Anyone who has been through the higher education system in the UK will be familiar with UCAS (the Universities & Colleges Admission Service), the central organisation that processes admissions in this country.
Justine Atkin is the events & technical co-ordinator for UCAS Media, an affiliated company that supports the work of UCAS and provides an important revenue stream to the organisation. The aim of UCAS Media is to provide the best communication channels to students and their influencers; delivering effective and efficient services to clients in the higher education, commercial and not-for-profit sectors.
Justine and her team organise around 100 events throughout the UK each year, which range in size from small meetings to major exhibitions with thousands of visitors. In the past, Justine and her colleagues were simply using the main UCAS website to advertise its’ events and were mailing out printed registration forms. Registrations and payments were processed manually, which was hugely time consuming, prone to human error and wasteful of resources such as paper and postage. The company realised that it had to modernise if it was to continue to support UCAS effectively.
Eventsforce transforms event management
UCAS Media chose Eventsforce as its technology partner for event management. Justine says: “We looked at a number of suppliers, but what convinced us to go with Eventsforce was the complete flexibility that this solution gives us in so many ways. Online registration has transformed the way we work, saving huge amounts of time, as well as being much more accurate. We use lots of different discounts for our events, which used to be really complicated to organise. But with the flexible pricing tools in Eventsforce, we can set any number of special offers and pricing structures, build the online registration form, make everything live, publicize the event and then allow the system to manage delegate bookings.”
Better websites bring results
Using Eventsforce has also helped UCAS Media to publicise its events more widely and attract a bigger audience. Justine says: “We can now create a vibrant, interesting, multi-page website for each of our events, which stimulates interest and visitor registration. Each year, we run a UK-wide series of about 50 events which used to present a huge challenge to our organisational skills. Using Eventsforce, we can build one big website for all 50 events, complete with online visitor registration, multiple discounts, online payments, exhibitor registration, programs, everything, all managed and controlled using one Eventsforce project.”
Eventsforce support services are “exceptional”
Just as important to Justine and her team is the quality of customer care they have received from the company. She comments: “Since the system was installed, we have had exceptional support from the Eventsforce team on every level. Our advisor keeps in touch on a regular basis, making sure that all is well. And the support team is fantastic, they will always go the extra mile to keep us up and running; nothing is too much trouble and they respond so quickly. We’ve had great training too, but because Eventsforce is so easy to use, I’ve become our ‘resident expert’ and have even made my own training guides for internal use!”
Reduced costs and an improved service with Eventsforce
Does Justine believe that Eventsforce has been a good investment? She answers: “Definitely. Since we started using the system, we have achieved our goals of reducing costs and improving profits. Our workload has decreased by one whole person, which is astonishing! That resource has gone into providing more events and an improved service for our clients. And importantly, we are so much ‘greener’ – we’ve reduced our use of paper and ink, which saves money and the planet. I’m really delighted with Eventsforce and I’d recommend it to anyone.”
