January 30, 2013

ERSpeaker: Assembling Your Meeting Schedule Simplified

One of the most arduous and time-consuming tasks a planner faces is putting together the conference schedule. Vast amounts of data have to be collected and processed. The data ranges from session information, speaker information and bios, travel needs, A/V needs and so forth.  Ultimately, all this information needs to be organized into the conference schedule and then made available to the attendee. 
 
Traditional methods of managing speakers and the schedule have focused on dozens of huge spreadsheets and uncountable amounts of data copying.  EventRebels’ ERSpeaker Call for Papers and Speaker Management module slashes the amount of time spent in this process by letting other people do the data entry (namely the speakers) and eliminates copying of data. 
 
The process of saving you time usually works as follows:
 

• Prospective or invited speakers enter their contact information, bio, and session information through an online speaker portal.  This may be as part of a general Call for Papers. By going online, the speakers do the data entry, not you.
• You can assign reviewers to score the speaker submissions and state their preference of who should speak. Reviewers work on their own portal page, so they do the entering of data.
• Accepted speakers go back to their portal to add further information such as travel needs, A/V requirements, Power Point files and so forth.
• Using easy, run-time reports and setup screens you put the conference schedule together by creating the various session and workshop time slots and adding the corresponding speakers.
• The final schedule can be made available online to attendees. A Word document of the schedule can also be sent to the printer.
• At all times you can quickly and easily communicate via Email with the submitters, presenters, and reviewers.

 
Contact us if you’d like a personalized demo. You can also view our webinar online.

Use Twitter to Promote Your Conference

In the past few years, Twitter has become one of the most useful and popular tools for promoting events and conferences. Because Twitter posts (called a “tweet”) are restricted to text messages of 140 characters or less, the tool is perfect for generating headline and small news stories. Combined with links to websites, you can make powerful information about your show available to real and potential attendees in an easy-to-read steady stream. This stream is a great vehicle for generating buzz about your conference.

Click here to read more...

Did You Know? 

Did you know the "Programs and Workshops" module gives you the ability to set tracks, rooms, and capacities for all of your sessions?

Establish tracks to label sessions by categories, like topic or skill level. Tracks are a great way to help registrants narrow their focus, and choose the workshop they will benefit from most.

Assign each session to a room. Rooms allow you to set capacities and to enter a description (or directions) to help attendees navigate your conference with ease.

You can also set capacities for individual workshops and sessions. Capacities prevent registrants from selecting sessions that have already been filled.

View all of this information in one place by running the "Program/Workshop Summary" report. This report will give you the track, room, and capacity information for all of your sessions and workshops in an Excel spreadsheet.

To learn more about this module, click here to visit the EventRebels wiki and watch the programs and workshops training videos. 

Top Tweets 

Here's a selection of our most-clicked tweets from the past few weeks: 
Remember to follow us on twitter @eventrebels. We like to share links to our favorite articles on meetings and events, social media, and technology. 
 

 January Edition

February Webinar -
All About Money:
Tools for Attracting and Tracking Registrations

Thursday, February 28, 2013
at 10:00 a.m. EST
Click here to register now!
 

This webinar will focus on:

• Setting up fee schedules
• Early bird dates
• Promotion Codes
• Discounts
• Coupons
• Categorizing fees
• Financial Reporting

We want to leave no stone unturned when addressing the varied and complex needs of registration. EventRebels does not see online registration as the be all and end all, but as the starting point. We know that planners need a powerful back-end system to manage all registrations, including mail/fax/phone, payment by checks or reserved by purchase order. Registration ties into many other things like membership, housing, and trade shows. If we don't have it, we'll either build it or integrate with a partner who has a superior solution.