April 24, 2025
Volunteers are key players in event success, handling tasks such as managing registration desks, assisting with attendee check-in, distributing badges and materials, monitoring sessions, guiding attendees, and supporting speakers and VIPs.
Over 50% of conferences and events have volunteers who contribute 4-8 hours per day, significantly lightening the load for busy organizers. Additionally, engaging volunteers enhances community participation and allows event organizers to allocate resources more efficiently.
Recognizing the vital role of volunteers, Whova has continuously added features to allow volunteers to take over some tasks such as checking in attendees, moderating session chats and live Q&A, and moderating Community Board posts on Whova event app. Recently, we’ve even made it possible for organizers to quickly add volunteers directly from the mobile event app.
To take one step further, we’re thrilled to announce our new Call for Volunteers feature, designed to make the volunteer recruitment process a breeze! With this exciting new feature, you can:
- Quickly build and customize application forms with ready-to-use templates
- Send invitations to your contact list or current event attendees with just a few clicks
- Let candidates easily fill out their info, availability, preferred roles, consent, and more
- Simplify the selection process and assign roles to volunteers.
- Track your recruitment progress and maintain waiting-list effortlessly in one dashboard
With Whova, recruiting and coordinating volunteers has never been easier!
Build and Customize Application Forms
With Whova’s new Call for Volunteers feature, organizers can quickly set up their volunteer application forms. Organizers can start by choosing from a variety of pre-written description templates. These descriptions will give volunteers a clear overview of roles, responsibilities, time commitments, and event details before they begin their application.
Once the description is set, organizers can move on to creating the application question forms. Use question forms to collect key information such as contact information, emergency contacts, role preferences, shift availability, consent agreements, motivations, and past volunteer experiences.
Every form is fully customizable, so you can easily add, remove, or edit questions to collect information most relevant to your event. Whova helps you collect the right details and attract the right volunteers—quickly and professionally.
Easy-to-use customizable application form – tailor it to fit your event’s needs.
Send Invitations With Ease
Inviting people to apply is simple. With the Call for Volunteers feature, you can quickly import your contact list or send invites to past attendees and your mailing list with just a few clicks, boosting response rates and engagement. To send your volunteer invites, just follow these easy steps:
- Choose recipients: Select either an invite list, past event attendees, or current event attendees.
- Current Attendees: Invite current event attendees to participate as volunteers using the list already in the Whova System.
- Past Attendees: Choose a past event and optionally exclude organizers, sponsors, exhibitors, or speakers.
- Invite list: Download and use the Call for Volunteers excel template and input your contact list.
- Preview invite list: Review the list of recipients to ensure accuracy.
- Compose email: Use the provided default template, which can be edited but must include the volunteer form link.
- Send email: Confirm readiness and send the email to the selected recipients
Simply upload your invite list or select past or current attendees, and send personalized invitations with just a few clicks.
Not only can you send emails through Whova, you can also expand your outreach to external platforms such as your event website or social media by copy-and-pasting an application form link.
Effortless Volunteer Selection and Role Assignment
Once applications start rolling in, Whova simplifies the selection and assignment process. Organizers can effortlessly review candidates’ availability and role preferences within the platform. Roles can be assigned based on volunteers’ skills and interests.
Roles are fully customizable by events. Examples of roles include:
- Registration desk: Work check-in and distribute badges and materials
- Session monitor: Assist speakers setup, attendee seating, and session attendance
- Tech support: Manage audio-visual equipment and technical needs for speakers or presenters
- Hospitality/logistics: Support catering, event setup, teardown, and transportation
- Exhibit hall: Manage traffic flow and guide attendees to booths
- Speaker/VIP liaison: Assist speakers and VIPs
- Social media: Take photos and post updates to social media
Once volunteers have been selected, Whova allows organizers to grant those volunteers access to the app, ensuring seamless integration into the event’s operations.
Create custom volunteer roles that can be assigned based off candidate preferences.
Send Notification to Accepted Volunteers
Once you’ve selected your volunteers, it’s crucial to inform them promptly and professionally. Whova’s Call for Volunteers feature makes this process quick and easy, allowing you to send personalized notifications to all accepted volunteers in just a few minutes.
Whova provides a default email template that you can use as a starting point.
Emails can be sent out immediately or scheduled for a specific time and date. These personalized emails notify volunteers with what role they’ve been assigned as well as providing them more ways to engage with the event.
Comprehensive Recruitment Tracking
With volunteers selected and roles assigned, Whova’s capabilities extend further to provide organizers with a comprehensive view of the recruitment process. Organizers can monitor the status of applications, track how many volunteers have been recruited for each role, and seamlessly promote individuals from the waiting list as needed. This comprehensive overview ensures that organizers stay informed and in control throughout the entire recruitment process.
Track applications, review candidates, and assign roles effortlessly in the event dashboard.
Streamline Your Volunteer Recruitment with Whova
Whova’s new Call for Volunteers feature represents a significant enhancement for event organizers seeking to streamline their volunteer recruitment process. By offering intuitive tools to build custom application forms, send invitations, manage volunteer assignments, and track recruitment progress, Whova empowers organizers to focus more on creating exceptional event experiences rather than managing logistics.
Complementing this, Whova also offers a robust Call for Speakers feature. This tool similarly simplifies the process of attracting and selecting presenters for your event with customizable submission forms, automated review processes, and integrated communication tools.
With Whova, recruiting and coordinating volunteers has never been easier. Whether you’re organizing a conference, trade show, or community event, Whova’s platform is designed to enhance efficiency and elevate attendee satisfaction through effective volunteer management. Discover how you can leverage Whova’s Call for Volunteers feature to elevate your next event and unlock the potential of your volunteer team.