Build your free event with Canapii

By Rita Chaher, Co-Founder at Canapii

Set-up your event now, for free

Free basic service for up to 75 attendees, starting today

Canapii has the best feature set in the event management industry, combined with intuitive usability. Our existing tech customers love our platform and our challenge became how to take the brand across the world. We studied the approach of well-known software companies, like Slack, Dropbox and Zoom and realized they offer a free basic version and decided to emulate that approach.

We know Canapii is a great event management platform, but without a free version the only way to convince customers was to set up a personal demo. We are still happy to do that, of course, but it can be difficult to match diaries, and time can be wasted. Our free version allows you to sign up and start an event right now. Please study what we have to offer.

To be transparent, we also realized that for smaller events there is frequently no budget allocated, so negotiating contracts was a waste of energy. Small events are run by local organizations, as well as by small departments within large organizations. So we decided to make events for up to 75 attendees completely free, allowing people interested in Canapii to learn about the platform quickly, and let their audience benefit from our world-class tools. We hope you love the experience and when your time comes to run bigger events, we are ready with our custom services.

Is our Basic service feature rich?

There is no point in offering a free event management service, then restricting features so heavily it serves no useful purpose. We are not here to frustrate you! It is far easier to list out the few elements not included in our free service, than to categorize all that are. Our free events are limited by the number of attendees and can be no longer than four days. Beyond that, the free service is only missing a few of our super advanced AI features like live video translations, chatbots and gamifications, all of which need a degree of customization.

So, starting today, a self-service event can be arranged on Canapii, featuring a live main stage, unlimited on-demand sessions, interactive meetings, workshops, chats, emoticons, polls and so much more.

We don’t have hidden charges either, for example, we don’t take any commission on attendee fees. That is why the sign up for our Basic service does not even ask for a credit card. We may place small advertisements in the future, but that experiment has not yet launched.

To make sure there is absolutely no misunderstanding, we are limiting our Basic service by the number of registrations per month, not by the number of attendees per event. We define which month an event takes place by the start date of the event. If an account only has one event starting in a month then it qualifies for 75 attendees, but alternatively an account could host three events the same month with 25 attendees each.

There are also a couple of sneaky tricks to help extend the usage of the “Basic” service as well. Each event is allowed five organizers, who can log onto the management console, set up sessions, configure tickets and manage attendees. These five people obviously get to attend the event as well, so that stretches the total to 80 attendees. Please don’t tell anyone it was me who gave away that hint.

There is also nothing to stop an existing account holder using different email addresses to set up multiple accounts. This is not a breach of our terms of use, and is certainly not illegal. But, of course, each new account starts afresh, so it is not possible to copy and paste from previous events onto a different account, which should be enough extra hassle to convince many users to start sharing a small fee. By the way, anybody setting up a professional event using a public email address like Gmail could be in breach of their company’s privacy policy, but not ours, so please check carefully.

Want to go bigger?

Of course, we are ready when you want to go large. Our background is in big events, with multi-million-dollar budgets managed by organizers who simply want the best. We will continue to offer that custom service for those extravaganzas. At the top end of our range we are able to offer completely unique user interfaces, domains and branding, consulting on event strategy, content, a white glove 24×7 support offering and advanced AI services. Please don’t be scared of our prices which are dependent on the needs and desires of each customer, with simple events above 75 attendees costing hundreds, not thousands, of dollars.

Mind the gap!

It probably seems there is a big step between our “Basic” and “Custom” services and we agree. That’s why we are working hard to introduce one, or more, product tiers between the two extremes of Basic and Custom, which will most likely involve a monthly subscription model. These self-service subscription options will be available some time during Q1 2021, when it will be a simple process to upgrade Basic accounts.

Non-profits, the little people and good causes

We are so excited to be building Canapii, obviously in part because we are a fast-growing tech company with an opportunity ahead of us. We are also excited because our tool can be so useful for organizations everywhere, across every country and industry sector. This gives us a chance to make a positive difference, as we have the freedom to help organizations whose mission it is to make the world a better place. So, if your organization is fighting climate change, helping wildlife, educating the disadvantaged, supporting the ill, promoting diversity, tackling corruption, evangelizing fair taxation, preventing war, aiding refugees, tackling racism or alleviating poverty then please get in touch and we would love to host your event, most likely for no charge at all.