Corporations across all industries are calling for the consolidation of their meetings and events organization-wide. Certain's Dr. Rick Borry discusses how event management software plays an important role as corporate meeting and event planners face this challenge.

I recently read a very interesting article about the importance of human capital to businesses in the “knowledge era.” The premise was that companies who are able to maintain high employee retention rates are generally more successful. Employee retention effects customer satisfaction which in turn impacts customer retention and ultimately the business’s bottom line.

The best employees are seeking learning and growth opportunities from their employers. Employers can demonstrate their commitment to employee development by offering skills training for people in new positions as well as training to help employees make it to the next step. Similarly, a company who offers tuition reimbursement or generally encourages their employees to pursue professional development gives an employee less reason to move elsewhere.

When an organization fails to understand the importance of their human resources, it will not thrive. If your best employees leave, they take with them a wealth of institutional knowledge, experience, successful relationships with customers, etc. The cost of replacing an employee includes not only advertising, screening, interviewing, reference checks, training, but also the variable costs of damaged employee morale and lost business.

 According to a Gallup survey, employees who have an above-average attitude toward their work will generate 38 percent higher customer satisfaction scores, 22 percent higher productivity, and 27 percent higher profits for their companies. The benefits of employee job satisfaction are clear. If an organization is serious about attracting and retaining the best employees, as well as building a successful business, it must invest in employee development.

Six Tips for Increasing Employee Retention

Evaluating Your Employee Retention Program

Online registration forms can go way beyond just getting people to attend your meetings, events or conferences, they can become useful tools for capturing any kind of information at any time.

Online registration can be applied to so much more than meetings•

• Replace virtually any paper form for any purpose with an online registration website that is available 24/7
• Post applications to be completed online by job seekers, new members or volunteers
• Send surveys via email that can be completed by target groups
• Register professional licenses or other credentials
• Collect artist submissions for museum or gallery exhibitions
• Sign up interested customers for rewards programs

It has not even been one month since Amlink Technologies merged into Certain Software, but it already feels we have been together for along time - there are so many similarities in management vision and philosophy. During the first week of April, the executive team from Amlink met with the senior management team from Certain to create the foundation for the executive leadership team for the merged Certain.  Trevor Gardiner, the CEO from Amlink is taking on a leadership role with the new Certain as COO and will continue to lead the events™ product team.  One clear directive for the merger, as stated by Jim Pappas, Certain’s CEO is that the merged company acts as one global organization, with two great product lines and two great product teams, events™ and Certain Registration™.  That clearly came out after our first week together.
 
The Executive Merger Transition Committee (EMTC) will oversee the nuts and bolts of the merger.  Led by Dr. Rick Borry with Trevor Gardiner, Ken Voss, EVP of sales and marketing and Chris Buckley the team will oversee the strategy for organizational infrastructure and product strategy.  Amlink brings deep functionality with events™, including membership management and continuing education (CE) and is ready to release a new version of events™ in May.  Certain Registration™ will also release a new version in May which includes session level waitlist, barcode on confirmations and will be debuting on-demand training modules.  So there is a lot of exciting and ongoing developments along both product lines.  As we move forward, we will look at how we bring the best of both product lines to our customers.  But for now, it means two great solutions for meeting and events professionals with additional functionality, more choices for deployment and pricing options.

We are all excited about the opportunity to grow with the industry, to be the global provider of technology for the meetings and events industry.  With 5 offices around the world, and with a new Sydney office scheduled to open in May, we now have over 150 employees and process over 6 million registrations in 2008.  All to better serve our customers with the best service and support in the industry.  It has been a whirlwind, and will continue to be very exciting times for the New Certain. As always, we will still keep our focus on our first priority….our customers. 

 

Brett from Certain Software


Behind the scenes at Certain Software are some very talented, dedicated, and fun-loving people. While creating our new on-demand training videos, I had the pleasure of recording voiceovers with a number of our staff. When I began this project, a few people were recommended to me for voice talent. Since every video is an opportunity for new characters and scenarios, I decided to see who else might respond to a talent call.

The surprising thing is nearly everyone I’ve asked to record a voiceover has said yes and is excited to do so. I think people appreciate the chance to spend a few minutes of their day doing something very different from their typical responsibilities.

Nina and Heather appear in a few different videos and both work in new product design. Neither of them comes from a performance background. Heather shared that the voiceover work was a welcome opportunity to get “involved in another aspect of the company.” Nina has worked in training in the past and found the e-learning modules were dull. She likes that the voiceovers and photos make the “training more interactive and add a personal touch.”

When Brett isn’t busy directing program management for Certain, he plays guitar in a band and has actually taken voiceover classes. Brett notices that “musicians and artistic types” seem drawn to the voiceover work. He personally enjoys the opportunity with voiceovers to work on how you say something, as well as what you say. Brett’s also the one who coined the title for this blog.

As you watch the videos, you’ll hear numerous other voices from the Certain Software staff. While I didn’t name them all here, I am grateful to each for their enthusiasm and courage!

Nina and Heather from Certain Software

Enhanced Access Permissions. Sounds a little boring, right? I would rather be thinking about the really fun event planner stuff like whether I should choose the Moroccan-French or the Pacific Rim Fusion catering menu for the symposium luncheon.

But as a meeting and event planner, you know too well that all the fun stuff runs even smoother when you have control over every detail from the beginning, including getting the right groups of attendees to register for those fantastic events you are planning.



With the latest release of Certain Registration software, Version 4.15, event planners can gain further control over who can access a registration form within an event by taking advantage of new Enhanced Access Permission options. The options include OPEN and INVITATION ONLY in addition to RESTRICTED BY REGISTRATION STATUS option.

• OPEN allows anyone to access your registration form regardless of registration status, without a password. OPEN permission allows your attendees to register, create a profile and add guests if the form is setup to allow additional registrations. This is particularly great if you have a broad attendee base to promote your events to and a diverse program offering to attract large groups of people with varied interests.

• INVITATION ONLY allows you to make registration forms accessible only to attendees who have been specifically invited. This Enhanced Access Permission option works well for a much targeted event that will be attended by people with specific interests or professional credentials. Training program coordinators will also like this option, as it helps manage what programs people can register for as they progress through their training paths.

• RESTRICTED BY REGISTRATION STATUS allows you to limit registration form accessibility to specified status levels of attendees within a particular event. When you have even more complex attendee types in for incentive based events or extensive training programs, this Enhanced Access Permission option is essential.

All new registration forms created in Certain Registration will default to OPEN, while existing forms set to RESTRICTED BY REGISTRATION STATUS will retain those permissions.

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If I use the internet to learn new information, is that e-learning? How about if I send an email to a friend with instructions on how to do something? If I watch a video of someone demonstrating how to use an application, is that e-learning?

Wikipedia defines e-learning as “a general term used to refer to computer-enhanced learning.” With this broad definition, many of our activities today could be considered e-learning.

I’m taking a class on designing e-learning right now and there’s not a lot of agreement among the group about what defines e-learning. The instructor even seems reluctant to provide us with a working definition, but would rather let us ponder the question.

I suspect there’s a fair amount of ambiguity around e-learning because the field and associated technology is changing so rapidly. Wikipedia’s article mentions blogs, wikis, text chat, virtual classrooms, and podcasts among the technologies that could be utilized in e-learning. All of these tools are relatively new and people are discovering innovative ways to use them all the time.  

I believe there has to be an instructional component, meaning it can’t just be informational. For me this means that reading an article online is not e-learning. I may learn new information from the article, but the article itself does not teach me how to use the information. Good teaching involves helping people bridge the gap between knowing and doing.

Email has become the standard tool for event planners to communicate meeting, event and conference details with their attendees. It is quick, convenient and even green. With Certain Registration's high degree of customization the possibilities for creating dynamic email communications are great, but first email messages have to be optimized to make it through SPAM filters and get read by recipients.

Here are some best practices passed on from savvy business-to-business email marketers and some sound off from Certain Registration Chief Software Evangelist, Dr. Rick Borry.

1 - Get to the point.
Keep messages short as people typically skim emails to decide if they want to read deeper.

2 - Avoid big images or attachments.
Messages with large images or attachments often do not make it past spam filters.

3 - Stand out.
Make sure your subject line is compelling. Personalize your subject lines. This could make or break your chances of ending up being deleted. (For example, “Cindy, registration is now open for the 2008 Miami Tech Conference” as opposed to something vague like,“Tech Conference Registration.”)

4 - Personalize emails.
Connect with each addressee by personalizing greetings and content.

5 - Test before sending.
Send yourself and another colleague test emails to proof how content and formatting will look to your recipients.

6 - Pay attention to timing.
The best times to send email communications are Tuesday through Thursday. If you send on a Monday when people are sorting through emails from the weekend, yours may get lost in the shuffle.

7 - Plan ahead.
Plan all your communications strategically – sending too often may annoy, while too infrequent may leave you forgotten.

8 - Always include “Opt Out” instructions.
Not having an option for people remove themselves from your mailing lists is illegal.

9 - Avoid spamming.
Make sure your communications are up to date with the current CAN-SPAM ACT. Information can be found on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website.

10 - Learn from the results.
Track and review the results of your email communications to improve on what is working and what is not.

Dr. Rick Borry of Certain Software, Inc. discusses email communications and online registration webistes.....

As the old phrase says, "knowing is half the battle." In the whirlwind life of professional conference planners, this saying couldn't be more true. With site visits to make, vendor contracts to negotiate, and confused registrants calling every two minutes, getting an overview of the meetings season and of the money that's being spent may sometimes feel like an unattainable goal.

Certain Registration helps event planners get control of the big picture by offering information about key meeting factors, and by allowing for strong Consolidation reporting across all events done that year (or multi-year). We offer:

1. A unified and easily navigable Events List that lets you see which events just finished, which are upcoming, where they are occurring, and how many people have registered so far for each.

2. Custom Event data fields to track extra details about each event that you may need, whether it's a departmental code, a travel partner, or the on-site manager's name and phone number.

3. Consolidation reporting that helps you see activity across multiple events at once. How many events did you do by location? How many registrants went to multiple events? What was your average attendance this year vs. last year?

4. Event budgets with General Ledger codes specific to your accounting practices. We let you build your own General Ledger matrix for spend categories and codes, or you can use ours. Then track your projected and actual spend for each meeting, and report on the numbers across events using Consolidation reporting.

In subsequent releases, we will introduce new functionality to help you get even more control. We'll let you track meeting requests and approvals, use an automatic budget estimator to easily build better budget estimates, and assign meeting planner staff to events, all within one set of tools.

Stay tuned to our Certain blog for updates on the latest in our Meetings Management product suite.

When it comes to creating software simulation and training, I’ve found Adobe Captivate is easy to use and makes polished video tutorials. Not only can you demonstrate how a software application works, but you can also create interactive simulations for learners to practice using the application. In addition to screen captures, Captivate also provides quiz and survey features and is flexible enough to allow you to import images, audio, Powerpoint slides, and Flash files.

I've seen training videos produced using TechSmith’s Camtasia, but it doesn’t offer the simulation component that helps make for a more active learning experience. As a learner myself, I find simple demonstrations fall short of effective instruction. If you are mainly interested in recording a presentation, then Camtasia might work well for you.

As an online registration technology provider, Certain Registration is committed to giving customers the tools and solutions you need to manage events successfully. That’s why we’re developing on-demand training videos to help your registration specialists and meeting planners get up to speed quickly on our application. Look for our videos online later this spring!

If you are cooking for your 7-year old son’s birthday party or dinner for your boss and his wife, are you likely to prepare the same dishes? The same sorts of considerations that go into planning a meal for these different groups also apply to meeting planning and trainings. The point is, don’t underestimate the importance of knowing your audience.

When you are preparing a training or presentation, consider the age, skill level, and backgrounds of your audience. How much do they already know about your topic? How will this new information be of use to them? Is the terminology going to be over their heads? What do the participants have in common with each other? Learning the answers to questions like these in advance will help you develop curriculum that meets the needs of your particular audience.

Recently, an acquaintance who frequently presents to groups of public school teachers lamented how tough an audience of teachers can be. As a former high school teacher, I knew exactly what she was talking about. Whether it was a faculty meeting or professional development workshop, the presenters competed for our attention with the looming pressures of papers to grade, lessons to create, parents to contact, etc.  Knowing this about the audience makes it all the more important to communicate immediately how your information or training will be of value to them.

If you’re interested in tips for how to get your audience’s attention, you might want to check out this article:

Creative Presentation Openers

Or if you know your audience may be hostile, here’s an article with strategies for defusing the tension and managing attendee experience:

Defusing a Hostile Audience

Nothing is better than hearing about 2008's trends in online registration technology directly from the source. Dr. Rick Borry, Chief Software Evangelist for Certain Software, Inc. has been behind many of the innovations in Certain's product line over the years and is an influential authority on all things technological for the meetings and events industry. Dr. Borry sounds off on his take on "hot trends" for event planning software, social networking and what meetings and events planners really want at the end of the day.

I enjoy being a Supplier member of The Society of Government Meeting Professionals (SGMP) and associating with meeting planners from federal, state, and local government as well as other providers of meeting services and facilities.  

Through the Annual Education Conference and Tradeshow, monthly Chapter Meetings, and Special Events, planners and suppliers come together to review the latest trends in meetings management.  It is very rewarding to help meeting planners improve the quality and cost effectiveness of their meetings.

On February 5, I participated in “Achieving Gold” the goal for this year’s National Capital (NATCAP) Chapter‘s 11th Annual Winter Meeting & Tradeshow.  The event included a selection of sessions designed to keep planners and suppliers on top of current issues.

Sessions included “What is Sarbanes Oxley?” an explanation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX ) and how meeting professionals must comply with this law from an ethical standpoint.  For instance, disclosing information that might provide one potential contractor an edge that others do not have; or bundling meeting services such as morning and afternoon breaks, internet fees, gratuities or perhaps even registration fees.  The bottom line is accountability.  Are we as meeting planners and service providers putting ourselves and our partners at risk of an ethical violation of SOX? Read more.    

A very hot and chic session topic was the “Greening” of Government Meetings.  This session demonstrated how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is leading the way by making environmental responsibility a common business practice.  Did I mention the government has an acronym for anything and everything?  EPA is changing their contract acquisition rules to give preference to meeting services and facilities that consume less and manage resources in environmentally positive ways.  These topics were a perfect segue into the Trade Show.  I enthusiastically talked with attendees about the immediate benefits of using Certain Registration to “Go Green”.  Read more.

Mission accomplished.  I Achieved Gold!



David Dzergoski and Jeff Wilson from Certain talk with an attendee about "Going Green."

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When you’re facilitating a training or presentation, you want the audience to ask questions and participate. It shows they’re listening and interested in your topic. But what should you do if one individual keeps hammering you with questions?

Some people call this phenomenon “stump the chump.” But I don’t think a participant is necessarily playing games when they ask multiple questions. They may really want to understand a concept or feel they need to know all the ins and outs before they can feel comfortable.

As a presenter or trainer, the key is to recognize when the questions are no longer relevant to the majority of your audience. You don’t want to lose everyone else in your audience in order to appease one person’s curiosity. At that point, tell the questioner that you can catch up with them at the break or that you’ll get to those questions later in your presentation.

Don’t let a participant drag you off topic or waste your audience’s time. Your audience will appreciate a facilitator who keeps the presentation or training focused.