Eventsforce and The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI)
The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) is a UK-wide partnership of cancer research funders, established in 2001. Its member organisations work together to improve health and quality of life by accelerating progress in the cancer-related research, through collaboration.
NCRI’s events team consists of six people who are responsible for organising around 20 meetings each year, as well as the annual NCRI Cancer Conference which gathers more than 1,500 medical professionals from the industry.
Challenge: The events team at NCRI relied on several different systems that would help them plan and manage events. The Eventsforce event management solution was primarily used to manage registrations and agendas, whilst other applications were also used to manage things like abstract submissions, event apps and on-site attendance.
The problem was that most of the data held in these systems sat in silos, which meant the events team always had to spend a considerable amount of time transferring event information from one system to another. The process was inefficient and prone to error. It also meant less time was spent on other important event planning tasks.
The lack of integration between systems was also causing issues with the on-site check-in experience for NCRI’s conference attendees. Registrations had to close at a certain point before the event so that the team could then export all the data to a third-party provider that managed on-site registrations and badge printing. This meant many attendees were unable to register in the immediate run-up to the event. It also meant a lot more staff was needed to manage long queues and walk-in registrations.
Solution: NCRI decided to address these issues by consolidating all its processes into the Eventsforce event management system. Integration with Eventsforce’s abstracts solution simplifies the whole process of managing and reviewing the 600+ submissions the conference gets each year. As well as saving time, the system makes it easier for NCRI to see which abstract presenters have already registered and which haven’t.
Any changes to speakers and sessions in the Eventsforce system are automatically updated on websites, apps and agendas, which ensures delegates always see the most up-to-date event information. Integration with NCRI’s finance system also means less time is wasted chasing people for updates between departments and the organisation always has a clear overview of what revenue is being generated from events.
More recently, NCRI decided to use Eventsforce’s Kiosk solution to improve the overall on-site check-in experience for attendees. Instead of closing registrations and printing badges beforehand, NCRI now offers attendees self-service kiosks which helps cut down queues and reduces the whole check-in process to seconds. Attendees can check-in through a simple name search or QR code scan and print their badges on the spot. Full integration with the Eventsforce registration system also ensures the kiosks also display the most accurate and up-to-date registration information – even walk-ins.
As well as improving the attendee experience, the integrated solution helps NCRI cut down a lot of the time and resources typically spent around managing attendance. Badge printing is done all on-site and the use of self-service kiosks reduces the need for on-site staff. The system’s analytics tool also helps with decision-making by giving the events team a live overview on all their attendance and registration data at any given time.
The Eventsforce Attendance app is also helping NCRI with attendance recording around sessions. The app allows staff to use mobile devices like Smartphones and tablets to scan attendee badges before they check-in to a session. Live data gives organisers real-time insight on things like attendance rates, no shows, room capacities and session popularity. It also means that NCRI can manage attendance certificates and CPD accreditations a lot more effectively.
“Moving all our key event management processes to Eventsforce has saved us a considerable time on manual work and given us a lot more control over our data. This not only helps with GDPR compliance but makes our team more efficient too. The integrated system also gives us a much better overview on what is actually happening at our events. More importantly, our attendees are happier too with shorter registration queues and a much smoother event experience.”
– Nicole Leida, Head of Conference and Events, National Cancer Research Institute
Why Eventsforce?
- Time savings + improved staff efficiency with integrated system
- Fast and painless event check-in process for attendees
- On-site registration staff reduced by 50%
- Shorter registration queues + better management of walk-ins
- Live overview on key event metrics (registrations, revenue, attendance etc)