CUSTOMER STORY
Comms vNext Overcome Their Event Management Headaches By Using Just Attend
Comms vNext grew tired of managing multiple platforms and filling technology gaps with manual processes.
Using Just Attend they’re now able to self-automate their event with just 4 people and a handful of volunteers.
Benefits
Here are some of the immediate benefits Just Attend brought to Comms vNext.
About Comms vNext
Comms vNext is an independent, Community-led event, created and fashioned with the Community in mind.
Comms vNext started in 2018 and focuses on the Microsoft Teams ecosystem, especially around communications and collaboration technologies.
The majority of our speakers come from the community itself, who typically share their knowledge from day-to-day experiences helping their own organizations or customers.
In 2024, we attracted 300 people , 39 sponsors, and 46 speakers delivering 33 sessions to our event in Denver, CO.
The Problem Comms vNext Faced
Comms vNext’s challenge before Just Attend was finding a platform that would be able to handle all of their conference functions.
The systems they chose managed to get the job done, but it was rather cumbersome at times the things they had to do themselves. For example, sending off badges to be printed by a print shop, printing names on labels, performing check-ins by hand.
Comms vNext used one system for ticket sales, another for call for content, and agenda in yet another place.
All these multiple systems created a disjointed experience for their speakers and attendees.
Call for Content
Used Sessionize for community call for content and evaluation with no integration with their website or mobile agenda platform.
Ticket Sales
Used Eventbrite and Cvent in past events for ticket sales whcih required manual export and import of attendees between systems.
Exhibitor Management
No concept of exhibitor management, logos and landing pages manually created by organizers and no self-service.
Seminar Scheduling
Import approved sessions from Sessionize into their event app and sync accounts with ticket platform using CSV imports.
Seminar Feedback
Used Microsoft Forms which were sent out to all attendees to request session feedback without knowing if they'd attended the session.
Lead Generation
No form of lead generation, relied on sharing the attendee list and exhibitors own methods of capturing leads.
Attendee Management
Extremely labor intensive to manage attendee accounts and troubleshoot between multiple systems.
Onsite Registration
Relied on badges being pre-printed at a print shop and manually handed out at registration desks with no room for error.
We looked long and hard for platforms that could consolidate all of our functions in one place, but it wasn’t until Just Attend that we could actually accomplish that.
Not only does it handle all the functions we wanted, but Just Attend continually keeps adding functionality. For example, this last year, Just Attend added the ability to give loyalty discounts to previous attendees automatically. Not just to your own previous conferences, but to any other conference that’s been hosted by Just Attend.
How Comms vNext Solved Their Problems Using Just Attend
For Comms vNext, the biggest benefit that Just Attend provides is reducing the friction between conference organizers, sponsors, speakers, and attendees.
The Organizer’s want everyone that experiences Comms vNext to find incredible value and have a feeling like they’ve found the community they’ve been looking for and always needed.
Comms vNext has been using Just Attend from the very early days and as the years have rolled on, the product handled more and more of their conference functions until this last year when they could run their entire conference off one platform, Just Attend.
Ticket Sales & Registration
Aside from the standard ticket registration capabilities, Comms vNext had very specific desires to offer different types of discounts to attendees depending on what ticket they purchased and who they were.
Taking their feedback, Just Attend created a flexible loyalty discount feature that enabled Comms vNext to apply different percentage or fixed price discounts against different ticket types based on whether the purchaser had attended a previous event as an attendee, exhibitor, or speaker.
Comms vNext used this feature to create tiered discounts so that people who attended 1 previous event received one discount amount and those who had attended more than 1 a higher discount.
Web Driven Wallboards
Comms vNext moved to replace their event signage from traditional canvas printed banners to digital signage solutions to improve their sustainability.
Being able to advertise sessions and other events happening throughout their conference on the digital signage solution was a key factor in their decision making.
The web based wallboards operate on any internet enabled digital signage solution, update every 15 seconds, and can operate even when there is an internet outage.
Comms vNext attendees can easily follow what’s on at the event and by using our event level sessions, Comms vNext also use the wallboards to showcase their food menus at break times.
Mobile First Event Experience
Comms vNext were very keen to promote the use of a mobile app experience to attendees, exhibitors, and speakers.
They wanted to provide autonomy to attendees to find everything they need right at their fingertips from their ticket, sessions, agenda, exhibitors, and also event guides like floor plans, wifi code, parking, and opening information.
They also wanted exhibitors to be able to scan attendee badges to generate leads without needing to hire additional scanners.
The Just Attend mobile app provided Comms vNext with all the functionality they were looking for.
Put simply, all of our conference functions are in one place and beautifully tied together.
Attendees, Sponsors, Speakers all can manage much of their conference experience without having to interact with an Organizer.
Exhibitors can add and remove people that are their booth staff, speakers can adjust their title and content of their sessions, attendees can see up to the minute changes in rooms and schedules and conference information, as well as explore sponsor pages all within the Just Attend mobile app.
It's a very low friction, enjoyable experience to attend and be part of Comms vNext because of Just Attend.
Self-Service Exhibitor Management
A huge manual process for Comms vNext was the challenge of exhibitor onboarding and management.
When an exhibitor signed up, the Organizer’s had to manually upload the exhibitor logo and about information to their website, mobile app, and agenda app. Then have to make changes across all of them each time an exhibitor raised a request.
They had to continually chase exhibitors for names and email addresses of the staff attending so they could get their badges printed in time.
Using Just Attend all this is no longer a problem. The self-service exhibitor capabilities allow the exhibitor to manage all this themselves without having to involve the organizer.
All changes to logos, videos, about information are instantly updated across the web and mobile platforms and using our onsite badge printing means they can register their staff at any time, even at the event itself.
DIY Onsite Badge Printing
Comms vNext used to pre-print their badges ahead of their event. However, they always experience problems such as attendees registering after the print deadline and incorrect information printed on badges.
This meant the organizers had to produce hand made badges onsite to correct them which often involved a sharpie and a sticky label.
Using Just Attend’s event check-in and badge printing solution, Comms vNext invested in their own badge printers and check-in PCs that combined with our easy to use check-in software so they can now run their own event badge printing onsite with just volunteers.
This means that everyone who attends can have a badge printed, even if they register onsite.
Just Attend is an integral part of how we can accomplish Comms vNext every year. Yes, we can accomplish much of the conference using other platforms, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find all this functionality in a single platform for a reasonable cost.
Just Attend quite simply was built by a Conference Organizer for other Conference Organizers and it shows.
