How McMaster Online CBT Training simplified academic workshop management with Fourwaves
Published on 30 May 2026
Managing professional workshops gets complicated when registration, payments, discount rates, communications, and reporting all live in different places. Since moving to Fourwaves in early 2024, McMaster Online CBT Training has centralized its event workflow, reduced manual admin, and saved time, while supporting both its virtual CBT workshops and its annual Research and Scholarship Day.
Virtual professional development workshops and academic research events
University department
Simplify event management, centralize registration and payments, reduce manual admin, improve communication with registrants, and support evolving event needs over time.
McMaster Online CBT Training runs its virtual workshops and annual Research and Scholarship Day on Fourwaves.
About McMaster Online CBT Training
McMaster Online CBT Training, or MOCT, is part of McMaster University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. The team organizes virtual, instructor-led professional development workshops on a range of cognitive behavioural therapy topics for healthcare and social service professionals.
Even for virtual workshops, there is still plenty to manage: registrations, payments, pricing categories, and all the communication around them.
In addition to its workshop programming, the department also runs a Research and Scholarship Day. This event requires a different set of tools, including abstract submissions, abstract reviews, and more advanced promo code management for payments.
The challenge: coordinating event registrations, payments, and workshop logistics
Before Fourwaves, the event management process involved too many separate tools and manual steps.
Registration, payments, and event logistics were handled through different systems, and both the registration and payment workflows were low-tech. That meant more time spent cross-referencing records, more follow-up with registrants, and more room for errors.
One of the biggest pain points was making sure registration information matched payment information. The team also had to follow up with people who had registered but had not yet paid, while manually reviewing proof of enrolment sent by email for participants who qualified for the learner rate.
It was a workable system, but not an efficient one. Too much of the workflow depended on back-and-forth paperwork that could easily pile up.
Program Coordinator, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University
Fourwaves: consolidating and simplifying academic event management
MOCT started using Fourwaves in January 2024 to simplify and consolidate event management components.
For the team, the biggest advantage has been bringing key parts of the workflow into one purpose-built event management platform designed specifically for scientific teams. Instead of managing registration, payments, and communications across separate tools, they now have a more centralized setup that is easier to run and easier to maintain.
That change has made event planning feel more structured from the start. It has also created a more professional experience for attendees by giving them a single place to register and pay.
How Fourwaves supports day-to-day event planning
For McMaster Online CBT Training, some of the most useful features are the ones that remove friction from routine tasks.
The team can easily export registration and transaction data in a consistent format, which makes reporting and reconciliation much easier. They can also send emails to registrants as a group directly through the Fourwaves platform, rather than managing those communications one by one through a separate email provider.
These features have a real impact on the day-to-day. Using event software built for this type of work has streamlined administration and freed up more time, especially when reviewing workshop data and managing recurring to-dos.
Fourwaves also continues to improve its feature set over time. Annalee noted certificate generation as one example of a feature that could help facilitate event planning even further.
“It is reassuring to use a platform that keeps getting better and can support us as our events evolve.”
Fourwaves for event payments and financial workflows
The platform has also helped on the financial side.
Since McMaster Finance approved Fourwaves, the team has been able to save money on bank transfer fees and access funds more quickly through its Moneris integration. That has made payments smoother internally and reduced some of the inefficiencies tied to the previous setup.
Faster access to funds and lower transfer fees made a real difference on our end.
Program Coordinator, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University
Using Fourwaves for other academic events
McMaster also uses Fourwaves differently for its Research and Scholarship Day.
While the CBT workshops rely primarily on registration, payments, and communications, the Research Day event makes use of additional features such as abstract submissions, abstract reviews, and more robust promo code management.
“Fourwaves’ flexibility is part of what makes the platform useful to the department. It works well for straightforward workshop administration and can also support more academic event formats without forcing the team to adopt another software solution.”
Why McMaster recommends Fourwaves
Annalee would recommend Fourwaves to other departments and organizers at McMaster.
Part of that comes from the platform’s flexibility. It supports a wide variety of academic event needs, including features that may not be necessary for every workshop today but could become useful over time. Since the platform is built with academic conferences and events in mind, it feels like a strong fit in a university setting.
The team also appreciated the support and guidance they received from Fourwaves, especially during the initial transition. Just as importantly, they value the fact that the platform continues to evolve, even if they are not using every feature right now.
The combination of flexibility, support, and continued improvement made it an easy platform to adopt.
Program Coordinator, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University
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