Campus apps by department
Admissions, orientation, student life, and more — one campus app that works across departments.
Campus apps by department
Admissions, orientation, student life, and more — one campus app that works across departments.
Build unlimited event apps on one license
One partnership for unlimited campus events — orientation, tours, student life, and everything in between.
Build unlimited event apps on one license
One partnership for unlimited campus events — orientation, tours, student life, and everything in between.
Compare event app platforms
See how Guidebook stacks up against other event app and registration platforms.
Compare event app platforms
See how Guidebook stacks up against other event app and registration platforms.
Event apps for nonprofit and community programs
Give members, volunteers, and donors one branded app for conferences, fundraisers, and year-round community.
Event apps for nonprofit and community programs
Give members, volunteers, and donors one branded app for conferences, fundraisers, and year-round community.
Campus integrations and an open API
Connect Guidebook with the campus systems, APIs, and tools your team already uses.
Campus integrations and an open API
Connect Guidebook with the campus systems, APIs, and tools your team already uses.
Event apps for corporate and enterprise teams
Internal meetings, offsites, and large-scale corporate events — with the branding and control enterprise teams need.
Event apps for corporate and enterprise teams
Internal meetings, offsites, and large-scale corporate events — with the branding and control enterprise teams need.
Create a branded event app with no coding
Put schedules, maps, resources, and updates in every attendee's pocket — built for campus events and programs.
Create a branded event app with no coding
Put schedules, maps, resources, and updates in every attendee's pocket — built for campus events and programs.
Launch a branded, white-label event app
A white-label event app with your branding, your content, and your attendee experience — no coding required.
Launch a branded, white-label event app
A white-label event app with your branding, your content, and your attendee experience — no coding required.
Everything in the Guidebook platform
Explore the features event teams use to engage attendees before, during, and after the event.
Everything in the Guidebook platform
Explore the features event teams use to engage attendees before, during, and after the event.
One app for in-person and virtual attendees
The same schedule, networking, and updates whether people are in the room or joining remotely.
One app for in-person and virtual attendees
The same schedule, networking, and updates whether people are in the room or joining remotely.
Event apps built for associations
Annual meetings, chapter events, and member engagement — without rebuilding a new app every year.
Event apps built for associations
Annual meetings, chapter events, and member engagement — without rebuilding a new app every year.
A branded event website that matches the app
Promote the event, collect interest, and keep branding consistent from the first click to check-in.
A branded event website that matches the app
Promote the event, collect interest, and keep branding consistent from the first click to check-in.
Plan, run, and measure events on one platform
App, registration, badges, and websites in one workflow — so planning isn't a pile of disconnected tools.
Plan, run, and measure events on one platform
App, registration, badges, and websites in one workflow — so planning isn't a pile of disconnected tools.
Keep members engaged between events
One branded app for the conference and everything that happens the other 51 weeks of the year.
Keep members engaged between events
One branded app for the conference and everything that happens the other 51 weeks of the year.
The conference app attendees actually use
Schedules, maps, networking, and live updates for annual meetings, summits, and multi-day conferences.
The conference app attendees actually use
Schedules, maps, networking, and live updates for annual meetings, summits, and multi-day conferences.
Registration that feeds your app and badges
Collect registrations, payments, and attendee data in the same platform as your event app.
Registration that feeds your app and badges
Collect registrations, payments, and attendee data in the same platform as your event app.
Design and print event badges in one place
Custom badges, QR check-in, and on-site printing — without a separate badge vendor.
Design and print event badges in one place
Custom badges, QR check-in, and on-site printing — without a separate badge vendor.
A Smaller School?
Deliver a polished, branded event experience without a large team or a big budget.
A Smaller School?
Deliver a polished, branded event experience without a large team or a big budget.
Running Family Programs?
Give families everything they need, from schedules and maps to real-time updates, all in one place.
Running Family Programs?
Give families everything they need, from schedules and maps to real-time updates, all in one place.
Coordinating Move-In Day?
Share updates, manage events, and keep students informed from move-in through the academic year.
Coordinating Move-In Day?
Share updates, manage events, and keep students informed from move-in through the academic year.
Offering Campus Tours?
Deliver branded, self-guided tour experiences with interactive maps and rich media, available 24/7.
Offering Campus Tours?
Deliver branded, self-guided tour experiences with interactive maps and rich media, available 24/7.
Organising a Career Fair?
Simplify logistics for students, employers, and Career Services staff with one easy-to-use app.
Organising a Career Fair?
Simplify logistics for students, employers, and Career Services staff with one easy-to-use app.
Managing Alumni Events?
Plan reunions, regional events, and fundraising campaigns with an app built for alumni engagement.
Managing Alumni Events?
Plan reunions, regional events, and fundraising campaigns with an app built for alumni engagement.
Boost Student Engagement
One hub for schedules, resources, and events that keeps students connected throughout the academic year.
Boost Student Engagement
One hub for schedules, resources, and events that keeps students connected throughout the academic year.
Planning Orientation?
Help new students feel prepared from day one with schedules, campus resources, and real-time updates in one app.
Planning Orientation?
Help new students feel prepared from day one with schedules, campus resources, and real-time updates in one app.
Running Admissions Events?
Manage open houses, tours, and yield events with a branded app that saves time and engages prospective students.
Running Admissions Events?
Manage open houses, tours, and yield events with a branded app that saves time and engages prospective students.
Get a custom Sponsorship Package Template
Stop starting from scratch. Grab free templates that helWe'll build a tailored sponsorship package with suggested pricing, tiers, and benefits..for your specific event.p you build professional sponsorship packages and close deals faster.
Get a custom Sponsorship Package Template
Stop starting from scratch. Grab free templates that helWe'll build a tailored sponsorship package with suggested pricing, tiers, and benefits..for your specific event.p you build professional sponsorship packages and close deals faster.
Plan Your Next Event Without Missing a Beat.
From venue selection to post-event wrap-up, this free checklist walks you through every step (so nothing falls through the cracks).
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Plan Your Next Event Without Missing a Beat.
From venue selection to post-event wrap-up, this free checklist walks you through every step (so nothing falls through the cracks).
Real Results From Real Events
100,000+ organizations trust Guidebook. See exactly how universities, associations, enterprises, and more put it to work.
Real Results From Real Events
100,000+ organizations trust Guidebook. See exactly how universities, associations, enterprises, and more put it to work.
Flexible pricing for every event size
Find the perfect plan for your needs, from intimate gatherings to large-scale conferences.
Flexible pricing for every event size
Find the perfect plan for your needs, from intimate gatherings to large-scale conferences.
Join our event experts
Watch on-demand webinars and join live sessions with industry leaders sharing best practices for event success.
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Join our event experts
Watch on-demand webinars and join live sessions with industry leaders sharing best practices for event success.
Guidebook in Action
Book a personalized walkthrough and discover how we help event teams create better attendee experiences.
Guidebook in Action
Book a personalized walkthrough and discover how we help event teams create better attendee experiences.
What is Welcome Week?
Welcome week (week of welcome) is the campus-wide kickoff around the first week of classes. See how it differs from orientation and how to run the schedule.
Welcome week — often branded as week of welcome — is the campus-wide stretch of social, tradition, and involvement events that surround the first week of classes. Orientation teaches students how the campus works. Welcome week tries to make them want to stay. Concerts, involvement fairs, late-night breakfasts, and college-specific parties all sit on the same crowded calendar.
Here's the thing: students search this term with a school name attached. They want their schedule. Staff search it because they inherited a week that grew by accretion and now conflicts with itself. A glossary page will not beat "UIUC welcome week" in Google. It can own the definition, teach the difference from orientation, and send student-life teams to a better way to publish the week.
Key Characteristics of Welcome Week
- Optional energy, required logistics: Attendance is rarely mandatory. Crowd control still is. You are running a festival on an academic calendar.
- Many owners: Student activities, orientation, housing, athletics, cultural centers, and Greek life all drop events into the same seven days.
- Late-night programming: The events that actually get first-years out of their rooms happen after 8 p.m. Staffing and safety plans have to match that clock.
- Involvement as the conversion: The involvement or org fair is the business goal — get students into a club before week three.
- Weather and last-minute adds: Outdoor stages move. Pop-ups appear Thursday. Only a live digital guide keeps up.
- Overlap with orientation leftovers: Some campuses still have advising holdovers during welcome week. Students need one feed, not two brands fighting.
Welcome Week vs. Related Programs
New Student Orientation
- Scope: Incoming cohort, often tracked in small groups
- Focus: Information, advising, required sessions
- Timeline: Before classes, sometimes in summer
- Goal: Competence and first connections — see new student orientation
Convocation
- Scope: Formal all-campus ceremony
- Focus: Ritual and institutional voice
- Timeline: One timed event, often opening weekend
- Goal: Official welcome — see what is convocation
First-Year Experience
- Scope: Semester or year-long academic and success programs
- Focus: Courses, mentoring, persistence
- Timeline: After the noise of week one
- Goal: Keep the belonging that welcome week started — see first year experience
Orientation, convocation, welcome week, then FYE. If those four use four tools, students opt out of all of them. Student engagement teams that inherit the week should start from one campus guide.
Essential Components of Welcome Week
A public, filterable schedule
Students will not read a 12-page booklet. They will filter "free food," "tonight," and "outdoors." Build the week that way. Include rain locations in the same listing, not a footnote.
Involvement fair with a follow-up
The fair is useless if the QR on the tablecloth goes to a dead form. Capture interest in the moment and message students two days later. That is how welcome week feeds retention instead of a photo booth.
Late-night, substance-free options
If the only late event is unofficial, you handed the week to whoever has a house. Fund a real alternative and put it at the top of Friday in the app.
Housing as a distribution channel
RAs and front desks are your push-notification analog. Give them the same schedule students have, plus a "what to do if this gets too crowded" card.
The Welcome Week Timeline
Winter and spring
Hold outdoor space and stages. Get student orgs to reserve fair booths before they leave for summer. Align with orientation so you are not double-booking the union.
July
Publish a skeleton schedule to incoming students with orientation materials. "Week of welcome" should appear in the same app they already downloaded for NSO.
Ten days out
Lock student performer contracts. Load last-minute booths. Brief campus safety on expected peaks.
Nightly during the week
Push tomorrow's three things worth leaving the room for. Cut events that died. Do not send a 40-item digest.
Why Welcome Week Matters
For event success:
- Density without chaos: The week should feel full, not random.
- Fair conversion: Clubs should leave with names, not only stickers.
- Staff sanity: One comms channel stops five offices from posting conflicting times on Instagram.
For campus objectives:
- Early belonging: Isolated first-years in week one become melt and withdrawal stories by October.
- Involvement as retention: A club in week two is cheaper than a case-management intervention in week eight.
- Proof student life can operate: Trustees notice when opening week looks professional.
Guidebook's student engagement and new student programs setups are built for this exact overlap.
Welcome Week Best Practices
- Alias week of welcome in every title: That is a real search variant (hundreds of monthly searches on its own).
- Cap the official list: Forty quality events beat 120 ignored ones.
- Tag events by college, identity, and commuter vs residential: Commuters will not come back at 10 p.m. Give them a 2 p.m. track.
- Put safety and Title IX in the guide, not only a speech: Students miss the speech.
- Pay student staff for late nights: Volunteer burnout shows up as empty check-in tables.
- Measure fair scans, not only headcount at the door: Door counts lie.
- Coordinate with dining: Late-night breakfast only works if the hall is actually open.
- Reuse orientation leaders as roamers: They already know the lost-first-year face.
- Have a weather decision hour: Pick 2 p.m. daily. Push the move once.
- Hand FYE and advisors a list of isolated students: Welcome week data should not die on Monday.
Common Welcome Week Mistakes
Confusing it with orientation: Required sessions in a "welcome week" brand make students treat the social events as homework. Keep the labels honest.
Instagram as the schedule of record: Stories expire. The student who arrived Wednesday missed Tuesday's post. A persistent guide wins.
No commuter plan: If every headline event is Thursday night, you built a residential-only week.
Fair without follow-up: A selfie wall is not an engagement strategy.
Ignoring noise complaints: Neighbors and night-class faculty will shut you down next year if you do not set quiet hours now.
Final Thoughts
Welcome week is student life's Super Bowl and orientation's hangover at the same time. Publish one schedule. Protect late night. Convert the fair. Then pass names to people who work the rest of the year.
See student engagement on Guidebook, apps for new student programs, or request a demo.
The power of your brand in your app, from first visit to alumni.
Build trust
Your brand, front and center in your own app, downloaded directly from the app stores.
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Deliver continuity
One app for everything a student needs. From being a prospective student through to graduation and beyond.
Stand out
Your own app helps you to stand out from the competition, stay top of mind, and be remembered.
Get the Mobile App Playbook
A short guide to running the whole student journey in one app. No fluff, just what works.
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A practical guide to building a connected campus experience.
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The Mobile App Playbook for Universities
Students decide if they belong long before they set foot on campus. This playbook shows how to win them over from the first visit through graduation.
- Grow enrollment and boost recruitment
- Increase belonging and retention
- Run every event from one branded app
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