Supercharging Campus Visits & Events
Campus and Visitor Relations (CAVR) serves all visitors to this large midwest University, and has been serving the needs of visitors and partner departments with a variety of ad-hoc tools, methods and technology. CAVR coordinates visits and tours across campus but they do not actually plan and host actual events.
In a discovery process, the group uncovered opportunities for improvement:
- Reduce the number of applications supporting event management
- Utilize common systems and platform with central allocation
- Create a common understanding, vocabulary, and processes across campus
This project is being approached as an open, collaborative effort on campus and will have a variety of participants beyond CAVR and including participants from other Schools, Colleges, Divisions and Units.
Pilot Testing a Possible Solution
In partnership with Strategic Consulting, Enterprise CRM & Engagement Solutions and Campus and Visitor Relations (CAVR) are piloting a 3-part system to manage all aspects of their communications, bookings and transactions. The pilot project will test the event registration functionality of the Blackthorn.io application via Salesforce CRM, along with existing enterprise technology systems, Eloqua and Accruent’s EMS, to determine if they meet the registration needs broadly across campus (see graphic below).
Eloqua is a current UW-Madison enterprise system that handles the marketing/awareness and post-event communication functions of an event, while Accruent EMS is currently handling event coordination and hosting functions. Blackthorn via Salesforce provides robust event registration capabilities including attendee lists, QR code-driven guest check-in and printing badges, among others.
Timeline
Jun ‘23: Procurement & Planning
Jul–Oct ‘23: Event Registration Testing
Nov ‘23, Feb ’24: Recommendations and Budgeting
Dec ‘23–May ‘24: Events Enterprise Implementation (if pilot succeeds)
Mar–May ‘24: Non-Credit Course Enterprise Implementation (if pilot succeeds)