What Convention Management Software Has to Handle
A convention is several events sharing one building. Fans or members come for panels, guests and the show floor. Exhibitors and vendors buy booths. Artists rent tables in an artist alley. Panelists need a room and a time slot, and the front door has to admit the right ticket on the right day. Whether you run a fan convention, a comic or anime con, a gaming or hobby show, or an industry convention, the operational load looks much the same.
Convention management software brings those jobs into one system. Whether you call it convention software or expo software, the key link is between what you sell and what you publish: once a booth or table is sold, its exhibitor should appear on the public map and in the app without anyone copying it over.
- A floor plan of the exhibit hall, artist alley and panel rooms
- Online sales of booths, tables and sponsorships, with prices for different groups
- Exhibitor and artist profiles, booth staff and onboarding tasks
- Panels, guests, tracks and rooms in a published schedule
- Attendee tickets, badges and check-in at the door
- A public event site and an app attendees open during the show
Selling Exhibitor Booths and Artist Alley Tables
In Map D, every booth on your floor plan has a booth type, and the booth type sets its default price, size, colors and what comes with it. Conventions usually need several: standard vendor booths, corner or island booths for larger exhibitors, and artist alley tables, which are commonly sold as a 6 ft or 8 ft table rather than a booth space. Set each up as its own booth type with distinct colors, so buyers can tell tables from booths on the floor plan legend.
| Booth type | Settings to use | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Artist alley table | Its own width, height, base price and colors, plus included services such as chairs | Keeps tables visually distinct from vendor booths and priced on their own |
| Standard vendor booth | Base price on the type, with per-booth overrides only for premium spots | One price to maintain, with exceptions where the location justifies them |
| Corner or island booth | A higher base price and sellable services such as extra power | Larger exhibitors buy the space and the add-ons in one checkout |
| Sponsor booth | Booths included, for example two standard booths that come free with it | Sponsors pick their included booths on the map and checkout takes the price off |
| Any multi-booth type | Prices by quantity, such as a lower price each for 2 or more booths | Rewards vendors who take a larger footprint |
Two more settings help. Booth codes let you keep a booth for a returning exhibitor: they see Booth code required and enter the code you sent them. Registration types with an access code can give returning artists or sponsors their own prices and booth types.
How a Convention Comes Together in Map D
- 1
Draw the Hall
Draw the exhibit hall, artist alley and panel rooms in the map editor, or start from the first map Map D builds for you on the standard plan. Name every room so attendees can search for it later.
- 2
Set Booth Types and Open Sales
Create booth types and prices, choose a sales mode and booth assignment mode, set registration dates, and work through the Launch checklist before you select Launch Sales.
- 3
Invite Exhibitors to Their Portal
Exhibitors and artists complete their company profile, add booth staff and products, and finish the onboarding tasks you set. You choose what they can edit. See exhibitor portal software.
- 4
Build the Program
Add guests and panelists, create tracks such as Comics, Gaming or Workshops, and add each panel with its room, time and speakers.
- 5
Sell Tickets
If your show sells attendee tickets, ticket types, add-ons, promo codes and registration questions live under Ticketing. Map D sets up your ticket types and pricing with you.
- 6
Publish Homebase and the App
Pick a Homebase template, add your branding and publish. Release the mobile app so attendees get the floor plan, schedule and exhibitors on their phones.
- 7
Check In at the Door
Staff scan badges with the Map D scanner app at the entrance and at panel rooms.
Panels, Guests and the Convention Schedule
If your show includes Speakers & Schedule, panels are sessions and guests are speakers. Each session has a title, description, tracks, date, location, start and end time and its speakers, plus optional stream embeds, links, videos and files. Set as Group Header turns an entry into a section divider, which helps when one day runs several stages at once.
- Mark guests of honor with Keynote speaker, so their card and profile say Keynote instead of Speaker.
- Import panelists from a spreadsheet with the CSV template, or add them one at a time.
- Invite panelists to sign in to My Profiles and update their own bio and photo, and decide per speaker whether they can edit session details.
- Link a sponsored panel to the sponsoring exhibitor with Related exhibitors.
Tickets, Badges and Check-In
Conventions often sell single-day and weekend passes side by side, and the door has to know the difference. In Map D, ticketing covers ticket types, add-ons, ticket holders, ticket orders, promo codes, registration questions and email templates. You control the public ticket page: how long tickets are held at checkout, which columns buyers see, messages, terms, and widgets such as a countdown and a promo code box. See event ticketing software.
| Setting | What it does | Convention example |
|---|---|---|
| Scan session | One place or time where you scan badges | Main entrance, Main stage, Workshop room |
| Permitted | The ticket types a session admits; other badges are refused | A Saturday entrance that admits Saturday and weekend passes |
| Default session | Opens a staff member's scanner app straight onto their session | Door volunteers land on Main entrance |
| Self check-in | Kiosk mode, with options for what attendees can do themselves | A kiosk line for pre-registered attendees |
| Badge printing | Print on scan, reprints and required fields before printing | Badges printed as attendees arrive |
Badges can also be printed ahead of time from Ticket Holders, using a template from the Badge Designer.
Keeping Attendees Engaged in the App
The mobile app shows your exhibitors, floor plan and schedule, and adds the features attendees use between panels. Under Mobile View you can turn on session check-in and feedback, live polls and Q&A during panels, attendee networking and chat, and announcements to the app's Notifications tab.
Challenges give signed-in attendees points for taking part: checking in to a session, rating one, voting in a poll, asking a question, connecting with another attendee, or scanning a code printed for a booth or session. Points add up on a leaderboard. Printed booth codes turn the show floor into a hunt that sends attendees past every row, the idea behind a scavenger hunt app. For more ways to reward participation, see event gamification.
What to Look for in Convention Software
- Can artists and vendors pick their own space on a live floor plan and see what is already sold?
- Can tables and booths have different sizes, prices and included services?
- Can you approve orders first, or assign spaces yourself, when the artist alley is juried?
- Do panels, rooms and guests publish to the public site and app from the same record?
- Can the door scanner admit only the ticket types valid for that entrance or day?
Map D is built for events with an exhibit hall, so it suits conventions where the show floor matters as much as the stage. If your event is mostly performances and food vendors, compare festival management software as well. Published plans start at $1,500 per event; see pricing.
