Delegate Select has served a niche in the market for years. But organisers running ambitious, high-value events are increasingly finding that it can't keep pace with what they need: a modern AI-powered platform, a mobile app their attendees will actually use, and a tech partner that's stable and growing.
The platform's backend is built on ageing technology. New team members consistently report that the admin interface isn't intuitive, making every event setup dependent on a small group of people who know where everything lives. There's no native mobile app, which means your attendees experience your event through a browser rather than a purpose-built app with offline functionality and push notifications.
There's also the question of business stability. For an event platform this deeply embedded in your operations, you need to know your provider is in it for the long term. Grip is backed by consistent investment, used by some of the world's largest commercial event organisers, and has a product roadmap driven by a team that's been building AI-powered event tech for over a decade.
| Feature | Grip | Delegate Select |
|---|---|---|
| AI-powered matchmaking | 16 ML algorithms, 70M+ recommendations/year | Algorithm-assisted, human-curated |
| Mobile app | Fully branded iOS and Android | No: web app only |
| Modern backend UI | Intuitive, self-service dashboard | Complex legacy interface |
| Multi-event continuity | Attendee history and relationships persist across your portfolio | Event-by-event only |
| Real-time analytics | 400+ data points per participant, 100+ graphs | Limited |
| Built-in registration | Grip Manage, with conditional forms and Stripe | Yes |
| Onsite tools | Fast badge printing, Smart Badges, QR check-in | Basic badge printing |
| Smart Badges (Bluetooth networking) | Yes: 10x connection increases onsite | No |
| Lead retrieval | Native, BYOD, real-time export | Yes |
| Managed service | Grip Concierge for fully-managed hosted buyer | No |
| Enterprise clients | Hyve, Ascential, Emerald, Clarion, Money2020 | Coffee Ventures Europe, Event Buyers Live, BPL Media |
| Public reviews on G2 | Rated 4.6/5 | No public reviews |
Delegate Select describes its approach as "Machine Assisted Human Intelligence." That's a polite way of saying your team does most of the work, and the software helps. For small events with stable participant lists, that might be fine. For high-value hosted buyer programmes where getting the right meetings in the right rooms is what justifies your sponsors' investment, it's not good enough.
Grip uses 16 distinct machine learning algorithms trained on billions of real interactions from B2B events across every major sector. The platform analyses mutual interest signals, engagement patterns, company profiles, and historical data to generate meeting recommendations with a quality score attached to every pairing before you even run the schedule. Your team reviews, adjusts, and approves: but the hard work is done.
And unlike platforms that reset with every event, Grip compounds. Attendees who come to your second event benefit from what the AI learned at your first. Sponsors who rebook get better meetings because the platform has more data to work with. Over a portfolio of events, that difference becomes significant.
Grip generates 70 million+ recommendations annually across events worldwide.
One of the most consistent things event teams say when they move to Grip is that they didn't realise how much time they were spending navigating their old system. Knowing where things are, onboarding new colleagues, and building events from scratch shouldn't require weeks of tribal knowledge transfer.
Grip's dashboard is built for the whole team: operations leads, marketing managers, sponsorship directors. It's intuitive enough that someone new to the platform can get oriented without hand-holding, and powerful enough that experienced users can configure complex hosted buyer programmes with full control over every rule and constraint.
On the attendee side, Grip provides a fully branded mobile app for iOS and Android. Your attendees download the Grip app, log into your event, and have everything in one place: their schedule, their meetings, the floorplan, session agendas, and push notifications. No web browser required. No friction at the door.
If you run more than one event a year, you're leaving value on the table with a platform that treats every event as if it's the first time you've met your attendees.
Grip is designed for commercial event organisers running portfolios. Attendee profiles, preferences, meeting history, and engagement signals carry across events within your portfolio. The AI takes past interactions into account when generating new meetings: so if two people met at your last show, they won't be scheduled to meet again unless you want them to.
This continuity matters most for your sponsors. Sponsors who rebook do so because they got good meetings the first time. With Grip, you can show them the data: which of their meetings came from high-quality matches, what their engagement score was, and how their results compare to the benchmark across your portfolio. That kind of proof drives rebooking.
"Grip excels in enabling us to work both at scale and on the details. We had over 8,000 meetings, and we can't do that by hand. We need a reliable system."
Emma Fressignaud, Head of Systems & Innovation, Worldwide Events
| Feature | Grip | Delegate Select |
|---|---|---|
| AI matchmaking algorithms | 16 ML models | Algorithm-assisted |
| Mutual interest matching | Yes | Yes |
| Non-mutual / inferred matching | Scored recommendations | Limited |
| Meeting quality scores | Yes: per-pairing score pre-generation | No |
| Organiser-controlled meeting rules | Yes: min/max, exclusions, deduplication | Yes |
| Cross-event AI learning | Yes | No |
| Speed networking | Yes | Yes |
| Feature | Grip | Delegate Select |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile app (iOS and Android) | Yes: fully branded | No: web app only |
| Offline functionality | Yes | No |
| Push notifications | Yes | No |
| White-label branding | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-event app (one app, all events) | Yes | No |
| Backend admin interface | Modern, intuitive | Dated, steep learning curve |
| Feature | Grip | Delegate Select |
|---|---|---|
| QR code check-in | Yes | Yes |
| Badge printing (on-demand) | Yes | Yes |
| Smart Badges (Bluetooth) | Yes: 10x connection increase | No |
| Real-time onsite dashboard for remote team | Yes | Yes |
| Meeting check-in (sponsor scanning) | Yes | Yes |
| Feature | Grip | Delegate Select |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time analytics dashboard | 400+ data points per participant | Limited |
| Exhibitor ROI reports | Full meeting and engagement data | Basic |
| Industry benchmark data | Yes: anonymised cross-portfolio | No |
| Managed service (fully operated hosted buyer) | Grip Concierge | No |
| Onboarding workshops | Yes: app adoption, meetings, sponsorship | No |
Yes. Grip covers everything Delegate Select does: registration, hosted buyer and pre-scheduled meetings, matchmaking, onsite management, and post-event reporting. It also offers a native mobile app, advanced AI matchmaking, real-time analytics, and multi-event portfolio features that Delegate Select doesn't provide.
That's exactly what Grip was built for. Our MustMeet product handles the full hosted buyer workflow: preference collection, AI-generated meeting schedules with quality scoring, organiser review and approval, diary distribution, and onsite meeting tracking. Grip Concierge extends this further as a fully managed, white-glove service.
Most customers are live within four to six weeks of kickoff. Grip handles onboarding, data migration, and configuration. If you're mid-cycle, we can import your existing data and go live on Grip for the matching and onsite phases. Your attendees won't need to re-register.
Yes. Grip provides a fully branded iOS and Android app for your attendees, built under your event's name and branding. Attendees access their schedules, meetings, floorplan, and session content through the app. It works offline and supports push notifications. Delegate Select does not have a native mobile app.
Grip scales from boutique events with 100 attendees up to large-scale trade shows with tens of thousands of participants. Customers include major commercial event organisers running portfolios of events globally, as well as specialist hosted buyer programmes like Money2020 and large luxury trade shows.
Delegate Select uses what they describe as "Machine Assisted Human Intelligence": algorithms that support human curators. Grip uses 16 machine learning models trained on billions of real-world B2B event interactions. Grip generates over 70 million recommendations per year and assigns a quality score to every proposed meeting before your team reviews them, so you're adjusting rather than building from scratch.
Whether you're actively evaluating options or just starting to look around, we're happy to show you exactly how Grip handles what you're currently running on Delegate Select. Most customers go live within four to six weeks. We handle the migration.
