Conference management software is a system that helps organisers run every stage of a conference from one place: collecting abstracts and papers, running peer review, registering delegates, building the programme, and delivering the event online or in person. It replaces spreadsheets, manual email threads and disconnected tools with a single, connected workflow.

Ex Ordo is not a general-purpose event platform. It's built specifically for scholarly events: conferences, symposia and meetings that accept submissions, put them through peer review, and use the results to build a programme. That focus means the workflows match how research conferences actually run, from panel and symposia structures to reviewer conflict-of-interest management, rather than being adapted from tools built for weddings, concerts or corporate meetings.

The Ex Ordo platform focuses on solving three core problems for event organisers: bandwidth and capacity, integrating events with wider organisational workflows such as membership and publication systems, and receiving quality, timely support. Founded over 17 years ago, Ex Ordo has worked exclusively in scholarly events since day one.

Yes. The built-in conflict checker flags when a presenter, room or track is double-booked, so organisers catch scheduling clashes before they reach the delegate. IPrA used this to turn a multi-day scheduling task, across 17 parallel streams and up to 68 sessions a day, into a job measured in minutes. Once the programme is finalised, it can be synced to a mobile app or published to the conference website in one click.

Yes. Peer review is built into the core conference management system, not bolted on as a separate product. Organisers set the number of reviews required per submission, and Ex Ordo's allocation engine matches submissions to reviewers by expertise while managing conflicts of interest. Reviewers work through a dedicated workspace to score and comment, with support for single- or double-blind review, rolling review, and skipping straight to a decision when peer review isn't required.

The platform covers all stages of the events lifecycle and can be used end-to-end or in partnership with other tools. That spans abstract collection, peer review, registration and payments, programme building, virtual and hybrid delivery, a mobile conference app, and generation of a book of proceedings, all on one connected system so data entered at submission stage is still there when the programme is built.

Ex Ordo connects with wider organisational workflows, including membership, publication and CRM systems, with single sign-on support for membership platforms. Integration development is ongoing; organisers can raise a specific integration need when they request a quote.

Ex Ordo's software is PCI compliant, uses HTTPS encryption throughout, and is fully GDPR compliant, with data hosted on secure servers within the EU as standard. Every piece of data an organiser or their delegates upload belongs to them. In 2025, Ex Ordo made significant infrastructure investment to future-proof the platform, work aimed at keeping it dependable as customers' events grow.

High-quality support from an expert team with deep-domain experience. Ex Ordo's customer success team brings close to 20 years of conference organising and support experience, with robust onboarding for every customer, unlimited email support from 9am to 6pm GMT, and a 90-minute response time SLA. Real humans handle support, not bots.

Both are built specifically for academic conferences, so the real difference comes down to how far each system reaches beyond submissions. Ex Ordo connects abstract management to peer review, programme building, registration, virtual and hybrid delivery, a synced mobile app, and book of proceedings generation, including specific features for IEEE conferences, all in one system. That is backed by a support team with over 17 years of expertise in event support and unlimited email support from 9am to 6pm GMT: real humans, not bots. It matters most for societies running larger or multi stream conferences, where the International Pragmatics Association manages 1,081 peer reviews and up to 68 sessions a day through Ex Ordo, or for those who need their event workflows connected to membership, publication, and CRM systems rather than working in isolation.

'For this year's conference, we implemented a number of new processes including using Ex Ordo as the conference platform,' says Avnish Patel of the Political Studies Association. 'Everything was much easier this year, and we got great feedback from delegates.'

Fourwaves and Ex Ordo are both scholarly specific platforms built around abstract submission and peer review, so the choice usually comes down to depth and scale rather than a missing feature. Ex Ordo has been built specifically for scholarly events for over 17 years, and that shows most at scale and at the edges of the lifecycle: automated conflict of interest checking and blind review inside peer review, book of proceedings generation with specific features for IEEE conferences, and direct integrations into membership, publication, and CRM systems, including single sign on via SAML or OpenID Connect, rather than a general purpose open API. Ex Ordo has organised over 2,000+ conferences across 60+ countries, including large, multi track events. The International Pragmatics Association runs 17 in person parallel streams and up to 68 sessions a day through the platform, and pairs that with unlimited email support from a specialist scholarly events team, not a general customer success queue.

'Our conferences bring together researchers from many different disciplines, and Ex Ordo handles that complexity very well,' says Jef Verschueren, founder of the International Pragmatics Association. 'The submission and review process is clear and intuitive, and we receive very few complaints from authors or reviewers.'

Conference software that integrates with membership systems connects delegate and author records with an organisation's existing member database, so member pricing, renewals, and communications stay accurate without manual reconciliation. Ex Ordo is built to connect events with wider organisational workflows, including membership, publication, and CRM systems, and is committed to ongoing integration development. Ex Ordo currently supports data sync with NoviAMS and Naylor as association management systems, so a member's organisation, country, and member type and status flow straight into their Ex Ordo profile. Ex Ordo also offers single sign on via SAML or OpenID Connect, so members can log in with the credentials they already use instead of creating a new password.

'The Ex Ordo system is connected,' says Peri Wolff, Executive Manager of the Wildlife Disease Association. 'It provides flexibility for multiple conferences depending on their goals, syncing information back and forth. The system has multiple uses, and our members trust the technology.' The Wildlife Disease Association has used Ex Ordo since 2016 across eleven conferences, run with only two full time staff supported by volunteers.

The best mobile app for an academic conference is one that syncs directly from the system where the programme is built, so organisers never manage the schedule twice. Ex Ordo Mobile is built on Guidebook technology for Android and iOS and syncs the full conference programme from Ex Ordo's core system in a single click, including session changes made right up to the event, plus session organisers alongside presenters on every sync.

The Wildlife Disease Association adopted Ex Ordo Mobile in 2019 to support its 643 registered delegates and nine to ten concurrent sessions. The programme is built once in Ex Ordo and synced to the app in one click, removing duplicate admin for a team of two full time staff. 'Using Ex Ordo was a no brainer for us,' says Peri Wolff, Executive Manager of the Wildlife Disease Association. 'Our members are happy with it after using it since 2016.'

Registration revenue is affected less by the headline price than by how many delegates complete registration once they start, and how efficiently outstanding payments are recovered. Ex Ordo's registration system supports secure card payments, bank transfer, member pricing, and automated payment reminders in one place. Automated reminders reduce the number of registrations abandoned or left unpaid. Member pricing logic applies discounts automatically at the point of registration, cutting manual pricing errors. And because registration sits in the same system as the programme, delegates can see session content before they commit, which supports completed sign ups rather than drop off.