The benefits go far beyond cost savings, however. There has been an explosion of useful features that are saving time, vastly increasing efficiency, building attendance, integrating
many components of the meeting planning process, establishing one-to-one marketing tools, as well as saving money, As these benefits are realized, it will become apparent that they offer much more than just registration -- the real benefits are in the many ways that the business process is streamlined and improved through digitization.

The paper will outline the benefits and features to look for when considering an online registration provider.

*MeetingNews, February 18, 2002

Increased convenience for attendee:


Round-the-clock anywhere access: Potential registrants with web access have 24-7 access to register and find out about the meeting.

Immediate confirmation: Registrants typically receive an immediate automated confirmation via the web and via email with details on pricing, events signed up for, and how to make changes -- eliminating the delay and cost to print, process and mail paper receipts.

Registration changes: Some registration systems allow the ability for users to make registration changes after they submit, giving the attendee more control and reducing staff time in managing these changes.

One-stop shopping: Some companies include the ability to reserve their hotel and even air travel on the same form. Attendees have the convenience to sign up for everything in one place.

Pre-populated and auto-branching registration forms: Standard contact information can be filled out automatically for the repeat customer, eliminating the hassle of re-entering.

Also, the ability for "branching forms" can be provided, automatically narrowing down registration options based on attendee selection (for example, by registration type) making very complex registration forms more understandable for attendees.

Online concierge: Links to venue maps and further venue details are often included on the registration or program pages to increase attendee interest and convenience

Increased cost savings and revenue generation for the organization:

Paper vs. web: Typically, web based methods of promotion, program, and registration form distribution are far less expensive than paper-based methods of printing, mailing, faxing, and processing. It is simply less expensive to push “bits" (computer information) than “atoms" (paper).

In-house development vs. the online registration service provider: When the total cost of ownership is compared, it is often found that it is less expensive to outsource online registration services. Often times in-house charges for designing, building, maintaining and integrating online registration web pages far exceed the cost of outsourcing to companies focused solely on this process. Additionally, there are fewer up-front costs with an online registration provider.

Reduced implementation costs: Online registration providers usually require no software to be installed on your network, eliminating up-front purchase and installation costs. Product upgrades are frequent, automatic, requiring little or no action required on the organization’s IS department, and usually are at no additional cost (unlike standard registration software products).

Reduced training costs: These systems are often very easy to use and require little or no web design knowledge to set up web registration forms. As they use the familiar web browser already installed, there is reduced training costs compared to other registration software products.

Reduced staffing and processing costs: Fewer staff is needed for data input (the attendees are doing the inputting) and printing/postage fees and long distance calls are greatly reduced.

Attendance building: When properly used, the survey and email automation tools provided with many of these registration systems can substantially increase attendance and, therefore, boost meeting revenue. Automated reminders reduce “no-shows." Email campaigns, especially those with built-in personalization and reminders are often much more effective than standard mail or un-personalized email

Increased efficiency and convenience for the meeting planner
Turnaround: These registration products are easy to use and an online form can often be generated in less than an hour, speeding production time to market.

Stakeholder control: As the form can be created by the meeting planner (rather than Web services) and the registration data can be directly monitored by the meeting planner
(rather than waiting for reports from Accounting), the meeting planner or other principal stakeholder has direct control of the process, reducing time and reducing translation errors in the process.

24/7 anywhere access: The Web is the ultimate network. The planner has 24-hour, anywhere access to web reports with real-time tracking of registration totals, housing, etc.
These report can be accessible to multiple stakeholders given password clearance and access.

Communication automation: These systems often provide an integrated event marketing email system that will automate email functions and allow the planner to easily setup a full email promotion and marketing campaign. Other features include: automatic generation of email and/or printed confirmation letters/receipts; blast emails of updates, schedule changes, announcements to those who have registered; automatic reminders; and automated mailing list functions such as opt-in and -out functions for those who want to be included or removed from receiving email messages.

Improved data analysis and accuracy: A single, online database eliminates data inaccuracies caused when there are multiple databases. These system usually have built-in data analysis tools with graphs, budget comparisons and other features with reports generated in Excel, Access, and other database formats and can also be imported from and exported to other registration lists or databases. Also, as attendees register themselves there are reduced input errors.

Accounting automation and management: These systems track payments, refunds and a variety of other transactions. Most generate invoices and receipts and print aged receivables reports with a full audit trail. Fully automated credit card processing, e-check clearance and, sometimes, multiple payment options are often provided, as is full financial
reconciliation and automated credit card processing.

Features and benefits:

Registration robustness: Many of the online registration providers have invested hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in developing very robust registration tools that will handle the most complicated meetings, and yet are userfriendly to use. Multiple -day, multiple session, multiple -payment sources can all be handled with ease. These
“industrial strength" services can handle thousands of registrations and millions of records without a glitch. The cost to develop these systems in-house with these capabilities would often be much greater than outsourcing.

Customizability: Most of the registration providers offer fully customizable registration forms with standard data fields (i.e. name, address), custom fields to collect information specific to the event, the order in which it is presented, and the manner it is entered (field limitations, required fields,etc.).The look and feel of the registration page is often customizable allowing for user-defined headers and logos to brand the event web pages and to make them look as part of the company/association’s web site.

eMarketing/Profiling/Surveys: The ability to survey attendees and market to them automatically based on their preferences represents one of the most significant advances since people started registering for meetings. Several registration systems allow segmentation of specific customers or groups based on their interests, attendance history, and survey responses, allowing one-to-one marketing to these individuals. Many systems offer a full range of customizable survey tools for pre- and post-event surveys. Questions and question format (true/false, multiple-choice, text response) are easy to set up, fully customizable and the results can automatically totaled and graphed. For example, pre-event surveys could ask meal preference, tracks of interest, or, if the prospect declines to come, why he or she is not coming. The ability to integrate this into the registration process and to track this data has huge potential for future marketing.

Improved reporting: Typically there are dozens of standardized reports downloadable to Excel, Word, Access, and several other formats including badge printing and mailing labels. There is also the ability to create Ad Hoc custom reports incorporating any data fields desired. Real-time tracking of registration totals, housing, etc. can be accomplished on demand and these reports are accessible to multiple stakeholders given password clearance and access. These automated reports often come with built-in analysis tools such as graphs and charts.

Housing and travel management: Some online registration providers offer integrated travel management, providing one-stop convenience for attendees. This can include integrated housing modules with specialized housing blocks associated with registration category for speaker, leadership, VIPs, etc. These allow personalized housing registration by participant types offering different hotel choices, room types and discounts. Actual occupancy reports are available at any time for the planner and the hotels, replacing the out-dated manual reports that are typically relied upon in rooms management. Many standard travel reports (rooming list, arrival/departure manifests, cancellation reports, etc.) can be generated as needed.

Onsite management: Some companies offer on-site registration options as well, either as a service, or through software, using web-based input that would allow staff to check in attendees, print individual badges (including 2-D barcodes), process credit card payments, print receipts / invoices and have up-to-the-minute attendee counts at the meeting.

Security and support: Most online registration providers use highly secure data warehouses with state-of-the-art firewalls, backups, redundant fault-tolerant fail-over systems, transaction mirroring, and other systems to protect your data and eliminate downtime. 24-hour tech support and online help documentation is often provided with many systems. Typically, the security measures are more robust than the average company or association. Secure socket layer (SSL) encryption is used in transferring any credit card or personal data, greatly enhancing data security in the transmission of information from the attendee to the online database.

Conclusion:

As can be seen, online registration services provide benefits to everyone involved in the meeting: greater convenience to the attendee, cost savings/attendance building for the host organization/company, and significantly improved efficiency and control to the meeting planner or show organizer. More importantly and fundamentally, it represents a very substantial step towards the increased efficiencies and benefits of moving from an analog (paper) way of processing information to a digital one.