CrowdCompass VIP Admin Center Is a Time Saver for Planners

I’ve often wondered if studies could be done on the amount of time event planners spend on the back and forth emails and phone calls trying to get a speaker’s, exhibitor’s, or sponsor’s information in the right format. I’m sure you’re all familiar with those conversations. You: Hi, this is Sam from XYZ Event. We did receive your logo, but it’s only 72 dpi and it’s smaller than a postage stamp. It needs to be at least… Them: Okay, I’m sending it to you right now. This should be the right one. You: Um, I have it. While you did, in fact, make it bigger it’s still low resolution and now it’s very blurry. Them: Why don’t I give you the number for my agency. You can call them and get what you need. About seven emails and phone calls later you finally have a logo in the format you need. And that’s just a logo! Heaven help you if you’re trying to get a 100 word company description, speaker headshots, and content from these people. Well, now you don’t have to. CrowdCompass has created a VIP Admin Center for its app; which allows speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors to upload their own data directly to the app once you’ve given them access. This pretty much eliminates the planner as the middleman. Instead of trying to herd the cats, you can give speakers access to the VIP Admin Center and tell them to upload their photo, bio, link to an intro video, handouts and any other materials they might have for your attendees. The same goes with exhibitors and sponsors. If questions come up along the way VIP admins can call CrowdCompass' support line directly for help, saving the planner even more time. Of course, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. Here are five tips to give your speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors a bit of a nudge to complete those profiles.

1. The system is pretty intuitive, but create basic instructions on how to sign in and upload content into the system.
2. Create a checklist of all the content you want included in their profile and let them know it doesn’t all have to be done at once. This will make the process less overwhelming to an already overworked admin.
3. Show them a screen shot of what a completed profile looks like vs. an incomplete profile. No one wants to be “that guy."
4. Create an FAQ of commonly asked questions that have a simple fix. Keep adding to it as questions pop up. This will reduce the amount of time you spend on the phone.
5. Check in periodically with those speakers, exhibitors and sponsors who’ve not yet completed their profiles and encourage them to get this done. After all, it’s something that benefits your attendees.

What I love about this the most is that once that information is all in there, you can then transfer it to anywhere else you might need to use it, such as printed programs and your event website. Now maybe someone will do a study on the amount of time event planners spend selecting the perfect menu that takes into account everyone’s allergies and diet preferences. Written by Traci Browne