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content/articles/event-management-tools/index.md

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+---
+title: Open Source Event Management
+date: 2025-12-27
+summary: Tools for organizing conferences, meetups, and community gatherings. When your event infrastructure belongs to you, every registration builds community assets rather than paying platform fees.
+draft: True
+---
+
+Events are the heartbeat of communities. They transform online connections into real relationships, create shared experiences that strengthen bonds, and provide regular touchpoints that maintain momentum.
+
+Conferences bring together practitioners and newcomers for knowledge exchange. Meetups provide regular connection points for local communities. Workshops enable skill-sharing and hands-on learning. Gatherings like hackathons and unconferences foster collaboration and innovation.
+
+But organizing events on commercial platforms comes with costs: Eventbrite takes 3.7% plus $1.79 per ticket. Meetup.com charges organizers $98-198 per month. And beyond the fees, your attendee data—your community's most valuable asset—lives on someone else's servers.
+
+Open source event management tools offer a different path.
+
+---
+
+## Why This Matters for Communities
+
+### The Fee Problem
+
+Consider a community running 10 events per year with 500 attendees each, charging $50 per ticket. Eventbrite would take approximately $25,000+ in fees annually. Self-hosted Pretix on a $20/month server costs $240/year.
+
+For free events, the savings are even more dramatic—commercial platforms still charge processing fees, while self-hosted tools cost only hosting.
+
+### Data Ownership
+
+Your attendee list is your community. On commercial platforms:
+- They own your attendee data
+- Export options are often limited
+- If they change pricing or shut down, you lose your audience
+- Your community data feeds their marketing systems
+
+Self-hosted tools mean:
+- You own your attendee list forever
+- Full export capabilities at any time
+- GDPR compliance in your hands, not a third party's
+- No risk of platform selling or sharing your community data
+
+### Customization
+
+Commercial platforms are designed for the average of everyone. Your community has specific needs: custom registration fields, particular workflows, integration with your other tools, branding that matches your identity.
+
+Open source tools can be modified to fit how your community actually works.
+
+### Values Alignment
+
+For communities built on open source principles, using proprietary event platforms creates a contradiction. Your conference about digital freedom shouldn't fund surveillance capitalism.
+
+---
+
+## Real-World Examples
+
+### CERN and Indico
+
+CERN developed Indico for their own needs—managing everything from small meetings to massive physics conferences. Now used by 200+ institutions worldwide, with 25,000+ users at CERN alone.
+
+Other major users include Fermilab, DESY, and United Nations agencies. The tool handles everything from small meetings to conferences with thousands of attendees.
+
+### Chaos Communication Congress and Pretix
+
+The Chaos Communication Congress—one of the world's largest hacker conferences with 17,000+ attendees—uses Pretix. So does FOSDEM (10,000+ attendees). Millions of tickets have been sold through the platform.
+
+Privacy-conscious technical communities trust Pretix because they can verify exactly how it handles their data.
+
+### FOSSASIA and Eventyay
+
+FOSSASIA developed Eventyay for their own open source conferences. It's now used for FOSSASIA Summit, OpenTech Summit, and events throughout the global open source community in Asia.
+
+---
+
+## Choosing the Right Tool
+
+### Indico: The Conference Powerhouse
+
+Best for academic conferences, research institutions, and organizations needing robust scheduling and abstract management.
+
+**Strengths**: Battle-tested at massive scale; exceptional conference management (sessions, tracks, abstracts); strong meeting management; room booking integration; mature and well-documented.
+
+**Used by**: CERN, Fermilab, DESY, UN agencies, major universities.
+
+**Considerations**: Complex setup (designed for large institutions); ticketing/payment features less developed; steeper learning curve.
+
+### Pretix: The Ticketing Expert
+
+Best for events focused on ticketing and registration, especially paid events.
+
+**Strengths**: Excellent ticketing and payment handling; beautiful, modern UI; powerful plugin system; seating plans and reserved seating; strong check-in app.
+
+**Used by**: Chaos Communication Congress, FOSDEM, many European tech conferences and cultural events.
+
+**Considerations**: Less focused on conference program management; no built-in call for papers or speaker management.
+
+### Eventyay: The All-in-One Option
+
+Best for open source communities wanting full conference features with modern UX.
+
+**Strengths**: Full-featured (ticketing + scheduling + speaker management); modern, clean interface; call for papers built-in; supports in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.
+
+**Used by**: FOSSASIA events, open source conferences globally.
+
+**Considerations**: Smaller deployment base; fewer payment gateway integrations than Pretix.
+
+---
+
+## Open Source Options
+
+| Project | Description |
+|:--------|:------------|
+| [Indico](https://getindico.io) | Comprehensive event management from CERN. Excellent for conferences with complex scheduling. <br><small>📊 200+ institutions, 25K+ users at CERN alone.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/indico/indico) · MIT</small> |
+| [Pretix](https://pretix.eu) | Modern ticketing platform with excellent payment handling and check-in tools. <br><small>📊 Millions of tickets sold. Used by CCC, FOSDEM.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/pretix/pretix) · AGPL-3.0</small> |
+| [Eventyay](https://eventyay.com) | Full-featured event platform with ticketing, scheduling, and speaker management. <br><small>📊 Powers FOSSASIA and open source events worldwide.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/fossasia/open-event-server) · Apache-2.0</small> |
+
+---
+
+## Feature Comparison
+
+| Feature | Indico | Pretix | Eventyay |
+|:--------|:-------|:-------|:---------|
+| Registration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
+| Paid ticketing | Limited | Excellent | Good |
+| Session management | Excellent | Basic | Good |
+| Call for papers | Yes | No | Yes |
+| Speaker management | Yes | No | Yes |
+| Check-in app | Yes | Excellent | Yes |
+| Badge printing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
+
+---
+
+## The Bigger Picture
+
+Events are where communities come alive. They deserve infrastructure that serves the community rather than extracting from it.
+
+When your event platform belongs to you:
+- Every registration builds your community's database, not someone else's
+- Every dollar saved on fees can fund community programs
+- Every customization serves your specific needs
+- Every year of history stays under your control
+
+The tools exist. They're battle-tested at massive scale. They're free to use and modify.
+
+Your community's gatherings deserve infrastructure as thoughtful as the events themselves.