Guidebook

Guidebook's mobile app has the tools to help you pull off successful events!

Kommentare: Overall, Guidebook's app functionality has been very helpful to the success of our events. We primarily use their software to provide our audience (high school seniors and their families) with a mobile app that complements the their time at on-campus events. It allows us to digitize many helpful resources, track who attends which sessions, and set capacities for various sessions. Although there's been a bit of staff turnover the past few years, they go above and beyond to make it right.

Vorteile:

The backend interface is fairly intuitive. I've been able to train my event staff and interns on how to build robust apps for our events!

Nachteile:

It feels like it needs a bit of a facelift. It's looked the same for the last 5+ years. It's not bad, but as a weekly "builder" within the platform, I'm ready for a nice look/style.

Guidebook for Orientations/Training: Fantastic!

Kommentare: Overall if you have the budget for this product I would highly recommend it. It's a fantastic tool to use for small, large, or midsized events, and very easy to use on the back end to schedule and upload information, but also very user-friendly for those who will actually be attending and utilizing the app to move and shake with their schedules.

Vorteile:

Something that I liked most about this software is the scalability and the ability to update in real time. I cannot tell you how much this saved us during orientation trainings for our student staff when I was a Resident Director. We had instances where rooms were changed at the drop of a hat, or lunches/sessions were altered on start or end times and being able to update their schedule within the Guidebook app saved us and prevented catastrophe of having to let everybody know by word of mouth or e-mail; which none of our student staff would check during orientations. For scheduling snafus like this, it really saved the day with the real time updates and made everything seem seamless and like it was running smoothly, even if on the back end planners were running around like a bunch of crazy chickens. This was really great for CRM integration too which was important to us for tracking/data purposes. With syncing and list creations too, you can really impact things big time. For example, we could use this for student events and track ROI for our programs/budget, and also look at new leads for potential future programs with vendors or groups on campus. The possibilities are all there, and you can really customize this to fit your needs.

Nachteile:

Pricing was really dicey for us as we had limited budget for large training groups. You have the options for self versus full service to kind of play around with. Unfortunately with budget cuts we weren't able to sustain using this. With the full service you can control branding which is AWESOME though, so if you have need for that it's really something to consider!

Not a fan of Guidebook

Vorteile:

For what it does, Guidebook is very useful. Great at being that one place on the phone for visitors to click to for information about the events taking place on campus.

Nachteile:

Customization is really bad. You're forced to use their color palette, which doesn't make sense.

Worth it for your big conference or big event!

Kommentare: I would definitely use this again! As a first time user there were definitely a few learning curves. But if you're generally tech savvy and have just a general understanding of how apps and things work, you should be completely able to edit and design your own guidebook. And customer service was pretty quick when we needed help if we ever did get stuck (which we did once or twice). Also sidenote: our event was for 200+ people and students.

Vorteile:

It is very user friendly! I was placed in charge of building and adding all the information we needed for our event to guidebook, and as a first time user I found it easy to learn. First, you can work on it and then publish it and make it live. So no worries about accidently messing up before the big day. Second, I loved that you could edit the features - you can easily add a map, a list of speakers, sponsors (which was super important!), surveys, etc. While also being able to customize the features to what you needed. For instance we need to add a project checklist - I was even able to upload my own icon to match the customized feature. Finally, I appreciated the schedule tracking feature which allowed conference attendees to see what workshops or events they were attending depending on the team/track they were on. Very useful when trying to corral and herd a large group of people.

Nachteile:

The survey was difficult to figure out how to use. You have to get out of the guide you're working on and create the survey on your dashboard. From there, you have to ht surveys and polls. Then you can create and edit surveys and attach them to specific events - for instance we had surveys for every workshop, so I was able to attach a survey to each and every workshop we had. BUT the issue came with making sure you attached the survey to the correct event/workshop. Also downloading the data from the survey was super counter intuitive and must be done from the dashboard and NOT the survey area. Its a little confusing in that regard. The guidebook is also hard to edit when its live since some of it can be a bit complicated so I highly recommend trying to double check everything before its published/made live. At least one pro to this is you can test the guide out BEFORE publishing it, which was really nice.

Simple Setup for Events

Kommentare: Guidebook helped me plan and coordinate a staff PD day for my school district. Users were able to interact throughout the day and plan out the sessions they wanted to attend digitally, without needed to carry a paper copy with them. This also helped me promote our day/event as well as provide acknowledgment to those companies that helped support our event.

Vorteile:

Guidebook is a pretty easy tool to use when coordinating, planning, and scheduling events such as conferences and organizational/ company days. I have used in education when planning PD days for our district or when attending conferences. best part is the mobile app that users get to use and interact with when you make it live. Decent amount of included capabilities as well, that are in the free program, including images, and a feedback system.

Nachteile:

When using with the free program, you are limited to the total number of downloads of your mobile app. I assume when paying this will change. As of now, the free version has sufficed.

Campus welcome information

Kommentare: We know that the majority of our first-year students were able to download the Guide, so we were able to communicate with them for their first weeks. Families who used the Guide were complementary.

Vorteile:

It puts the essential information in the hands of the people who need it. It's easy to navigate. Icons are universal and understandable. Sending out schedule changes, updates, or reminders is a great feature. Easy for the guest to create a custom schedule.

Nachteile:

The hardest part is taking a nice, orderly word document and getting into excel format to upload. It's hard to put one session with multiple sections into a format that works for the guest to easily choose and add to their personal schedule. Guest can't add non-Guide events to schedule.

Write down your activities in a more didactic and efficient way.

Kommentare: With Guidebook to organize my days and write down important things is very simple and fast, it is enough to just look for the app and start to write down.

Vorteile:

The method of organizing for each of your activities that you can save as a digital book is really amazing and useful, with the app you do not worry about taking paper and pencil as in the old school, although necessary but not so practical.

Nachteile:

It is a little confusing when looking for your activities and it brings problems when editing, there are cases that do not save the modifications.

Guidebook helps us look good!

Kommentare: Guidebook helps us offer a tool for our event participants that we'd never be able to create on our own.

Vorteile:

As a religious, non-profit organization we don't often get high marks for being cutting edge or contemporary when it comes to our uses of technology. We have made some huge strides in the last 5 years and Guidebook has been part of that formula. Guidebook is one of the top things constituents mention in post-event surveys as something helpful we offer to improve their experience. I spend many hours perfecting the setup but I can't take credit for the platform itself. That's all you!

We used Guidebook at Annual Conference this past May. It was a way better presentation of events.

Kommentare: This software kept me organized at Annual Conference for the last 2 years.

Vorteile:

When we had Guidebook as a list of events, dinners, speakers, etc. It was a great way to stay on top of things when so much other stuff was happening at Annual Conference. I even had access to some information that I did not have before because of Guidebook! I simply never saw it when the Conference used printed guidebooks.

Nachteile:

Depending on the stuff i was looking for, Guidebook was kind of overwhelming my first year, because it was such a Big Conference with a lot of information.

Guidebook is a one-stop shop for conferences

Kommentare: Guidebook eliminates the need for any printing, which cuts down on costs and waste. Guidebook makes it easy to stay on schedule, with maps and reminders. Connecting with other attendees is easy too, through the app, without needing to give more personal information than what you'd like while still having a way to network.

Vorteile:

I have used Guidebook at several conferences, and love the ease of use as well as the total elimination of printed schedules and information. With the option of selecting what events I am planning to attend (and setting calendar reminders as well!) out the menu of offerings for any given day or time period, this makes scheduling a breeze. Maps, powerpoints, speaker notes, and options for social networking allow attendees to have any information they need just with one app.

Nachteile:

For my purposes, I didn't have any complaints about this software or its utilization.

Outstanding Aide

Kommentare: Overall Guidebook has been one of the best programs we've used. Each year we find a feature that helps to make our NSO less stressful and more impactful.

Vorteile:

I really loved the convenience of having one location to place all of our event agendas, maps, surveys, advertisements, reminders, etc. so that our parents and students could find them all when needed. It helped to keep them on schedule during our New Student Orientation as well as gave them a place to find answers to the majority of the FAQ's that would have bombarded our administrative offices. It also reduced the traffic of "lost" individuals on our campus with the map feature.

Nachteile:

There were a few technical issues we had when trying to upload our agenda, however we reached out to technical support and they were efficient and extremely helpful. We were able to resolve them in no time.

Excellent tool for conferences, training, orientations etc.

Kommentare: Significantly reduce printing costs and paper usage. Allow individuals to plan better. Send updates in a timely fashion. Allow users to interact with each other.

Vorteile:

I have used guidebook for a few years now. Most of my usage experience has come as a conference attendee. I no longer need to get tree-killing printed conference schedules (unless I am presenting, then I want a copy)! The tool is very easy to use in most situations. You can create a registration/check-in for folks, put in guides, schedules, reminders, and push notifications to users. I have explored using it for my own office as well, and had worked with guidebook to set up a trial. I thought the tool was very useful for our work (University - training undergraduate student staff), however, the price was a little too high for the extent to which this product would have been helpful, so I decided not to go through with this.

Nachteile:

The schedule explore can be a little clunky, it will not keep your place at times, randomly refresh itself, etc. The search feature can be your best friend if you know what you are looking for, because the organization system is not designed for any specific context, which means that while it is good for many different uses, it leave a little to be desire in each specific context.

Guidebook's local storage of PDFs overcomes limitations of event wifi reliability

Kommentare: We've used Guidebook successfully for national and regional events since 2016. Event managers can easily build guides on their own. Participants appreciate using the web interface prior to the event and then using the mobile apps onsite. Support team is outstanding.

Vorteile:

Not many event apps support local storage of documents in order to ensure reliable, simultaneous retrieval by 1000+ participants. I also appreciate the modern, easily customizable interface across mobile and web clients.

Nachteile:

Important enhancements are needed to make the integrated PDF viewer more useful: ability to go to a specific page number; and within-document search.

Guidebook is Awesome!

Kommentare: Guidebook was the first time that we switched from a paper program for participants to an electronic app. It has brought our company's events into the 21st century and truly improved the experience of our event participants. Not only that, but it is a great improvement for those who have to create these guides for participants. My current supervisor had to create these paper programs and she always tells me how much she hated it! For me, it is wonderful to build technological skills and actually have fun creating this service for our participants.

Vorteile:

The ease of use! Everything is very straight forward and even if I don't know how to do something, the support team responds in record timing. I enjoy the customization and easy drag and drop features. I also love the ability to copy content from one guide to another to save time on building.

Nachteile:

Sometimes there are small glitches that cause me to have to reload the page, but nothing crazy. Any issues that arise are totally normal (nothing is 100% perfect) and are resolved quickly. I do wish that the sponsor cards could be copied to the next guide as they are usually the same.

Guidebook user for over 7 years!

Kommentare: When I began working with Guidebook in 2012, they were a new company and I was new to the event app world. Needless to say, I had many questions over the years. Each and every question was quickly answered by Guidebook's support team. At no time was I made to feel that I was asking a foolish question. Their professionalism and service exceed most companies I have worked with during my career as a meeting planner.

Vorteile:

The Guidebook event app continues to grow and become more valuable to my attendees. Each year something new is added creating more value. The interactive social feed allows attendees to connect with each other. Pushing out notifications enables me to draw attention to key events during our conference. Evaluation of our educational sessions provided immediate feedback to our presenters.

Nachteile:

At times there are features I wish were present like being able to jump to a certain letter in the alphabet when listing presenters. However, when I suggest these be added in future updates, I receive positive replies. I also have disliked what seems to me to be a continual change in the interface where the app is built. While it is intuitive and easy to use, the look seems to change too often for me.

Guidebook review

Kommentare: Very pleased

Vorteile:

Generally easy to set up and edit as necessary.

Nachteile:

Lacks text messaging except as expensive add-on

Good product, very intuitive and comes with a great customer support team

Kommentare: Ease of use and a consistent product we feel good about promoting to our attendees.

Vorteile:

The guides we create are very easy to build and navigate. Most menus and items can be customized and the website's support FAQs and step-by-step instructions are incredibly helpful. If an answer can't be found there, I've always gotten quick answers from the support team that address what I need.

Nachteile:

The only reason I'm not rating this 5 stars is because there's no lead tracker availability. At our conferences, we have exhibitors that would like to follow up with attendees more directly than just saying "do you have a business card?". Further, we would like to track actual attendance at sessions by having a QR code printed on badges and someone at the door to scan as people arrive. As much as we encourage our attendees, we know not everyone will download the app and check-in to sessions, so that doesn't give us the most reliable data.

Useful for our conference

Vorteile:

I love that the attendees can access any time and there is a live update option and it works for everyone immediately.

Nachteile:

Difficult to try and explain all the features. But it is what it is and all programs take some time to figure out.

A necessity for a well organized con

Kommentare: Love it, the ability to add events to your schedule with reminders has saved me many times

Vorteile:

Way better than a physical con schedule. Can be updated on the fly and has the ability to display as many sections of information for events, panels, and booths. Helps con goers find everything there is to do

Nachteile:

I don't like when con runners don't maximize its potential and put out an unfinished guidebook. That is all

Great Way to Build an App for an Event

Kommentare: We needed the ability to build an app for a large conference that attendees could use to build their agenda and that we could use to communicate in real time. Guidebook gave us that power, even though we didn't have tech/coding experience or knowledge.

Vorteile:

I like how easy and user-friendly it is. I do not have coding experience myself, but I'm able to use Guidebook to create an app for a large conference. Many people on my team can be admins, and we can all edit, add photos, insert descriptions, and make sure everything looks great. The end result looks awesome on mobile devices and takes our conference to the next level. I also love the metrics, which help us know where to put our efforts/improvements.

Nachteile:

We use this every year, and when I log on it always defaults to first app rather than the most recent one. This isn't a huge deal, but it is annoying.

Best event app on the market

Kommentare: Guidebook allows us to eliminate printing and offer users a much improved experience at our annual conference. We collect feedback through the app, facilitate networking, sell sponsorship placements, and give attendees all the information they need. It's been a really useful tool, well worth the investment.

Vorteile:

Great UI. Easy to build apps. Excellent customer service. There are a lot of event app companies out there, but Guidebook is by far my favorite. Both from a user's and admin's perspective.

Nachteile:

App store no longer allows for branded apps, so you have to create an app within Guidebook's app. Not the worst, just wish Apple were less restrictive.

Outstanding value for the price!

Kommentare: VERY positive - the support is incredibly accessible and responsive. The interface is professional in appearance and easy to tailor, and user-friendly. The cost cannot be beat!

Vorteile:

So easy to set up and super simple for attendees to use.

Nachteile:

Wish there was a way to put all the course materials in one place for attendees to access

Great App for our Conference

Vorteile:

Easy to set-up the app including importing sessions, exhibitors, etc. The help documents are great too! We had a rep contact us and gave us some great suggestions for our app after it was built.

Nachteile:

For large imports, you have to get the data just right to import correctly. But like I said the help documents were wonderful so not really a complaint. Just have to put something here :)

Love Guidebooks

Kommentare: I have a good experience using of it from bite sides

Vorteile:

I like the my schedule feature. Customizing my schedule is so helpful especially when there are lots of options

Nachteile:

I wish I could stop people from downloading on multiple devices

Love Guidebook

Kommentare: Love Guidebook. Simple, easy, effective. And great customer service.

Vorteile:

We love using Guidebook. It's so simple to teach other editors as well as edit myself. Even though the layout is simple, it's still easy to get creative and intentional with.

Nachteile:

With we had more control of layouts. An easier way to put in static maps as PDF files would be great too,