Todd O’Bannion
Accounting Specialist
Kentucky Association of School Business Officials

SUMMARY

The use of an outdated system was making extra work for the Kentucky Association of School Business Officials (KASBO). They found their use of paper registrations was inefficient and time-consuming. Also, sending mail through the post office wasn’t only expensive; it lacked the instant response KASBO required for registration. By using RegOnline they saved themselves frustration, time, and money.

CHALLENGE

The paper registration process lagged in response time. Out of 200 spots available in a class they could get 250 paper registrations back all registered for the same class. This was an impossible situation. It was time consuming to sort through all the paper registrations to simply figure out who was registered for the class. It was also impossible to decide who should be signed up first and who would have to reschedule. This made extra work for KASBO and the registrants were disappointed and often angry they didn’t get into the class they wanted.

SOLUTION

Using RegOnline had a tremendous impact on KASBO’s business. First, by switching from a paper registration process to RegOnline they decreased their workload by 35%-40%. They no longer had to keep track of everyone through paper registrations. RegOnline gave them instant information on who was registered for the class. Using RegOnline’s software let KASBO have a set amount of places in their classes and the class would simply disappear when it was full. This took away the disappointment and time-consuming process of contacting the overflow of registrants who weren’t aware of the class being full.

Secondly, by using emails from RegMail they saved the cost of postage and mailing printed registration information and marketing materials. Sending a RegMail notification as soon as registration opens gave the registrants instant access to the classes. They could also give preferential treatment to the registrants with a KASBO membership. By giving members access to classes before other registrants, KASBO made the membership more valuable and increased that revenue stream.

Other benefits followed as well. By using RegOnline’s food choice functionality they saved $10,000 dollars in food costs on their large annual event; transversely saving them the embarrassment of not having enough food at the event. RegOnline’s reporting features gave access to the registration information for all KASBO employees. This cut down confusion and miscommunications throughout the company. The badge printing feature helped them regulate the class attendance only giving the student the room number that they needed. This cut down on students switching classes mid-day and helped teachers make sure they had enough handouts and seating for all the attendees.

RESULTS

RegOnline gave KASBO the tools to streamline their registration process. By using the many features that RegOnline provides they were able to rid themselves of an old system that cost them frustration, time, and money. The instant registration information they gathered and processed saved them 35% to 40% of their workload and KASBO continues to use RegOnline features that benefit their business.

SUMMARY

Washington State University’s extension office needed to reduce workload and increase attendee satisfaction at its Area Health Education department events without hiring additional staff or committing to an expensive contracted registration provider. The organization turned to RegOnline to automate its registration process, saving more than 400 staff hours annually, reducing cost and preventing attendee confusion and complaints.

CHALLENGE

Area Health Education (AHE) coordinates five conferences each year, within seven weeks of each other. The registration process for all 350 attendees at each conference was extremely manual. First registration forms would flow in by mail, fax, or over the phone and someone would enter that information into a database. Then another employee would call in credit card payments over the phone for approval. Finally confirmation letters would be printed through a mail merge process and mailed.

This process took too long. Registration forms quickly piled up, and mistakes were common. At the events AHE faced frustrated attendees at onsite check-in. With similar events being held in the same location on the same day, attendees were showing up at the wrong conference, and with no way to look up attendees over multiple events, event staff became quickly frustrated and overwhelmed.

AHE needed a better solution, but it had one more problem: Since events are only one piece of its business it needed a program that would be easy use and a program that did not require a contract or complicated pricing.

SOLUTION

Washington State University and AHE decided to go with a web-based, event registration system to solve its problems. It turned to RegOnline to do four things:

1. Automate event registration online: AHE provided an online event registration option for the first time in 2008, allowing both exhibitors and attendees to register, set preferences and pay online.

1. Accept payments online: AHE works with five different clients each with their own bank account. If the registration payments were paid directly to the University system they could be delayed in getting to the right accounts. To avoid that, the organization had RegOnline accept payments for them and send checks directly to the extension office each month.

1. Provide accurate, real-time reporting: AHE used RegOnline to provide accurate reporting to better track customers at every event. Through this function, they provided event organizers with access to real-time customer data at events, compared events using cross-event reporting and distributed up-to-the-minute information via a web link to vendors, committee members and staff.

1. Provide web-based platform without obligation: AHE used RegOnline’s standard, pay-as-you-go agreement to avoid long-term contracts and complicated pricing structure, allowing the organization to implement the system immediately.

RESULTS

After its first event on RegOnline, AHE found that 50% of exhibitors and attendees had used the online registration option. That automation reduced workload by an estimated 14 minutes per registration or an astounding 408 hours of annual staff time.

In addition to the time saved during the registration process AHE no longer has confused attendees waiting in line onsite. AHE was able to quickly access registration data across multiple events and easily confirm that attendees were paid in full.

The reporting functions enabled AHE to quickly access results for each conference and compare events with cross-event reporting. Real-time, “smart link” reports provided new visibility into performance for committee members and staff.

Sumary
When NEA came to RegOnline, the group needed to cut its budget and reduce time in the office while still providing an incredible attendee experience. After using RegOnline, NEA blew away its expectations, reducing workload by 5 to 7 weeks of time for each conference and saving up to $60,000.

Challenge
The National Education Association’s six regions were over-taxed by the cumbersome paper registration process. The paper process was not only difficult for the staff, but it created a more laborious process for the attendees to submit their registration, payment, and make hotel arrangements.

The NEA’s primary goals were to reduce workload, save money, and improve the attendee experience.

Solution
NEA was concerned with its budget overages in printing, postage, man hours, and temporary staffing. So they turned to RegOnline’s event management software to eliminate inefficiencies from its event management process.

With RegOnline the NEA organization was able to manage all paper processes online, and from there all payments, confirmations, and reporting were automated. RegOnline’s event management solution instantly eliminated the need for temporary staff and freed up in-house meeting planners to focus on other important details.

Using RegOnline’s registration tool, the NEA made the registration process quick and secure for attendees. More participants paid by credit card and received immediate confirmation and receipts. The attendee’s hotel registration process was simplified as well by linking directly from the registration to the hotel.

When it was time for the event all the attendee information was easily exported to badges and attendees’ meal requests were sent to the caterer in one clean and simple report.

Post-event reporting was available at the click of a mouse. Whether it’s demographics information or revenue reports, the NEA planners didn’t spend hours compiling information. They had the information they needed instantly.

NEA also used RegOnline’s survey tool to notify attendees of post-event surveys, providing the organization with critical feedback to improve attendee satisfaction rates at each event.

Results
By applying RegOnline, NEA was instantly able to reduce workload and cost for each conference. The organization shaved 5-7 weeks of work time from every event immediately, and re-focused its meeting planners on activities that had a bigger impact on event attendance and attendee satisfaction.

After using RegOnline for a year, NEA estimates that it saves $60,000 annually.

Attendees have provided positive feedback on the new, simple registration process and secure payment options, and 35 percent of NEA event attendees now participate in post-event surveys.

Jeramiah Demery is an events specialist for RegOnline.com the leading online events management system. To date, Regonline has hosted over 3 million registrants and over 100,000 events, seminars and meetings. Event management has never been easier. Create custom event websites and manage event registrants from one easy to use web-based system.