As part of an ongoing initiative to streamline the operations of their annual World of Concrete (WOC) show, the World of Concrete Education team launched an extensive search to find efficiencies in their speaker, session, and content management process.

As a result, Sessionboard was selected as their platform of choice. Given World of Concrete’s focus on innovation and willingness to share best practices with the broader events market, the team was kind enough to share their process. Enjoy.

In this post we share:

 What WOC’s speaker management process looked like before Sessionboard...

 What the event was looking for in a solution and why they chose Sessionboard...

 What excites World of Concrete most about the platform…

Describe your previous speaker management process…

Of all the areas you could focus on improving, why was the speaker and content management process a priority for your team to figure out?

Our focus on solving this issue came down to the fact that we are all having to find ways to do more. Our time as organizers is so valuable and the need for us to constantly innovate on the experience of our show means we must invest in ways that are going to save us time. 

OUR TIME

When we looked across our production schedule, it was obvious that our team was spending a great deal of time on mundane but necessary tasks in the speaker and content management process. After managing things for years manually, we just thought this was an area where we could buy back valuable time for our team. 

One example is that as deadlines drew near, we would need to follow up individually with each speaker for information that was due to us. This created a stressful situation as deadlines drew near. And when you do the math, it is shocking how much time was devoted to gathering all the necessary bio, photo, and content details from over a hundred speakers or more.

Another example is how much time it takes to update our website and registration system with current information on each speaker and session. If you have experience managing this process for a show, then you know how many little errors can occur when this process is done manually. 

SPEAKER EXPERIENCE

We also thought a streamlined process would make for a better experience for our speakers and potentially reduce the inefficient back and forth that every organizer has shepherding their speakers through the process of selection, onboarding, and presentation. We thought that improving the speaker experience would not only save us time, but also that of our speakers.

We know how busy our speakers are, so if we can find ways to make the process of being a Information Classification General presenter at our show more efficient, then ultimately that makes their lives easier and increases their willingness to collaborate with us each year.

EVALUATOR PROCESS

We do a call for presentations for our show that typically results in 180-200 submissions. That adds another layer of complexity, because we have an advisory committee of evaluators that we work with to create the best program possible. Historically, that evaluation experience can be wrought with questions and issues that take time to manage. As such, we thought if there was away to streamline the experience so that all they had to focus on were the immediate sessions to evaluate, then that would save them and our team time, as well as simplify the evaluation process overall. 

What were you looking for in a speaker and content management solution?

Our team was looking for a solution to streamline our Call for Presentation process and make ranking our seminar submissions easier for our advisory committee. When we found out more about the platform, we realized Sessionboard is so much more than that. We are excited to implement Sessionboard as our new standard operating procedure to make our production schedule more efficient.

Why did you choose Sessionboard?

We chose Sessionboard because of the ease of use and the platform offers a central location that will house much of our information for our speaker and content management. Historically, our speakers have had to go to multiple sources to complete the information that we need for our education program. Our speakers will now be able to log in and see what information needs to be completed as well as be able to refer to previously completed items. We have also found Sessionboard’s customer service to be top notch. Their team is there to make sure the transition to their platform is seamless and easy.

What excites you most about using the platform?

“I love that we have a one-stop shop with Sessionboard. The platform offers many solutions for our speaker, seminar and call for presentation management with ease of use. This is going to be a huge time saver for our team going forward,” said Christen Tye, Education Manager, Informa Markets.

About Informa Markets

Informa Markets connects buyers with sellers in powerful and effective ways, enabling companies to trade, innovate and grow.

Informa Markets is one of Informa's B2B Markets divisions. We are a highly international business, with a significant presence in the US, Brazil, the Middle East, India and China.

We work in over a dozen growing, specialist and international markets, with hundreds of leading brands across Health & Nutrition, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Aviation, Beauty & Aesthetics, Infrastructure & Construction, Fashion, Agriculture as well as other markets.

Informa Markets delivers live events, including major annual business-to-business exhibitions, specialist content and services that help buyers and suppliers connect digitally, such as lead and demand generation solutions.

Our products and platforms enable buyers, sellers and decision makers in specialist markets to meet, discover, showcase new products and do business.

About Sessionboard

Sessionboard is a next generation speaker & content management platform that simplifies the complex workflows and disjointed communications that exist around speaker and content management. From call for papers, abstract evaluation, awards, applications, agenda building, speaker onboarding and communication, Sessionboard helps event organizers work smarter, move faster, and improve their ROI.

The results? A faster-growing event, more productive staff, seamless collaboration with speakers and more time back to do what you do best—building epic experiences.

Ready to see for yourself what sets Sessionboard above the rest when it comes to Speaker & Content Management? Schedule a free demo with us today!