|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Success Stories |
|
|
| HighEdWeb |
 |
|
|
| Online Registration Service Helps Increase Attendance 30% |
|
| Challenge |
A one-man gang becomes overwhelmed putting out fires |
|
| Solution |
Acteva's all-inclusive resource shoulder’s the burden by consolidating data |
|
| Results |
30% growth in attendance with Acteva’s professional solution |
|
|
| Background |
|
Established in 1999 with representatives from six colleges and universities in New York State,
the Higher Education Web Professionals Association (HighEdWeb) has grown to more than
700 members from public and private educational institutions from across North America
and the world. HighEdWeb is an organization of Web professionals working at institutions
of higher education. Their mission is to advance Web professionals as well as technologies
and standards
in higher education. |
|
In 2004, HighEdWeb joined forces with the Program Committee from WebDevShare, a
successful international conference for Web development in higher education. Their joint
efforts led to the first combined conference in the fall of 2004. This union immediately
transformed the group into
an international organization. The conference outgrew its original
space requirements and
decided to move to downtown Rochester for HighEdWebDev 2006. |
|
| Steve Lewis, HighEdWebDev Co-Chair, who also serves as Web Manager at a campus
of a large New York state university system, notes the 2005 conference included
representatives from 35 U.S. states and four countries from as far away as Brazil and Egypt.
To accommodate the 20 - 30% growth that was anticipated for the 2006 conference, Lewis
required an all-inclusive, user-friendly registration solution as he would be the primary event
registration organizer. |
|
Business Challenge |
|
| A Smarter, Faster, All-inclusive Solution...ASAP |
|
In the first few years of the conference, they had been using a functional solution for event
registration through another University but Lewis knew upgrades were needed in many
areas. Lewis couldn’t afford to waste time putting out fires – returning phone calls, processing
orders
and handling customer service-type issues. “I just became overwhelmed. I knew
we needed to have a new registration system up very quickly,” says Lewis. He adds that it
was also essential
to have a bona fide service and support team to provide a road map for
success and help walk him through the process. |
|
|
As Conference Co-Chair of the 4-day conference, Lewis decided they would need nothing
less
than an efficient, business-grade solution with a customizable registration page, as well
as
flexible registration and payment options for attendees. “Basically, we were looking for
professional help to handle the details of the registration process so we didn’t have to spend
the time doing it ourselves and worrying about registrations,” says Lewis. |
|
|
Lewis notes that, although technically proficient as an engineer, his skills alone weren’t
enough when trying to register participants from various locales. “Due to our typical workload
- too few people and too much work - it is no small irony that this did not leave us
with a successful registration experience.” He adds that they also experienced a variety of
technical glitches that slowed down the registration process and reduced their operational
efficiency. “As you can imagine, it became time consuming and stressful trying to correct
registration errors at the beginning of the event.” |
|
|
|
| Acteva Solution |
| Acteva's all-inclusive resource shoulder’s the burden by consolidating data |
|
An evaluation process began in the summer of 2006 and, after reviewing other online registration
options, Lewis chose Acteva and his new, customized Web page was up and running within
minutes of creating his account. “We’re now utilizing several booking options,” says Lewis.
“We offer Early-Bird pricing to only some of our attendees, and track that through inspection.
We
also have several workshops held simultaneously before and after the conference, which
attendees can pay extra to attend.” |
|
Lewis also used Acteva’s Promotion Code functionality as a means to selectively choose which
attendees, such as conference presenters, workshop presenters and double presenters, would
receive a discount as determined by Lewis – 25% off, $100 off, etc. – at the time of registration.
“In the past we had a very rigid definition in terms of what we could offer,” says Lewis.
“We
could only use a dollar amount and the Promotion Code provides the option of using a
percentage. It’s a lot more powerful than before.” Lewis adds that perhaps the greatest
benefit
of adding Promotion Codes is they reward those who “make the event happen” with
their
various contributions. “Using Acteva’s solution, the committee members and the
presenters
were able to register at a special discounted rate.” |
|
Lewis says attendees were also offered multiple payment options this year, including paying
either by check or credit card. “Real-time credit card processing was a key differentiator for
us and something we really needed,” says Lewis. An additional benefit was that registrants
could
mail checks directly to Acteva, where they would also be processed. “And whether they
pay by check or credit card, it’s all taken care of,” he says. “Getting approval for our own
merchant account would have been a huge, time consuming process. Instead, Acteva handles
everything
for us.” |
|
As the primary contact for managing registrations, he wanted to ensure these payments could
be processed securely, as well as, tracked. “We did not have an effective method of tracking different forms of payments, “says Lewis. “Last year, we weren’t able to mark registrants as
paid until the first day of the conference. This year, by keeping track of payments with Acteva,
we are able to send reminders to our registrants before the conference so they’re aware that we have not received their payments, “he says. “I’m not worried about missing any registrations.” |
|
In addition, Lewis also decided to include an optional questionnaire/survey on the registration
page. This pre-event survey tool is yet another customizable feature offered by Acteva. Meal
preferences, an optional dinner, special accommodation requests and other attendee data
– such as whether one is a past attendee – can be custom-tailored in the questionnaire. “We
wanted to get a rough head count of who would be staying at hotels vs. commuting,” says
Lewis. “It
allows us to communicate with the hotels and ensure the event runs as smoothly
as possible.” |
|
| Results |
| 30% growth in attendance with Acteva’s professional solution |
|
In regards to how HighEdWebDev’s registration and payment process has changed since last
year, Lewis notes several quantifiable results. “Our registrations have increased, it has saved
an incredible amount of time in house, and will no doubt save more time at the conference.
During the conference, I imagine it will save a lot of stress, too.” |
|
| Lewis also describes a recent situation that, one year ago, would have created an unnecessary problem and wasted time investigating the cause of the problem. “A committee member tried unsuccessfully to register a second student presenter for the conference. He was convinced that there was some obscure problem with the system since the first one worked without a hitch. Based on past experience with our own system, he may well have been correct. However, he forgot to consider other likely scenarios – his credit card was over the limit!” The bottom line, Lewis notes, is that “Acteva just works, and it does what it’s supposed to do.” |
|
The conference will likely grow in attendance by 30% in 2006 to more than 400 attendees and
HighEdWeb is looking forward to using Acteva at future conferences and events. “Leaving
registration to the professionals at Acteva seems like a winning long-term strategy to me. We
put on this conference in addition to our normal duties at the university and we don’t have
time
to contribute to creating and testing a registration solution. I consider myself and my
team to be
a technically proficient group but it was in our best interest to put it all in Acteva’s
hands.” For
Lewis, Acteva’s technology and professional customer service team has alleviated
both the
labor and anxiety previously associated with organizing the conference. “We now
have problem-free registrations since we began using Acteva. You’ve been able to meet our
needs and even
go a step further,” Lewis concludes. |
|
| Experience that counts |
|
| Acteva is the trusted leader in online event registration, ticketing and payment management services. Since 1998, over 12,500 customers have used Acteva to manage more than 215,000 events and process more than 3.4 million registrations. Acteva’s customers include Bausch & Lomb, Pfizer, SAP, Girl Scouts of America, Whole Foods, Craigslist Foundation, Lending Tree, and thousands of small to large-sized businesses and organizations. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| |
