Data Export from ConfTool Pro for the Mobile App Whova

The company Whova provides an app for conference participants. If you want to use this app for your event, you can use the data export of ConfTool and import functions of Whova to import the agenda, the list of authors and the list of participants generated in ConfTool to Whova. Please use the “Whova Agenda Template” or the “Whova Attendee List Template” Excel files and follow the steps described below to transfer the agenda data or list of participants from ConfTool Pro to Whova. 

Transfer the Agenda, The List of Authors and the Personal Agendas of Your Participants from Conftool Pro to Whova

ConfTool Pro provides options to create Excel files which contain all required data in a format that can be used for the Whova Agenda Template. By using the export function accordingly, you can create a list of all conference sessions (of the conference agenda) with the corresponding presentations listed below each session in separate lines (called “sub-sessions” in Whova). Furthermore, you can export presenter and session chair details (called “speakers” in Whova) to the app and transfer the personal agendas of your participants.

Three steps are required to perform the import:

  1. Export the data from the ConfTool installation,
  2. copy the data to the “Whova Agenda Template” Excel file, and
  3. import the Excel file.

To export the data from your ConfTool installation, please go to
Overview => Data Import and Export => Export Data

… and enable the “Expert Settings“ (cogwheel icon at the bottom of the page). Then scroll to “Export Formatted Schedule (Whova Format)“ and click on the radio button there. The default check boxes and filters should work fine (see image 1).

Image 1 - Export schedule data in Whova format

For the second sheet of the Whova import template, please continue with the export of “Index of Authors”. Please use the options “Merge persons with same name even if their e-mail or ID differs” and “Add session chairs / moderators to export”, set “Acceptance Status” to “All contributions that will be presented and were assigned to a session”, and “Filter Authors by Contributor Type” to “Only export contributors marked as ‘presenting’”, to get a format that is suitable for the Whova import (see image 2).

Finally, if the MyAgenda function is enabled in ConfTool Pro, please use the “Export Attendees of Conference Sessions (My Agenda Data)” (image 2).

Image 2 - Further data exports
Image 2 - Further data exports

To download the Whova Agenda Template, please log in into your Whova installation and select the event, choose tab “Event Content”, go to the “Session Manager”” and then click on the button “Import/Export”. From the drop-down menu please select “Import from Excel” (image 3). Now a new window appears; please select the link “Download Whova Agenda Template” (image 4) and store the Excel file on your computer. This file has to be used for the import to Whova, which means that you now have to copy the data from the ConfTool exports to this template.

Image 3 - Whova data import preparation
Image 3 - Whova data import preparation
Image 4 - Export agenda template
Image 4 - Export agenda template

Let’s take a closer look at the Whova template. The template has three sheets (see the bottom of image 5). Instructions, notes and agenda samples are available on the sheet “Agenda”. The other two sheets are for “Speaker” details and the “Personalized” sheet for the personal agendas of your participants.

  1. Now proceed to copy the data from your two or three ConfTool exports to the Whova Agenda Template (image 5). Please do not copy the column headings from the ConfTool export files.1. From the Excel file created by the “Export Formatted Schedule (Whova Format)”, please copy data from those columns which are available on the Whova Agenda Template as well, and paste that data in similar named columns of the sheet “Agenda”. Required data for the template are “Date”, “Time Start”, “Time End” and “Session Title”. For the latter you can use the output of the column “session_title” or “session_title_combined”. Furthermore, please copy data to the columns “Room/Location”, “Description”, “Speakers” (please use “speakers_presenters_chairs” as source column), “Authors” and “Session or Sub-Session (Sub)”.
  2. The export of “Index of Authors” from ConfTool can be copied to the sheet “Speaker”. Again, please paste the data into corresponding columns. Select then column “fullname” from the export for “Name” of the Whova template; “email” and “organisation” should be copied into columns with headers “Email” and “Affiliation” respectively (image 6). For the column “Bio” the field CV of the ConfTool export can be used.
  3. If the MyAgenda function is enabled in ConfTool Pro, you can also copy the personal agendas from the data export “Export Attendees of Conference Sessions (My Agenda Data)” and paste it into the corresponding columns of sheet “Personalized”. From the spreadsheet created by data export, copy from columns “email_unrepeated” and “session_title” or “session_title_combined” (please make sure that the data is identical with data copied into column “Session Title” of the “Agenda” sheet) and paste the data into the columns “Email” and “Session Title” respectively (image 7).
Image 5 - Transfer of data from ConfTool export to Whova template
Image 5 - Transfer of data from ConfTool export to Whova template
Image 6 - Data to be copied into sheet "Speaker"
Image 6 - Data to be copied into sheet "Speaker"
Image 7 - Date to be copied into sheet 'Personalized'
Image 7 - Date to be copied into sheet 'Personalized'

Finally, please go again to your event, choose tab “Event Content”, click on “Session Manager” and then choose the button “Import/Export” again. From the drop-down menu please select “Import from Excel”, choose your Whova import file, and upload this file in your Whova installation (image 8). Please note that the import will overwrite all previous data stored in the agenda of your event.

If you get an import error message, please refine the data of the import sheet correspondingly. The most common error is that some speakers differ in spelling in different sessions, but the ConfTool export uses only one writing of the presenter’s name. Whova has problems with such differences and requires the organizers to write speaker names always exactly the same in the import.

Image 8 - Upload Whova Agenda Template
Image 8 - Upload Whova Agenda Template

Transfer Your List of Participants from ConfTool to Whova

You can either add attendees manually or bulk upload them. Open the tab “Attendees” and go to “Manage Attendees”. 

Click on the "Add an Attendee" button to individually create participants.

If you would like to bulk upload attendees, click on the button “Import Attendees” (see image 9) and choose the option “Import from an Excel file using Whova’s template”. Then download the Whova Excel template. Continue to export your list of participants from ConfTool and copy the columns “Full Name”, “Email”, “Company” (called “Organisation” in ConfTool) and “Location” (called “Country” in ConfTool) to the Whova Excel template. Save the file in xlsx format and click on “Import Excel File” to upload your list in Whova
 

Image 9 - Import Attendees

You can also check the blog on the Whova website for further information and instructions on how to use the agenda import.