Congress

A congress is the big one: the annual or biennial meeting of a society or association, running for several days with parallel sessions, abstracts, posters, an exhibition and a social programme. Thousands of delegates can come from dozens of countries, which brings a dozen or more registration categories, early, standard and late fees, and requests for invoices, visa letters and payment by bank transfer. Many are run with a professional conference organiser (PCO), who handles registration on the society's behalf.

Congress is the European word, and the Events Industry Council's glossary records it as the European term for a convention, which is what US associations call the same gathering. Even in the UK the word stretches: some organisers use congress for any large international meeting, while others keep it for governmental gatherings with voting.

A congress in eventcloud gives each delegate category its own ticket group with early, standard and late price windows, and delegates book parallel sessions in their own language as they register. Coming soon: pay by invoice and bank transfer.