Does a university need one event platform or several? Usually several, because publishing events, holding rooms, running student clubs and registering conference guests are separate jobs owned by separate offices. Campus calendars, room schedulers, student engagement platforms and registration tools each cover one. Find the job causing the most trouble, then trial two tools from that group.
If you sit in student affairs, conference services or facilities, you already know campus events have more owners than almost any other kind. Academic departments, alumni teams and societies each run their own, often in their own spreadsheets. Below are nine tools for the people who keep that calendar moving, and the fastest way to tell them apart is to put one real event through two of them.
A one-week test with a real campus event
Don't start with feature lists. Start with an event you're already planning and run it through the software twice.
- Pick one real event from next term, such as an open day, a society fair or a departmental conference, and write down every office that touches it.
- Decide which job hurts most: publishing the event, finding and holding a room, signing students up, or running registration for outside guests.
- Choose two tools from the matching group further down this page and ask each vendor for a walkthrough or a trial account.
- Build the same event in both, with the same room, date, description and sign-up form, then ask a colleague from another office to find it the way a student or guest would.
- Note every workaround you needed, and ask who on campus would own the tool, its data and its training once the trial is over.
What a campus event needs from its software
A university event has more owners than a company one. The person writing the description often isn't the person who controls the room, and neither of them runs the student records that decide who can sign up. That's why so many campuses end up with several tools that each do one part well, joined together by email and goodwill.
It helps to split the work into four jobs. The first is publishing: getting every department's events onto one calendar that students, staff and the public can search. The second is space: holding lecture theatres, seminar rooms and outdoor areas so that two teams don't book the same room for the same afternoon. The third is student life: clubs, societies, attendance and the steady drip of small events that make a campus feel busy. The fourth is registration for bigger, outward facing events like conferences, summer schools and open days, where guests need a form, a confirmation and an agenda.
Very few offices need all four from the same product. Conference services lives in the fourth job, a student union lives in the third, and facilities lives in the second. Before anyone books a demo, agree which job you're buying for, and write down the one that's already covered elsewhere so nobody ends up running two tools for it.
It's also worth asking where your timetable comes from. Academic timetabling and event booking compete for the same rooms, so whichever office owns the timetable has to be in the room when you choose.
Nine tools sorted by the campus job they do
Rooms, space and the academic timetable
EMS comes from Accruent and is pitched at rooms, events, desks and resources across offices and campuses, so it's aimed squarely at the space job. 25Live, from CollegeNET, goes a step further into academic scheduling alongside event planning and campus resource management, which makes it a natural one for registrars to look at.
Venues that take outside bookings
Tripleseat is venue management software that lists Schools and Universities as an industry. It's the one to look at when a campus venue, such as a conference centre or a hall, takes bookings from outside groups as well as from departments.
Conferences, institutes and registration
Sched has a higher education use case for PD days, summer institutes and campus events. Swoogo has a page written for higher education in its industry menu, and Eventzilla lists Educational Institutions among the industries it serves. Cvent is the largest name here and lists Education among its industry options, so it's the group to look at when you run conferences with outside delegates.
Calendars and student life
The two campus-specific names, a calendar tool and a student engagement platform, are covered in the next section, because their branding has changed and that's the first thing to check.
Two campus names with new owners
Localist's own page now says it's a Concept3D company, and CampusGroups is presented under the Ready Education brand. So two of the best known names in campus events now sit under different brands than many staff remember.
None of that tells you anything bad about either product. What it does mean is that the first questions in a demo change. Ask whose name will be on the contract, who answers support tickets, and how the product sits alongside the parent company's other products. If you already use one of them, check that your account details and data contacts are up to date with the new owner.
The nine side by side
| Tool | Kind of tool | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| 25Live | Academic and event scheduling | Registrars and space planners |
| CampusGroups | Student engagement platform | Student affairs and club teams |
| Cvent | Enterprise event platform | Large conference and events offices |
| EMS | Room and event scheduling | Facilities teams booking rooms and resources |
| Eventzilla | Registration platform | Open days and public event sign-ups |
| Localist | Campus event calendar | Communications teams publishing a campus calendar |
| Sched | Conference scheduling | Summer institutes and staff development days |
| Swoogo | Event management platform | Conference services teams |
| Tripleseat | Venue booking | Campus venues taking outside bookings |
All nine, A to Z
In no particular order beyond the alphabet. Each line is a short description based on what the maker says about its own tool.
25Live
Best for: Universities that want academic scheduling, event planning and campus resource management in one place, which is how CollegeNET describes it.
CampusGroups
Best for: Student life teams building community and involvement on campus; the vendor's own line is about boosting student engagement.
Cvent
Best for: Large event offices wanting event management, marketing and attendee engagement in one platform, per the vendor, with Education among its industries.
EMS
Best for: Facilities and room booking offices managing rooms, events, desks and resources across a campus, as Accruent sets it out.
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Eventzilla
Best for: Registration for open events, with Educational Institutions on its industry list and a vendor promise of more registrations for less work.
Localist
Best for: Putting every department's events on one branded website calendar; the vendor's pitch is a single, easy to use calendar.
Sched
Best for: Running PD days, summer institutes and campus events, which are the higher education uses its maker names.
Swoogo
Best for: Event professionals on campus who want what the vendor calls a flexible platform, with a page written for higher education.
Tripleseat
Best for: Campus venues that take bookings, since the vendor lists Schools and Universities as an industry and says it streamlines bookings.
Advice I'd give a campus events office
Don't let the biggest office choose for everyone. Pick the job that's failing, give it to the team that owns it, and let that team trial two tools on a real event. A calendar that nobody updates and a registration form that nobody can find are both worse than a plain web page, so judge each tool on whether people outside your office can use it without a guide.
If your events reach beyond campus, my wider list of event management software covers more general platforms, and the event tools for nonprofits list is useful for alumni and fundraising events that run on a smaller team.
Do you make campus event, room booking or student engagement software? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
Want your tool on this list? Featured spots and reviews here are paid partnerships. Here's how to partner with me.
Frequently asked questions
Should a university use one event platform for everything?
Rarely. Publishing events, booking rooms, running student clubs and registering conference guests are different jobs, and most campuses get on better with one tool per job that the owning office will keep up to date.
What's the difference between a campus calendar and a registration platform?
A calendar's job is to make events easy to find. A registration platform's job is to collect sign-ups, confirm places and manage guests. Some tools do a little of both, so test the one you need most.
Who should own event software on campus?
The office that feels the pain of the job. Facilities usually owns rooms, student affairs owns clubs, and conference services owns outside events. Agree that before a demo, not after.
Can room booking and event publishing run in separate tools?
Yes, and on many campuses they already do. The thing to check is whether a confirmed room booking can feed the public calendar without someone retyping it.
How long should a trial run before we decide?
Long enough to build one real event from start to finish in each tool and have someone from another office find it. That tells you more than weeks of browsing settings.
What should we ask a vendor in the first demo?
Ask them to build your event, not theirs. Bring the room, the form and the audience, and ask who would support you and how your data leaves if you change tools later.
