Software isn’t free. It takes real resources to build, host, and support. But how you pay for it matters, especially when your association generates revenue through conferences, education, and product sales.
With CE21, in-person event management is included in your core platform fee. The same goes for physical products such as books, CDs, and DVDs. And when you sell tickets to those events or sell those products, CE21 doesn’t take a percentage of the sales.
For associations, that means more predictable platform costs and more of the revenue you generate stays with your organization. You can focus on building valuable programs for your members without worrying about a growing software bill every time ticket sales increase.
One platform, fewer moving parts
When a platform charges extra for in-person event sales, associations do the logical thing. They look for another tool to run the conference. Then another for other needs, and perhaps a spreadsheet to keep everything straight.
It’s an understandable way to control costs. But those savings can come with a trade-off. Staff end up managing multiple logins, separate catalogs, and disconnected registration processes. Members may have to figure out which system to use for learning, which one handles the annual conference, and where to go next.
CE21 is built around the opposite idea. Your LMS, AMS, and events share a single database and a single login, and your entire catalog lives under one roof. And when you sell tickets to live events or offer books, CDs, and other physical products, we don’t take a cut of those sales.
What’s Included, and What’s Not
We believe in being plain about this, so here is how it breaks down.
Included in your core LMS platform fee:
- In-person events, including annual meetings, conferences, and regional seminars
- Physical products you sell, including books, CDs, DVDs, and other shippable items
Additional fees apply to digital delivery formats:
- Live webcasts and webinars
- Video replay and on-demand programs
- Video downloads
- SCORM courses
- Classroom and virtual summit formats
The logic is simple. Digital delivery involves streaming, storage, support, and bandwidth, so those formats carry their own fees. In-person events and physical products don’t require those same resources, which is why they’re included in your core fee.
“Included” Does Not Mean Basic
In-person events aren’t a checkbox in CE21. They’re a full event management system. Real association conferences are complex: multiple tracks, overlapping sessions, add-on tickets, meal preferences, and credit rules that vary by attendee. CE21’s Live Event setup handles all of it natively.
A few of the building blocks:
Run multiple tracks without double-booking credit. Radio button groups let you place overlapping sessions in the same time slot, so an attendee picks Ethics in Practice or Advanced Litigation, not both. Add an “I did not attend a session at this time” option, and your attendance confirmation stays clean and honest.
Sell the golf outing. Checkbox agenda items can carry their own price, so the Tuesday golf outing, the city tour, or the awards luncheon rides along with registration. Set a capacity (say, 25 spots) and the platform shows attendees how many remain.
Sell it by the head. Add a price to a number field, and attendees can buy several at once. Three seats at the Tuesday networking dinner? The total calculates itself.
Collect the details that make an event run. Dropdowns handle meal preferences. One-line and multi-line text fields gather exhibitor and sponsor information. Required checkboxes make sure everyone agrees to your terms before checkout.
Make the agenda readable. Section headers, paragraph text, and horizontal lines let you present a complicated program so attendees can actually follow it, instead of staring at a wall of options.
Add up the credit automatically. Credit-bearing agenda items roll into attendance confirmations and certificates, so an attendee’s total CLE, CME, or CE hours reflect what they actually attended. No manual math after the closing reception.
And because events live in the same system as your LMS, those credits land on the member’s transcript right alongside the on-demand course they took the week prior.
Need More Onsite Muscle? We Have That Too
If you want to go further, our optional Live Event Portal adds QR code badge scanning. Staff scan attendees at the session door with a mobile device, check-in and check-out times are logged, member profiles update in real time, and certificates can go out before anyone reaches the parking lot.
It is a paid add-on, but you’re not locked into a tier or a subscription level to use it. Turn it on for the events where door-by-door verification matters, like your big annual conference, and leave it off for the lunch-and-learn or the regional seminar. You pay for it only when you need it.
One Catalog. Everything You Sell.
The “free live events” hook is really a window into a bigger idea. Think of everything a professional association actually offers:
- The annual in-person conference and regional events
- Live webcasts and webinars
- On-demand libraries and video replays
- SCORM courses and other digital content
- Books, DVDs, and CDs
- Virtual summits and live classrooms
- Memberships, renewals, and committee management
Most platforms specialize in one or two areas and leave you to stitch together the rest of your tech stack. CE21 is built differently. We bring the full breadth of what your association does under one roof, from comprehensive LMS and AMS features to thoughtfully designed event management.
Because it all lives in a single catalog, your members get one login and one place to learn, register, and buy. Your team gets one set of reports and one system to train new hires on, all backed by a dedicated in-house support team.
Your conference, your courses, your members. All in one place, with predictable costs and revenue that stays with your association.