Meetings & Conventions: Real-Life Reviews MeetingPro for
Windows
December 1997
MeetingPro for Windowsby Peopleware
(800-869-7166)
This program is designed to manage every phase of planning a
meeting -- from the marketing stage right through registration,
accounting and reporting.
Price: Single user, $3,995, increasing incrementally to 10 users
for $10,145; for more users, special pricing for office licensing
is available. A smaller system where the database is limited to 750
records costs $1,695.
Rinda Knifong, assistant to the administrative director,
Society for Adolescent Medicine, Blue Springs, Mo., plans one
annual meeting for 700 and has been using MeetingPro for six
years.
How do you use MeetingPro?
It handles all of our registration, room setups, A/V -- pretty much
the whole ball of wax. Overall, we have been very satisfied with
it.What is its greatest strength?
Financially, the cost was not that huge, compared to what other
programs cost to set up or design. And it can handle all the
information that we need.What is its greatest weakness?
The mistakes that they've made in the programming. You try to do
something and it doesn't work. But the company is trying to take
everyone's ideas and adjust the program accordingly. Unfortunately,
once they fix one thing, another problem comes up.How would you improve the software?
The customized fields for e-mail often won't fit the address. I'd
fix that, and I would suggest that they go over their system and
make sure it does what they say it will do.Laura Colderchant, CMP, president, Progress in Planning
Inc., Sleepy Hollow, Ill., plans 24 meetings a year for groups of
50 to 700 people and has been using MeetingPro for a year.
How do you use MeetingPro?
We put the schedule on it and button up the details, do
registration, print name badges and activity lists -- we use it for
everything we possibly can. The reporting structure is very
concise.What is its greatest strength?
Pulling everything together, keeping everything organized and being
able to have everything at our fingertips. We have it on a laptop
and we take it to the site. Also, it's easy to customize.What is its greatest weakness?
When we're putting together our rooming lists, we'd like it if
there were a form that we could just fill out. Being able to
customize the fields can be helpful, but it would be nice not to
have to.Lynette Schick, CMP, meeting planner, Colorado Department of
Public Health & Environment, Denver, plans about 10 meetings a
year for an average of 25 to 50 people and has been using
MeetingPro for a few months.
How do you use MeetingPro?
I'm using it for registrations mostly, organizing speakers and
doing invoices and confirmations.What is its greatest strength?
The detail that you can put in about particular registrants. You
can enter them, confirm their payment, register them for different
classes and pull them up by class.What is its greatest weakness?
The learning curve; you really need to know computer language. I do
take some responsibility for problems that I've had with it. I'm
not as frustrated as I was at first, but still some processes are
harder than they need to be.How would you improve the software?
Make it more user-friendly, with some more options for reporting
and not so many filters built in. I have to enter so many different
IDs just to pull up a report.
Back to
Current Issue index | Back to
Real Life ReviewsM&C
Home PageCurrent
Issue |
Events Calendar |
Newsline |
Incentive News |
Meetings Market
ReportEditorial
Libraries |
CVB Links |
Reader Survey |
Hot Dates |
Contact M&C