Choosing the right mobile event app shapes how attendees navigate sessions, connect with peers, and interact with sponsors on show day. Platforms like Accelevents and Cadmium often appear side by side in shortlists, yet they solve different problems inside the event tech stack. This article focuses on how their mobile experiences support conferences and trade shows, especially for enterprises, associations, and others such as agencies, mid-market corporations, and nonprofits. You will see how each platform supports planning workflows, onsite delivery, and data capture, so you can walk into live demos and proofs of concept with a clear checklist.
How to evaluate a mobile event app
A mobile event app is more than a digital agenda, it is the front door to your onsite experience and a key driver of sponsor value. When you compare Accelevents and Cadmium, it helps to remember that Cadmium centers on abstract management and education workflows, while Accelevents delivers the attendee-facing app, registration, lead capture, and onsite tools in one platform. The best fit depends on how much you need a single mobile workspace versus a combination of back-office content tools and partner apps. For most teams, the right solution will keep staff setup simple, support exhibitors without extra hardware headaches, and give sales and marketing clean data the same day the event ends.
Use the following evaluation areas as a structured way to compare both options:
- App creation and branding
- Registration, check-in, and badging
- Agenda and personalization
- In-app engagement including Q&A, polls, chat, and gamification
- Networking and meetings
- Exhibitor tools and lead capture
- Continuing education credits
- Analytics and reporting
- Integrations, offline reliability, and data flow
1) App creation and branding
Accelevents
Accelevents was originally built for in-person events and now supports in-person, virtual, and hybrid programs using one mobile app that is tightly connected to registration and onsite tools. Teams configure colors, logos, navigation tiles, and home screen layouts so the app reflects the look and feel of their conference series or corporate brand. White label options remove vendor branding across web and mobile, and the same branding extends to registration pages, emails, and check-in kiosks so attendees see a consistent experience from the first invite to the last scan.
Cadmium
Cadmium’s strength lies in abstract management and education program design, so branding tools are focused on conference websites, schedules, and content portals. The attendee-facing mobile experience is usually delivered through an integrated partner app rather than a native Cadmium mobile app. Event teams can still align colors, logos, and basic layouts with association or institution guidelines, but deeper mobile branding and navigation control depend on which external app is paired with Cadmium.
Why this matters
Branding in the mobile app reinforces sponsor value and program identity, and it also affects how quickly attendees learn to navigate your event. When branding is fragmented across separate tools, support questions increase and sponsors can feel less visible.
- In demos, ask each vendor to build a branded home screen with tiles for agenda, speakers, exhibitors, and announcements, then publish a test version you can access during the meeting.
- Request a walkthrough of white label options, including what attendees see in app stores and on login screens.
- Have vendors show how branding changes in the mobile app stay aligned with registration pages, emails, and onsite signage.
2) Registration, check-in, and badging
Accelevents
Accelevents offers drag-and-drop pages and forms so teams can launch event registration sites with badges, unlimited ticket types, discount codes, reusable templates, and one-click registration forms. Conditional form logic lets planners collect different information from speakers, exhibitors, and attendees, and group ticket bundles simplify buying for teams. Onsite, the same system powers mobile and kiosk check-in, instant badge printing, and controlled access to ticketed sessions, which keeps lines short and doors flowing smoothly.
Cadmium
Cadmium registration is tightly connected to its abstract and education workflows, which is useful when the same people submit content, speak, and attend sessions. For many conferences, especially research-focused programs, registration is configured in EdgeReg or related modules, then shared with a separate platform that manages check-in and badges. This split model can work well, but planners report that it adds complexity when updating names, tickets, or badge information close to show day.
Why this matters
Registration and check-in are the first onsite touchpoints, and problems here quickly ripple into session delays and crowded hallways. A mobile app that draws from the same registration system reduces data mismatches and last-minute manual fixes.
- Ask each vendor to create multiple ticket types, including group bundles, and then register a test attendee while you watch.
- Have them demonstrate self-serve check-in on mobile devices and kiosks, including on-demand badge printing for walk-ins.
- Request a live view of how changes to tickets or names in the admin console appear in the mobile app within minutes.
3) Agenda and personalization
Accelevents
Accelevents includes an agenda builder for multi-track conferences, trade shows, internal meetings, and continuing education events. Planners define tracks, rooms, and capacities, then publish sessions to the mobile app where attendees can star items, build personal schedules, and receive reminders. Behind the scenes, native call for papers and abstract management workflows handle submissions, automatic reviewer assignment, and speaker portal tasks, keeping program owners and speakers aligned on requirements and deadlines.
Cadmium
Cadmium was designed for detailed program committees that manage paper presentations, posters, and symposia. Its tools track submissions, assign reviewers, score abstracts, and generate session lists that flow into the final program. Personalized agendas are often delivered through a connected mobile app, with Cadmium supplying the structured program data. This model serves research conferences well, although coordinating changes between Cadmium and the mobile app partner can require extra checks as you approach show day.
Why this matters
A clean agenda and personalized schedules help attendees move confidently between sessions, which drives room fill, reduces confusion, and supports accurate capacity planning. When the program and the app rely on different systems, schedule changes can slip through the cracks.
- During demos, ask vendors to update a session time and room, then show how quickly that change appears in the attendee app.
- Request a walkthrough of speaker workflows, from submission through final confirmation and publishing to the mobile schedule.
- Have vendors demonstrate how attendees add sessions to a personal schedule and what happens if a room reaches capacity.
4) In-app engagement including Q&A, polls, chat, and gamification
Accelevents
Accelevents offers session Q&A with moderation and upvoting, live polls, post-session surveys, and an activity feed that keeps attendees informed about what is happening onsite. Gamification challenges can reward booth visits, session check-ins, and participation in surveys, with leaderboards displayed on screens or within the app to encourage friendly competition. Because engagement tools are tied to registration and attendance, planners can attribute participation back to ticket types and segments.
Cadmium
Cadmium focuses on supporting structured academic-style Q&A and content review. Attendees can submit questions during talks, often filtered through moderators or session chairs, which matches expectations for many research and medical conferences. Features such as live polling or gamification are less central and are sometimes handled in external apps connected to Cadmium data.
Why this matters
Engagement tools influence how long attendees stay in sessions, how often they respond to calls to action, and how sponsors perceive value from their investment. When engagement features are split across platforms, it becomes harder to see a single picture of who was active and where.
- Ask vendors to run a test session with live Q&A and a poll, then show in real time how results appear in the admin dashboard.
- Have them configure a simple gamification challenge that rewards booth visits and session attendance.
- Request a demo of how engagement data connects back to attendee profiles for post-event follow-up.
5) Networking and meetings
Accelevents
Accelevents includes attendee profiles, interest tags, and preference fields that power recommendations for people to meet. Within the mobile app, participants can request meetings, accept or decline, and manage their schedule alongside sessions so they do not double-book. Digital business card exchange and 1:1 messaging help reduce friction at crowded events where people want to connect quickly without trading physical cards.
Cadmium
Cadmium supports networking features oriented around research collaboration and shared academic interests. Attendees can search for peers working on similar topics, view session participation, and sometimes schedule discussions, although the exact experience depends on the mobile app partner. The focus is on scholarly connections rather than structured meeting programs tied to sales outcomes.
Why this matters
Networking is often the main reason people attend conferences, and it is also a key source of perceived value for membership renewals and sponsor renewals. A mobile app that streamlines meeting scheduling and follow-up helps attendees leave with concrete outcomes.
- Ask vendors to show how attendees discover recommended connections and request meetings inside the app.
- Request a demo of digital business cards or contact exchange, including how data lands in exports or downstream systems.
- Have them explain how privacy and messaging controls work for attendees who prefer limited outreach.
6) Exhibitor tools and lead capture
Accelevents
Accelevents provides an exhibitor portal where companies manage digital booths, staff lists, meeting links, and assets for onsite and hybrid events. Lead capture is built into the mobile app with QR code scanning, unlimited users per exhibitor, offline support, real time reports, lead scoring, note-taking, and integrated meeting booking. Because lead data flows directly into event-wide analytics and CRM integrations, exhibitors can see ROI in terms of scans, meetings, and influenced opportunities without separate licensing per device.
Cadmium
Cadmium offers exhibitor directories and listing tools that are suitable for research-heavy conferences where commercial promotion is important but not the primary focus. Exhibitors can present company information and resources, yet lead retrieval capabilities are more limited and in some cases require additional services or partner apps. This can create extra steps when exhibitors want to standardize lead capture across different shows.
Why this matters
Exhibitors judge events by the quality and quantity of leads they take home, and sponsors often compare your show’s results with competing events. When lead capture is fragmented or tied to specific hardware, exhibitors face higher costs and staff training needs.
- In demos, ask vendors to log in as an exhibitor, scan a test badge on multiple phones, and add notes and qualifiers.
- Request a report of leads by booth staff member and by session attended, then export that data while you watch.
- Have vendors explain licensing models for lead capture, including any per-exhibitor or per-device fees.
7) Continuing education credits
Accelevents
Accelevents supports continuing education programs with automated credit assignment based on attendance, a flexible program builder, instant certificate generation, self-service retrieval, audit trails, and LMS integration. Because attendance is captured via mobile scans at doors and within sessions, credits are tied directly to actual participation. This minimizes manual reconciliation at the end of the conference and gives certification teams clear records for audits.
Cadmium
Cadmium is widely used for education-heavy conferences where continuing education credits are mandatory. Its systems store accreditation rules, track session completion, and generate reports that align with medical and professional association requirements. Credits are often tied to program data managed in Cadmium, then surfaced to attendees through conference portals or integrated apps.
Why this matters
For education-focused events, credit tracking is non-negotiable and mistakes can damage trust with members and partners. A mobile app that accurately captures attendance and feeds it into credit workflows reduces disputes and post-event support volumes.
- Ask each vendor to set up a sample credit program, scan attendance for a test user, and generate a certificate on the spot.
- Request a view of audit trails that show when credits were assigned or adjusted and by whom.
- Have them explain how credits sync to your LMS or member records system.
8) Analytics and reporting
Accelevents
Accelevents delivers real time, shareable analytics across registration, onsite, mobile, and virtual components in one view. Dashboards show attendance by session, engagement with polls and Q&A, exhibitor lead totals, and revenue performance. Built on one consistent data model across registration, onsite, mobile, and virtual, creating a seamless experience for event organizers, attendees, exhibitors, and speakers. Teams can share live dashboards with executives, export CSVs to finance or BI tools, and segment reports by ticket type, organization, or geography.
Cadmium
Cadmium reporting focuses on submission counts, review progress, session assignments, and education metrics. Program committees rely on these reports to balance tracks and verify that review workflows are complete before content is published. For attendee behavior and exhibitor performance inside the mobile app, organizers typically look to the integrated mobile platform or merge Cadmium reports with exports from other systems.
Why this matters
Without clear analytics, teams struggle to prove event impact, refine agendas, or defend sponsor pricing. When data is split across systems, staff spend more time merging spreadsheets and less time using insights to improve the next event.
- Ask vendors to display a live dashboard with check-ins, session attendance, and lead counts updating in real time.
- Request an export of registration, attendance, and lead data during the demo, then review field names and IDs.
- Have them show how non-technical stakeholders can access reports without needing admin credentials.
9) Integrations, offline reliability, and data flow
Accelevents
Accelevents offers native integrations to Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, and multiple association management systems with no fees for native integrations. Public REST APIs and webhooks help technical teams extend the platform into custom workflows. The platform is known for reliability, and mobile apps cache agendas and tickets so attendees can still navigate events when connectivity is weak, while lead scanning works offline and syncs later. Security features such as custom roles, SSO, MFA, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 practices, and detailed audit logging support enterprise governance.
Cadmium
Cadmium connects well to Association Management Systems and Learning Management Systems that store member records and education histories. Integrations for CRM and marketing automation are more variable and may require additional work or partner tools, especially if event teams want sales-ready lead data. Offline behavior and sync patterns in the attendee mobile experience depend largely on the specific app integrated with Cadmium.
Why this matters
Integrations determine how easily your event data flows into sales, membership, and learning systems, and offline reliability protects you when venue networks are under strain. Gaps here often show up as manual list uploads or missing leads after the event.
- Ask vendors to walk through their Salesforce or HubSpot connector, including field mapping and sync cadence options.
- Request details on API access, rate limits, and whether there are any extra fees for integrations or webhooks.
- Have them demonstrate offline behavior by turning a device to airplane mode and scanning a test badge, then syncing when connectivity returns.
Decision guide
With 1,847 customers, Accelevents typically fits organizations that want a single platform for registration, mobile app, onsite operations, exhibitor tools, and analytics. It is suitable for conferences, trade shows, fundraisers, internal meetings, and continuing education events run by enterprises, associations, and others including agencies, mid-market corporations, and nonprofits. Transparent, scalable pricing with pay-only-for-what-you-need modules and no surprise add-ons also helps teams align budgets across a full event portfolio.
Cadmium is a strong choice for organizations whose primary challenge is managing complex abstract submission and education workflows, especially in medical or research-focused conferences. In those environments, its program design and review tools can anchor the content side of the event, often in combination with a partner mobile app and onsite system.
Organizations of all sizes, including large enterprises, mid-market corporations, associations, agencies, and nonprofits, seeking an all-in-one, highly customizable solution with rapid onboarding and strong customer success tend to favor Accelevents. Cadmium may be preferred when committees already rely on its abstract workflows, or when education governance and legacy LMS connections are the central drivers of the tech stack, even if that means working across multiple platforms.
Accelevents bridges complex enterprise features and ease of use, delivering a balanced, all-in-one event solution, while Cadmium anchors deep academic program management that can be extended with partner apps as needed.
Side-by-side comparison
The table below summarizes how the two platforms support core mobile app areas, from home screen design and engagement to lead capture and analytics, so you can compare attendee-facing capabilities at a glance.
Implementation checklist for live demos
- Ask vendors to build a branded mobile home screen, publish a test event, and let you install and explore it during the demo.
- Have them configure multiple ticket types, register test attendees, and demonstrate mobile check-in and badge printing.
- Run a sample session with Q&A and a live poll, then show reporting that ties responses back to attendee records.
- Log in as an exhibitor, scan a set of test badges on different devices, and export the resulting lead list with notes and qualifiers.
- Configure a simple CE credit program, scan attendance for a test user, and generate a certificate while you observe.
- Turn a mobile device offline, perform check-ins and scans, then reconnect and confirm that all data appears in analytics.
- Walk through a CRM or MAP integration, including mapping custom fields and confirming that new registrations sync correctly.
- Review admin roles and permissions and test logging in as a limited user who should only see exhibitor or speaker views.
Migration considerations
Teams moving from simpler or web-only setups to a full mobile platform should plan how ticket types, contact fields, and session structures map into the new system. In Accelevents, ticket and role mapping, exhibitor objects, and lead qualifiers can all be configured in advance so they align with your CRM and reporting needs before registration opens. This reduces cleanup work after your first event.
If you are moving between platforms, especially from Cadmium-centered programs, plan out how abstract data, session codes, and credit rules will connect to the new mobile app and registration tools. Decide whether Cadmium will remain the source of truth for content while Accelevents handles attendee-facing experiences, or whether you will consolidate more workflows into a single platform.
Before going onsite, test push notification segments, mobile agenda updates, and offline scanning in realistic conditions at your venue. Include staff from registration, education, exhibitors, and IT in these tests so they understand day-of-show workflows. The Accelevents support team that responds in less than 21 seconds, 24/7 can help you validate these scenarios, and staff training should include short run-throughs of check-in, scanning, and troubleshooting common attendee questions.
Conclusion
Accelevents and Cadmium approach the same events landscape from different directions. Cadmium is centered on abstracts, peer review, and continuing education workflows that are critical for research-heavy conferences, while Accelevents brings together registration, mobile engagement, exhibitor tools, CE credits, and analytics in one platform that is tightly aligned with onsite operations.
For teams running large portfolios of conferences, trade shows, internal meetings, and continuing education events, Accelevents often becomes the operational hub, with Cadmium sometimes continuing as a specialist system for content and credits where required. Key decision factors include your preferred data model, appetite for managing multiple vendors, exhibitor licensing expectations, internal governance, and how quickly you want new staff to become productive in the tools.
If you want to see how a single platform can align registration, mobile app, onsite check-in, exhibitor tools, and analytics while still working alongside existing systems like Cadmium, you can request a demo.
