Overview
Comms vNext has been using Just Attend as our conference platform since 2021. We’ve used a few different tools over the years to do various aspects of our conference. But Comms vNext 2024 was the first year we used Just Attend for all the main conference functions. For anyone that has ever run an event, finding a platform that meets all your needs is quite a chore and if they do, they will likely cost a fortune, especially for small to medium sized conferences.
Today I want to share with you our experience using Just Attend for Comms vNext 2024. The work Mark Vale and his team have done on this platform in the last year is just phenomenal. Quite honestly, we couldn’t pull off Comms vNext nearly as smoothly without it.
Call for Content
When we start up Comms vNext, one of the first things we must do is put out a Call for Content. In past years, we used Sessionize, which is a very capable platform for Call for Content, but this year we were able to utilize the Call for Content inside Just Attend.
The Call for Content within Just Attend is built like a workflow. Each speaker that wishes to submit, creates an account on Just Attend and then they provide the details of their session. They can submit up to 3 sessions for review. Once Call for Content is closed, the organizers of the conference can go in and decide which sessions to accept and decline. Depending on what is selected the speakers are notified. If they are accepted, then they are invited to complete their Speaker Profile and accept the invitation. The session after being accepted by the speaker, is now available to place in the Schedule and the Speaker has a ticket automatically generated for them. Once the agenda is published, people visiting the conference website will be able to see what’s on the schedule, along with the details of the speaker profile.
Ticket Configuration
While the Call for Content is going, we are usually kicking ticket sales into high gear and bringing in sponsors. Comms vNext has a fairly simple conference pass/ticket. We offer just one Conference Pass that covers two days. I have seen other conferences on Just Attend offer tickets for just 1 day of the conference or a Full Conference Pass. It’s up to the organizers on how you would configure your ticket sales.
Sponsors/Exhibitors
Sponsorship wise, as soon as we have a sponsor pass all their financial requirements, we onboard them on to Just Attend. Sponsors using Just Attend have quite a bit of control over the content that attendees will see when they visit their page on Just Attend. You can see what this year’s sponsors configured for their pages on the Comms vNext Just Attend site. Videos or Graphics can be displayed. Formatted text of their offerings and even a place to post files for the attendees to download. Sponsors can also be configured with a predefined number of Exhibitor Tickets they are allowed to use based on their sponsorship level. This means they can Add or Remove their own booth staff and will and once the booth staff have completed their registration from the Email they receive from Just Attend an Exhibitor Ticket is generated for them. Additionally, when they login to the Just Attend mobile app they will also get a Lead Scan feature that allows them to scan badges at the conference and take notes to follow up later with Attendees. Below is a screen shot of the Exhibitor area in Just Attend.
Custom Registration Fields
When it comes to Attendees buying a ticket and completing registration, Just Attend allows for custom registration fields to gather the information that is important to your conference. Along with our normal demographics we added a Job Role/Function and Company Function to our fields this year. Also, the platform will remember your fields if you use the platform over multiple years.
Discounts
Discount wise, Comms vNext this year used a new feature of Just Attend. We configured a Loyalty discount. This allows us to configure a specific discount for people that have previously attended a conference on the Just Attend platform. We chose to only do past years of Comms vNext attendees this year, but we could have also included other conferences too like Commsverse. As soon as the Attendee puts in their email address they are notified of the discount. Very low friction and super easy to reward those who keep coming to your conferences year after year.
Just Attend can also have normal discount codes configured as well. These can be a certain amount of money off, or a percentage of your ticket price. Just Attend is configured to give the lowest discount if there are multiple discounts in play like, Loyalty and an entered code. Discounts can be activated by hand entering them by the attendee, you can also provide them a URL to automatically activate the discount, making it handy for sponsors to include in their social media posts.
Also with Discounts, you can assign discount codes to sponsors. If a code is assigned to a sponsor and the code is used, then the sponsor will be able to see the First Name, Last Name, and E-Mail of those who used their discount code in the Exhibitor are on Just Attend.
Badge Printing
Fast forward to the first day of check-in at Comms vNext. For us, we invested in two Epson ColorWorks C3500 Color Label printers that can print full badges using a piece of software running on a Windows PC at Check-in. People can use either a QR code in the ticket or type in their email address to retrieve their badge and Check-in. The QR code is in their E-Mail, but it can also be easily accessed in the Just Attend mobile app. They just simply login with the same credentials they configured when registering for the conference. Below is a staff badge, but with the Epson, each type of badge has a different color along with text to identify the type of badge.
Just Attend also, recently added the ability to print from smaller label makers like Zebra and then just apply the label to a Pre-printed Badge Blank.
Mobile App
When the Attendees use the Just Attend mobile app, they have full access to the Sessions, if they’ve added sessions to their Agenda, they can see those as well. Attendees can browse the sponsors and see the same content they would on the website. Attendees can also get great information from the blogs the organizers publish that can give them information like floor plans or important aspects of the venue. The mobile app also has the ability to allow Attendees to exchange their contact information with another Attendee. Below are some pics of the Just Attend mobile app for Comms vNext.
Digital Signage
The next thing an Attendee at Comms vNext might notice is all the digital signs we have up at each of the rooms and various other places. These are all run by Raspberry Pis and have a different configuration depending on their function. For each of the rooms, we have them configured to display a “Wall Board” from Just Attend that automatically displays what is currently happening in that room as well as what is coming up next. The speaker’s picture and name are displayed along with the title and description of the talk that the speaker provided when they submitted the call for content. Also down at the bottom of the screen, all the sponsors are displayed in a rotating display of their logos. At registration and just before walking in the exhibit hall we also have an overall conference Wall Board that displays what is going on in all the rooms at that moment. Those too also display sponsor graphics at the bottom. Below are a couple of screen grabs I did as well as a picture of an actual room Display (this one was showing our Lunch menu along with the sponsor)
Conclusion
As you can see, Just Attend is an integral part of how we can accomplish Comms vNext every year. Yes, we can accomplish much of the conference using other platforms, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find all this functionality in a single platform for a reasonable cost. Just Attend quite simply was built by a Conference Organizer for other Conference Organizers and it shows in the functionality it provides.
If you would like to find out more about Just Attend. Reach out to Mark Vale.