Community Transportation Association of America

The Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) is a national, nonprofit membership association serving members across the country. The organization began planning their annual meeting in early 2020. Scheduled for June, the impact of the global health crisis soon made the event an impossibility. Before their annual meeting, CTAA usually facilitates several days of intensive training and continuing education courses for certification. In order to faithfully serve their members during the crisis, CTAA decided to host a multi-day virtual training event entitled “FIT for Success - Fundamental Intensive Training” in lieu of their annual meeting.

Automating Virtual Solutions for Efficiency

Loreal Lance, Membership and Business Development Director, and Taylor Klocke, Senior Communications, Event, and Legislative Specialist, typically support CTAA business initiatives outside the realm of event management. When CTAA senior leadership tasked them with managing a series of virtual events, Taylor and Loreal needed a practical, automated solution that would allow them to simultaneously maintain their other responsibilities. They had just completed two virtual events for the organization and knew an all-in-one solution would be key to their success. As CTAA had a longstanding relationship with Cvent lasting well over a decade, the integration between the Cvent Event Management solution with the new Cvent Virtual Attendee Hub® was a natural fit.

With just weeks to plan the event, Taylor and Loreal adopted several best practices from the growing number of virtual events within the industry. Working with a dedicated Virtual Event 360 Professional Services team from Cvent, they created a streamlined registration site which offered a full catalogue of available sessions for registrants. This required custom registration logic with an easily navigable user experience. Registrants could choose dedicated one-day or two-day registration paths, depending on their content needs or certification requirements. Each of these included specific fee structures that were configured and automated directly through Cvent. 

Creating In-House Solutions with Cvent Advanced Production Services

Typically, CTAA relies on a third party to help manage their event build and registration. However, the intuitive nature of New Standard Registration (Flex) and the seamless integration of the Virtual Attendee Hub allowed CTAA to keep the process in-house with their dedicated Cvent team. The overall event build and registration process was incredibly smooth, says Loreal, with the end result impressing even their most discerning technology stakeholders in terms of dataflow and modern aesthetic. "They were very, very happy with not only the Virtual Attendee Hub but also the design and functionality of the registration site," says Loreal. Using Flex helped ensure an on-brand site that was easy to navigate, capturing key details with automated dataflow and ensuring a smooth user experience for a non-technical demographic. "We received so many compliments on the branded look and feel of both the hub and the registration site from our stakeholders," adds Taylor.

"[Our stakeholders] were very, very happy with not only the Virtual Attendee Hub but also the design and functionality of the registration site."

Loreal Lance, Membership and Business Development Director

Loreal and Taylor then worked closely with their training director to develop content for 17 unique sessions. These were interspersed across one or both days of the event and included a variety of training courses, breakout sessions, workshops, and general sessions like the CTAA Kick Off and a closing awards program. In marketing the paid event to their contact base, they leveraged Cvent’s eMarketing tool for automated invitation emails, reminders, and key updates during the event. With automated email functionality at their fingertips, Taylor and Loreal could target invitees with specific offers, training courses, and certification options. As a result of their marketing efforts, they saw an incredible 53% open rate across emails and over 200 registrations in total. They were also able to highlight specific sessions through their marketing efforts and within the hub to help drive session attendance. "Out of 202 people, we had 95 people who discovered the Kick Off general session organically, which we strongly consider a win," says Loreal.