The university has two enterprise contracts for online event registration services. Today, Merchant Services (MS) oversees and manages this program. The third-party event management software solutions offered are provided by Certain and Eventbrite. Each allows university departments to set up free or paid events, conferences and online meeting registration websites. For departments that don’t have the necessary in-house resources, or just need help with a complex event, Stanford Conferences and the Stanford Ticketing Office offer additional event planning services with supplementary fees that may apply.
Departments interested in using Eventbrite or Certain should consider the product features, functionality and fee structure to decide which software fits their needs. The following table presents some factors to consider when determining the most appropriate tool for your department.
| Feature/Functionality | Certain | Eventbrite |
|---|---|---|
| Simple Event (ease of set-up; less than 10 custom fields collected for registration) |
✔ | |
|
Complex Event |
✔ | ✔ |
| Free Event (without payment processing) |
✔ ($2 per registrant) |
✔ |
| International Event (accept local currency or deposit in local bank) |
✔ | |
| Webinar/Virtual Event | ✔ | |
| Multi-User Capability | ✔ | ✔ |
| Refund Window | 90 days from the transaction date or 90 days after the event ended date, whichever is longer | 120 days in Eventbrite and Authorize.net Gateway |
| Dedicated Customer Support | ✔ | |
| Account Set-Up | Event account: 3 business days Merchant payment gateway account: not required |
Event account: 3 business days Merchant payment gateway account: 1 to 2 weeks |
| Revenue/Fee Posting | Manual monthly journals by MS | Automatic daily deposit to PTA |
| Cost | University negotiated pricing | University negotiated pricing |
Review the following resource pages to learn more about the available event solutions:
