CUSTOMER STORY
Commsverse Changes The Event Platform Game With Just Attend
Commsverse needed a single event platform to manage all aspects of their event.
They couldn’t find one, so they built Just Attend.
Benefits
Here are some of the immediate benefits Just Attend brought to Commsverse.
About Commsverse
Commsverse is a tech conference held in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2019 by Mark Vale, its purpose is to enrich the knowledge of technology professionals working in the Microsoft Teams ecosystem.
The event is run annually in June at Mercedes-Benz World and attracts over 700 people, 50 exhibitors, and 70+ speakers delivering 65 seminars.
The Problem Commsverse Faced
When founded, the organizer, Mark had no previous experience in event management. When taking on this challenge it soon became clear that in order for Commsverse to function, he would need event software.
Breaking down the needs for Commsverse, Mark realised he needed software that could fulfil many different tasks.
Call for Content
Allowing members of the tech community to submit seminar topics, organizers to evaluate, and send approvals.
Ticket Sales
Create custom registration fields to capture attendee data and checkout system with payment gateway for revenue.
Exhibitor Management
Promote exhibitors at different levels with ability to engage attendees, and manage staff attendance and ticket registration.
Seminar Scheduling
Arrange approved sessions into seminar rooms and schedule them at appropriate times based on their category and popularity.
Seminar Feedback
Capture attendee feedback for each seminar to evaluate speaker performance and overall attendee sentiment.
Lead Generation
Provide the ability for exhibitors to capture attendees interested in their products or services quickly so they can follow up post event.
Attendee Management
Enable the attendees to manage their professional profile, access their ticket, seminars, and find out important information.
Onsite Registration
Validate attendee tickets and print them an ID badge so they have access to the event and easily identifiable.
Event Reporting
Capture event data like event and seminar attendance, demographic modelling, and interactions to improve future events.
Mobile App
Allow attendees to find the information they need quickly and interact with others using their mobile device.
Agenda Displays
Show 'what's on' in each seminar room and the event as a whole even if there are last minute changes that attendees need to know about.
Hybrid Event Support
Support multiple seminar types including in-person, live remote meeting, live streams, or on-demand video.
Doing what everyone would do in this situation, Mark researched event software online. He could find great software that could solve individual problems, such as Sessionize for call for content, RSVPify for ticket sales, Eventmobi for attendee mobile app and some other requirements.
When evaluating each of these tools he found the following challenges.
Excessive Cost Of Software
Each platform had their own subscription, often with unused features which escalated software costs beyond budget.
Lack Of Integration
Each app was very good at what they did but the lack of integration of data between platforms meant manual CSV exports and imports.
Poor Attendee Experience
Attendees would have to use separate systems to access agenda, tickets, and event information with different login identities.
Time Consuming
Combining these apps meant Mark spent time he didn't have keeping systems updated rather than spending it on other tasks.
How Commsverse Solved Their Problems Using Just Attend
Mark realized that he was going to have to spend $20,000 on event software plus onsite badge printing services, totalling $35,000 every year to run his event. But this investment wasn’t going to solve his problems, just create new ones that impacted the event experience for everyone.
Having not been able to find a single event platform that could solve all event organizing problems and give attendees, speakers, and exhibitors access to what they need, Mark decided to use the money he would’ve spent on several apps to build Just Attend.
The principle Mark set out from the start was there should never be a need for another event based software platform to fill gaps in event management. So the platform had to solve all problems well so that everyone can just attend the event they’re going to. And so the name Just Attend was born.
Ticket Sales & Registration
Just Attend allowed Mark to create custom registration fields that attendees had to fill out to provide detailed demographical information about the types of attendees coming to Commsverse.
The platform also allowed Mark to create custom tickets attendees could choose from including single or multi-day tickets.
Just Attend also enabled Commsverse to offer discounts using coupon codes and loyalty schemes based on previous attendances.
A huge benefit of using Just Attend was the Stripe integration that allowed Commsverse to receive 100% of their ticket revenue instantly and not have to wait until the end of their event or pay high commission rates.
Flexible Call for Content
Just Attend enabled Commsverse to automatically schedule their call for content submission period and enabled anyone to register and submit their sessions to the event.
Commsverse could set seminar categories and durations the prospective speaker could submit into as well as include additional speakers within their submission.
Each submission could be reviewed by the organizers and an internal messaging system enabled the content reviewers to communicate with the speaker for clarifications.
The content reviewers could shortlist, decline, or approve content submissions and hold back decisions until an appropriate time.
Automated Seminar Scheduling
Within Just Attend, Commsverse used the room configurator which enabled them to add their seminar rooms, seminar changeover time, and build scheduling rules for each room.
Scheduling rules is a powerful system that allowed Commsverse to control when and what types of seminars could get scheduled into each room.
When approving seminars within their call for content, these seminars would be automatically placed into a qualifying room at the next available time slot.
Commsverse could then use the drag n drop scheduler to fine tune their event schedule, saving hours of work that would otherwise be performed in a spreadsheet.
Self-Service Exhibitor Management
Commsverse were able to categorize their exhibitors based on participation level which granted different benefits to exhibitors from the number of staff they can register, number of VIP tickets they are permitted to issue, and how many sessions they can submit.
Exhibitors were then listed in these categories and people from each exhibitor nominated to act as administrators of their account.
The exhibitor administrators could then log into Just Attend to add their logo, company about information, downloadable assets, register their event staff, and submit sessions if they were allowed.
Exhibitors now benefit from complete self-service, reducing the time of change and lessening the responsibility placed on Commsverse organizers.
Dynamic Lead Generation For Exhibitors
Using the multi-functional event mobile app registered exhibitor staff could use their personal mobile device to login and automatically access the lead scan feature.
By using nothing more than their phone camera, they could scan an attendee’s badge to trigger a lead record.
The exhibitor admin can also add their own lead qualification questionnaire their staff need to complete whilst saving a lead.
At the end of Commsverse, exhibitors can export their generated leads from the platform to nurture post event.
This removed the requirement for dedicated scanner devices and yet another system to manage and pay for.
Attendee Management
Using Just Attend attendees can access all their personal information, update their biographies, retrieve their ticket, browse exhibitors, event information, and seminar agenda.
They can do this on the event website or mobile app.
When attendees add a seminar to their personal agenda, Commsverse is able to see how popular the seminar is and easily identify if it needs to be moved rooms for additional capacity.
Attendees can also switch between past and upcoming events giving them access to all conference content and even catch up on missed seminars if recordings are available.
Onsite Badge Printing
Outsourcing onsite badge printing and event check-in was estimated to cost Commsverse $15,000 per event for 700 people.
Using Just Attend’s registration kiosk software, Commsverse was able to purchase their own hardware and staff their check-in desks with their own volunteer staff.
The seamless, zero touch check-in process meant that attendees could scan their ticket and receive their printed badge onsite within 10-seconds.
Over 4 events, Commsverse has saved over $45,000 by not having to employ an external company to run their event badge printing solution.
Detailed Event Analytics
A huge part of any event organization is understanding how your event performed and what type of audience were attracted so you can improve future events and provide valuable intelligence to prospective exhibitors that helps convince them to sign up.
Prior to Just Attend, Commsverse had to consolidate data from multiple platforms and then produce its own charts. This was time consuming and often data was lacking to provide the intelligence needed.
Now with Just Attend, all the data is instantly available at a click of a button that gives deep insights into attendee demographics based on custom registration data, real-time checkin and seminar attendance making Just Attend a critical platform that underpins the overall success of Commsverse.
Commsverse would simply not function without Just Attend as our event platform. Its now a critical and integral part of the event that helps us in every area. Our exhibitors love the lead generation capabilities and our attendees find our check-in experience one of the best they've been part of.
Making Just Attend was the easiest decision I've ever had to make and I hope that it will continue to benefit organizers of events like me.
