AMA Triangle
Eliminating manual process and creating program consistency with Cvent
Located in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Triangle AMA’s mission is to provide value to Triangle area marketers (members of the American Marketing Association, non-members, agencies, companies, and colleges) by connecting people and by providing educational programming and professional resources.
Creating a Consistent Experience for Triangle AMA Events
One of the largest AMA chapters in the country, Triangle AMA relies on revenue from registration fees and paid sponsorships for events, as well as from member dues from the AMA international organization. Meetings and events truly drive their business, and include luncheons, seminars, workshops, and a large annual conference. Triangle AMA needed their local events to not only be engaging, but also deliver value to their members though networking, education, and entertainment.
Like many non-profits and associations, Triangle AMA relies on a large volunteer staff to help plan and manage their events. Consistency from month-to-month and year-to-year was a challenge when it came to managing the events and retaining members. With these volunteers flowing in and out of the organization, the need to standardize processes became increasingly vital to their success.
Triangle AMA’s leadership, including Past President Evan Carroll, noted that the association's goal was to find a solution that would automate "everything as much as we could, and – to take as much variability out of that process as possible and ensure a consistent, quality experience." The critical search soon began for event management software to plan and report on their events.
Using Cvent to Ensure Speed, Stability, and Expansion
After vetting several providers, Triangle AMA chose to partner with Cvent. It didn’t take long for the Triangle AMA team to experience the value of investing in the centralized event management platform. "In 2014, we hosted our first multi-day, multi-track conference – High Five – it really wasn’t until then that we could see the powerful things we could do with Cvent," says Evan. The functionality gave Triangle AMA multiple registration options, allowing them to issue separate passes for conferences and workshops, assign differentiated member vs. non-member status, and include tiered pricing models. "Cvent became the tool to do all of that in a seamless way," he adds.
What’s more, Triangle AMA is now able to duplicate existing events and create automated email templates for easy updates. Templates included custom email tags to personalize communication with their members and featured sponsor logos. These small improvements created consistency and valuable time-savings for overworked staff.
In the interest of automating more of their event management processes, Triangle AMA was eager to take advantage of the entire Cvent platform. "We used the Cvent Supplier Network to manage the RFP process, and it helped us to know what questions to pose," says Evan. "We found a venue we really liked and have been using it ever since." He notes they added the CrowdCompass app to High-Five soon after. It was, he says, a valuable investment. With an unexpected snowstorm in the middle of February in North Carolina, Evan notes the change in weather could have caused a full cancellation of the event. Moreover, the printed program couldn't accommodate the needed adjustments to the schedule that had to be made last minute. CrowdCompass, however, was the clear answer. He notes, "Our printed program became useless, and the app became the program. With push notifications, CrowdCompass saved the day, and we could not have navigated that weather situation without it."
Shortly thereafter, Triangle AMA added SocialWall, Cvent’s onsite photo sharing tool that builds attendee engagement, to the monthly events and High-Five conference. At the monthly events, it replaced an outdated, auto-advancing PowerPoint with the announcements, sponsor logos, and anything else board members wanted to share. Utilizing SocialWall meant Triangle AMA had the ability to share custom posts for sponsors, tweets, and Instagram photos. "Our social presence is so strong that our hashtag trends in Raleigh during the luncheons," adds Evan. "We are able to leverage the active audience through tweets, announcements, new members that we’ve added, logos of sponsors, and so on. It allows us to provide something of value as well as recognition of sponsors and other events and activities."
Showcasing a Strong Model for Growth
Evan insists that the "importance of Cvent for overall event management is simply irreplaceable." Since partnering with Cvent, Triangle AMA is averaging 16% growth year over year, and now have over 600 active members, a record for Triangle AMA. He says, "It’s a very easy connection to make that the events we are putting on are driving that growth. Realizing the power that we have and the competitive pricing as a non-profit, the thought of moving to another solution is untenable, a nonstarter. With Cvent, we are positioned for success going forward."
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