A global trade association needed a registration system that could manage the company’s two largest events (one in Europe, one in Asia), allowing secure registration both on line and on site for guests invited by Exhibitors and the event owner as well as uninvited attendees. I was hired to implement an existing plan, which my predecessor felt was impossible to achieve in the time allotted, and to manage any incremental changes we deemed necessary beyond the initial launch.
We did launch the existing plan for both events on time, so in that sense we were successful. On the other hand, Exhibitors and internal stakeholders felt disenfranchised from the original plan and hated the new system. This group included key executives of the major mobile phone carriers and manufacturers in the world. So, immediately following the event in February, I began the discovery and due diligence process to make improvements that included face-to-face meetings with internal stakeholders and key exhibitors in North America, Europe, and Asia. Over the next 5 months we completely overhauled the new system in time to launch registration for the next Asia event.
The revised system was very well received by both Exhibitors and internal stakeholders and helped us achieve these results for the Asia and European events:
- Reduced event registration costs £ 1 million
- Slashed event related crime 59%
- Achieved 15% increase in delegates for Asia event despite challenging economic conditions and greater travel restrictions between Macao and Mainland China
