CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Multiple Moving Parts
Being a networking organisation, CIVICUS conducts several events across the world mostly for its members, including its flagship event International Civil Society Week (ICSW). ICSW is a key global gathering for civil society and other stakeholders to engage constructively in finding common solutions to global challenges. In 2017, the ICSW brought together 634 delegates from 115 countries to participate in more than 40 events.
Organising such a big and complex event was difficult. On top of that, CIVICUS did not have any in-house registration system, due to which the team faced challenges in their registration and ticketing processes. With so many moving parts to organise events of this level, CIVICUS realised they had to find an effective way to manage their events. The team identified a need for a proper delegate management system as well as a solution to manage and collect payments from delegates.
In addition, they were also looking for a mobile app to update event delegates about agenda changes and allow networking between them. They started probing different options that could bring more synergy between various aspects of event planning with a well-equipped and well-supported event management software
Tackling Event Woes
Since they didn’t have any prior experience in dealing with an event management software, CIVICUS was looking for a solution that was simple and easy-to-use. In 2017, CIVICUS joined hands with Cvent to integrate its event planning process for ICSW. The event management software proved to be a valuable tool for managing delegates, collecting registration fees and collating reports. “Automating registration process saved us a lot of work on manual adding/removing delegates. It also helped us facilitate communication with delegates by sending group emails to a certain group of delegates,” says Andrzej Kostek, ICSW 2017 Coordinator, CIVICUS. With an easy-to- use system at their disposal, the team was able to design the registration portal and event app according to their needs. “The Cvent system was very user-friendly! We engaged interns to manage the tool and they mastered it really quickly,” exclaims Kostek.
With the help of an event mobile app, CIVICUS managed to execute a completely paperless event, which led them to save a lot on printing costs. The app also relieved attendees of the burden of lugging around printed programmes and handouts. The app further helped CIVICUS engage with attendees, share event welcome packs online and communicate real-time with the participants.
Cvent has improved CIVICUS’ evaluation of the impact of their events, with its comprehensive reports and ROI tracking features. The reporting dashboard gave visibility of an event and its progress to all the teams across the globe. “Reconciliation of the revenue was very easy this time. We had complete visibility on how much money we had spent, collected, and what was the ROI of the event. The refund process was also convenient with the online event management system,” says Kostek.
Efficient Event Engine
CIVICUS started seeing results of its work with Cvent almost immediately – event registrants skyrocketed, attendees loved the app and online payment became hassle free. CIVICUS doubled its registration goals by ending up with 872 registrants and 635 participants. The event mobile app was a huge hit amongst attendees with an adoption rate of 70%. By automating their event planning processes, the team has seen a drastic decrease in the time they spent on communicating with an external agency and a 50% increase in their efficiency. “Thanks to the in-house management of registrations, we managed to save a lot of funds that was being spent on hiring an external company that would do it for us,” adds Kostek. Keeping in mind their big plans for the future, CIVICUS intends to continue expanding their association with Cvent for upcoming events.
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