5-month event was super user-friendly and intuitive for our attendees and staff conducting the event. You do not need any advanced experience with web development or technology to build out the community as you need. The Socio support team is also quick to respond and always very helpful.

The standard template to build out the community is pretty rigid. We had to adjust some of our styling and graphics to account for what Socio's template allowed. It was not prohibitive in our facilitation of the program, but just more inconvenient. The other thing we disliked was the inability for event admins to make account changes for users. Several times we had users change jobs, therefore, changing their emails. Each time, we had to go through Socio support to get them access to their account. It would be a much better process if event admins can adjust usernames/emails for their users.

We have been a Socio customer since late 2017. From 2017 until our April 2020 event, they have been powering our live/in-person events. Throughout 2020, we have used their software and their amazing support team (shout out to [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] for keeping up with me 😂) to pivot our events program to be 100% virtual and doubled the number of events we hold with them. After running RFPs with 6 virtual platforms, Socio was the clear winner with their virtual event platform as well.

Looking into our 2021 events program, our plan is to start executing a hybrid (mix of virtual and in-person) strategy, and we are confident that Socio will deliver as they have been experts in the in-person events prior to virtual events even existing for our organization (unlike some other providers that are just virtual or in-person oriented)

No downsides at the moment. Their 24/5 support was extremely helpful, and we really wanted it to cover the weekend hours as well (since a few of our events happen on the weekends). Recently we have been notified by our customer success manager that they have expanded their support to include weekend hours as well. So, I can't complain.