Event Registration – Macworld / iWorld Checks in Event Attendees 5 Times Faster

How annoying is it to be stuck in a conference registration line that’s so long you miss the first session you’d planned to attend?

For years, long snake-like lines were an issue for Macworld/iWorld, the ultimate annual iFAN event. But, in February 2013, attendees, speakers and exhibitors checked in five times faster than in previous years. How’d that happen? Event organizers IDG World Expo used ACTIVE Network’s Conference^TM onsite Scan and Go technology and expert advice from ACTIVE’s a Professional Services team.

First Impressions: Event Registration Experience

Why is improving the event registration experience so important? Because that’s what the event industry wants: 88% of event producers, exhibitors and event marketers interviewed in a study, The Connected Event: Insight into 2012 Event Technology Trends, said improving the attendee experience was “important or very important. “

Look at other ways Macworld/iWorld benefited:

• Dashboards and timed reports enabled each stakeholder – from marketing, to registration to general management – to quickly  access the info they needed to optimize the show;
• One online self-serve portal and iOS lead retrieval made life easier for exhibitors. The Exhibitor Resource Center replaced four separate exhibitor solutions allowing exhibitors to sign-up, manage their orders and staff and access leads.
• Centralized content and data management reduced headaches for staff. Speaker submissions and exhibitor information were easily collected online and flowed directly into the online event agenda and Mobile App.

Read more about how ACTIVE Network improved the attendee experience and boosted efficiency for Macworld/iWorld show management and exhibitors.

Resources: *The Connected Event: Insight Into 2012 Event Technology Trends,” a study by ACTIVE Network and the Event Marketing Institute.

Written By: Don Munro

Event Management Software Helps Dairy Queen Register 80% of Attendees Online

We all wish we had more time. No matter what your profession is or where you land on the totem pole, it’s easy to relate to racing against the clock. But there can be a resolution – and sometimes it just takes asking what you could be doing differently to help save you time.

Dairy Queen’s event planners are a prime example of this and sought the advice of ACTIVE Regonline for help. They plan large events for franchise owners and vendors and needed event management software to help them save time and reduce manual tasks. By enlisting RegOnline, they have automated processes for data entry, accounting, and registration paperwork, and reduced the amount of mailed-in registration forms and checks. Now their event planners whip up great events and boost efficiency while registering nearly 80% of attendees online. With this online registration solution, Dairy Queen can take advantage of:

• Event registration sites, built and managed by the RegOnline Professional Services team, to ensure a smooth registration process for attendees.
• Online registration and payment processing to simplify the sign up process for attendees as well as event planners.
• Detailed attendee information is collected and can be used in reports and badge printing.
• Housing block management that tracks attendee count and availability.

Dairy Queen’s Director of Meetings, Events and Travel, Missy Schrupp, also adds that, “ACTIVE RegOnline provides substantial time-savings. Plus, our vendors and franchise owners absolutely love it because they can register for our events on their own time.” With their online registration growing each year, it’s clear that Dairy Queen will continue to please their attendees and get time back to create amazing event experiences.

Hopefully this provides some inspiration for you to take a look at your daily tasks and consider what areas can be improved. At ACTIVE Network, we strive to work with our customers to unveil their blocks and get them moving in the right direction. Once you find your resolution, then comes the fun part. Figuring out what to do with your free time!

Tell us your tips for saving time during meeting planning and, in turn, how your events have improved because of it.

Download the PDF to learn more!

Written By: Rebecca Yetzer

Hart Energy Achieves Skyrocketing Growth with RegOnline

As you begin 2013, start by casting a net for the goals you want to achieve in order to have a successful year. One goal on everyone’s mind? How to take their business to the next level.

Hart Energy is a prime example of how ACTIVE Network can help support this type of growth. As one of the world’s largest energy industry publishers, Hart Energy needed more than just a simple online registration tool to help support their expanding portfolio of high-profile events. After evaluating registration managment software solutions in the marketplace, the organization chose ACTIVE Network’s RegOnline to help power their global meetings. Now they can manage their events easier than ever:

• Simplified event logistics such as seamless online registration, credit card processing, attendee check-in, and exhibitor lead scanning.
• A global solution in a variety of languages for any size event – from 50 to 4,000 people.
• Delivering first-class event experiences for industry leaders and speakers by using bar-coded registration badges and instant updates to changes in attendee status.
• The most professional conference and event features at a cost-effective price.

Chief Technology Officer of Hart Energy, Mark Chiles, is pleased with the results stating, “RegOnline helped us grow, allowing easier event production and a more professional registration experience meeting the needs of our executive audiences.”

Coming from an organization that manages over 20,000 attendees per year, including former U.S. presidents and CEOs of global 500 companies, ACTIVE Network is thrilled and proud of their success. Whether your events welcome 30 attendees or 3,000, our goal is to provide the right tools and support to achieve growth across the spectrum. We hope to hear more of these success stories in 2013, along with more comments such as this one from Mark Chiles:

“Our conference business has skyrocketed over the past couple of years.”

Download the case study here

Written By: Rebecca Yetzer

Success Story: IBM Transforms Meeting and Event Strategy to Drive Client Savings and Supplier Visibility

If you enjoyed Eric Olson’s post on the The next big thing in SMMP: The unlikely marriage of  event marketers and procurement, you may be interested to learn about IBM’s Success with its Strategic Meetings Management Program (SMMP), through which it successfully streamlined its global meeting and event sourcing process and tackled meeting spend head on.

The Challenge

IBM is a big spender on meetings globally but recognized the need for a better way to manage those meetings and control spend.

To do this, IBM decided to focus on its smaller meetings (less than 150 delegates) initially, and roll out a global meetings and event sourcing process. The project was led by Paul Wakelin, Strategic Sourcing Specialist at IBM who set out seven key objectives for the project and has exceeded expectations with the results.

The Solution

As a first step Wakelin set about sourcing the right technology partner to bring the project into fruition, and after exploring several options signed with Active Network | StarCite. With Wakelin’s objectives clearly laid out, StarCite was able to develop a customized meeting request portal to meet IBM’s specific requirements. This included an easy to use single sign on system, for which over 200 IBM staff received training.

Success

Speaking of the success of the SMMP, Wakelin comments

“We now have greater compliance that drives client savings, supplier visibility and opportunities, we’ve improved data collection and been able to define a global process and reporting mechanisms,”

The results have been so impressive that the company has been slowly rolling out the new system around the world and, in mid-2008, the IBM and StarCite teams launched full global deployment of the system.

“It transformed IBM’s strategy and approach to meetings and events, it provided a centralised framework to manage the meetings and events (M&E) process, captured key data for analysis into the company’s M&E spend, enhanced visibility of that M&E spend, offering opportunities to drive and develop key supplier relationships, and delivered process efficiencies and cost savings through IBM agreements.” - Paul Wakelin,Strategic Sourcing Specialist at IBM

Wakelin lists the following points as the key rewards of strategic meetings management technology:

• Standardised, automated processes to identify and source requests globally

• Visibility into company-wide request activity – when, where, what, who and how much

• Capability to leverage meeting volumes and associated spend to a preferred consolidated supply base

• Capability to highlight preferred suppliers for improved utilization

• Consistent RFP formats and reports on spend and savings

• Convenient access to thousands of suppliers globally

• A solution familiar to and welcomed by suppliers globally

• Improved efficiency and productivity for clients and for procurement

For more on how IBM controls meetings spend click here to access the full article and success story as featured in The Business Travel Magazine

Written By: Irene Coghlan

The Next Big Thing in SMMP: The Unlikely Marriage of Event Marketers and Procurement

By: Eric Olson, General Manager
Active Network, Business Solutions

As meetings and event stereotypes go, there are two that have stood the test of time. Event marketing teams love to spend money; procurement teams love to save it.

So when Dell’s Global Events Marketing Director, Liz Lathan took the stage beside Strategic Meetings Management guru, Kevin Iwamoto at PCMA’s Education Conference in June, one might have expected sparks to fly.

Yet, the inevitable disagreement never materialized. Instead, the two laid out a vision for a new partnership between spend-happy marketers and their spend management focused procurement colleagues. And as shocking as the thought might be, this unlikely marriage may be exactly what the meetings and events industry needs to survive and thrive.

A Cost Crisis in Meetings & Events

The challenges of today’s meetings and event professionals have been well documented. Budgets have been cut. Results are under a microscope. And the demands of a younger, technology-addicted generation are putting pressure on age-old ideas of what a meeting or event should be. Yet, at the same time, there is another crisis emerging, according to Iwamoto. The cost of hosting events is rising quicker than the elevators in a high-rise hotel. Demand for meeting space is outpacing venue and hotel supply while travel costs are skyrocketing with the price of fuel.

“At any given time, management is going to say, ‘our cost of doing business is really high, we need to do something about this.’…And you need to have a plan in place to be proactive and not reactive…” 

As a result, Iwamoto continued, something strange is happening. Event planners are turning to procurement for help in three key areas:

1. Planners are working with procurement to create and monitor meetings policies and handle contract administration.
   
2. Procurement is assisting with cost avoidance, providing visibility into spend so planners know where they can cut unnecessary costs, consolidate their supplier base and senior management can get spend transparency.
   
3. And the two groups are teaming up to drive cost savings through smarter buying processes and more savvy negotiations.

In return, event organizers are creating better ways to drive results from meetings – delivering revenue from customers and improving performance of employees.

A Success Story at Dell Computers

Nowhere is this new partnership more apparent than in Dell’s newly launched Strategic Meetings Management Program (SMMP). In fact, the event marketing group actually pitched the office of the CFO on the idea for its program, claiming it could save more than $2 million a year. Read the rest of this entry »

Written By: Eric Olson

Client Case Study: University of California, San Diego Continuing Medical Education

Since 2003, the University of California, San Diego Continuing Medical Education (UCSD CME) has been using Active Network’s RegOnline product for conference registration and event management.

Why has USCD CME continued to choose RegOnline to manage its events? With over 10,000 registrations per year and 60+ events, UCSD CME needed to automate as much as possible to keep from overburdening their staff. “We chose RegOnline because it was affordable and easy to use,” states Penny Delgallego, Registration Assistant for UCSD CME. “I picked it up quickly and was able to figure out pretty much everything on my own.” UCSD CME is able to support dozens of conferences with less than five staff members because the system eliminates data entry, paperwork, and manual processes. Penny and her colleagues can spend more time on higher-level priorities rather than inputting data into a spreadsheet.

Read the University of California, San Diego Continuing Medical Education case study and the solution RegOnline was able to provide for the program. Additionally find more case studies, data sheets, white papers and more in the Resource Center section of the RegOnline Website.

Written By: Kyle Rose

Client Study: University of Minnesota Extension Program

The education sector is one of the many large industries RegOnline serves.

After finding a previous software provider was ineffective in meeting their needs, the University of Minnesota Extension program turned to RegOnline. They needed a system that was “accessible, easy to use and affordable,” and could help meet their event creation, registration and reporting needs.

Read the University of Minnesota case study and the solution RegOnline was able to provide for the program. Additionally find more case studies, data sheets, white papers and more in the Resource Center section of the RegOnline Website.

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky

Freedom from Excess

Celebrate your independence from additional work through RegOnline!

Long time customer, Elizabeth Clor of InfinityQS, shared her experiences of how RegOnline helped to meet her event needs.

For two years, InfinityQS used a manual tracking system for their annual user conference. While it did enable them to keep track of registrants in a spreadsheet, it increasingly became a challenge for multiple users to access and share information.

After deciding to abandon the manual process and use RegOnline, InfinityQS created a variety of discount codes to accommodate registrant classifications including Standard, Partner, Sponsor, Speaker and VIP. In conjunction with these codes, InfinityQS was able to attach different promotions with each type, including a group discount for registrations of four or more people. Additionally, centrally organized registration data made it easier to run reports and sort information based on attendee profile.

InfinityQS leveraged RegOnline as a mechanism for incentivizing internal employee referrals. Employee names populate a custom drop-down menu. When registrants select the name of the employee who referred them, RegOnline stores the data, making it easy to report and determine the employees who can win prizes.

In addition to reporting functionality and the employee referral program, they are also able to print badges quickly and easily.

Leaving all of this to a manual process would be ripe for error, but RegOnline met InfinityQS’ needs for an automated registration process and allowed them to save the time and hassle of manually maintaining their data.

RegOnline helps to eliminate tedious, manual tasks while providing Elizabeth with the information she needs. “The system helps us manage registrations more efficiently, and the reporting functionality is extremely valuable for analyzing our attendee pool. It’s extremely flexible and user-friendly and we’re certainly benefiting from the ability to collect specialized information about our registrants.”

Has RegOnline helped you find independence from excess work? Share your stories in our comments section.

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky

Opening Up the Lines of Communication with RegOnline – Client Case Study

Guest Post By:
Marina Antestenis, Marketing Manager
Active Network | Events

RegOnline has graduated with honors from the prestigious University of Chicago. According to Ellen Perry, Sr. Associate Director for the University of Chicago Alumni Department, “The RegOnline team was efficient from all sides: sales, implementation, support, training and development. The full package is fabulous. The amount of detail that goes in to the product from all aspects of the company shows as they are always there for the customer. Any type of problem resolution happened quickly and efficiently. I’m very impressed!”

Read the case study and discover how our technology has changed the way the University’s alumni department communicated with each other.

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky