Product and Service Design

PROBLEM

The Global Leadership Summit, hosted by The Global Leadership Network (GLN) hundreds of thousands of leaders attend this leadership conference via one of the 450 satellite sites in the US. The venue for the live broadcast has close to 20,000 attendees on site. The US event is then translated into 60+ languages and takes place in more than 123 countries.. 

Event registration impacted every department within the organization. There were four ways to register for the annual event; one for those attending a location within the United States regardless of their country of origin, a second for those traveling to the US from another country, a third for people attending an international satellite events and the fourth way to register was through custom forms managed by external partners. 

The Event Operations team spent hundreds of hours manually reviewing and correcting erroneous submissions. Registrations for those traveling to the US from another country were managed by another team, International Operations, whose process was completely manual and done through emails and phone calls. 

SOLUTION

Ensure conference attendees registered using the correct form by creating a single, dynamic form for everyone. This meant automating manual processes for internationals attending an event in the US. In addition to this a robust customer portal was needed to allow for: user accounts, event registration, automated notifications and account management tools.

PROCESS

A wholistic, big picture understanding was needed.

Existing registration process produced +2 million invalid customer records (every year for 25 years!!) bloating the database and skewing analytics. 

1. Mapped out existing registration process to understand how each internal department was impacted.
2. Removed unnecessary required fields, and replaced free-form text fields with drop-down selectors to eliminate data entry mistakes.
3. Created and tested paper versions of the new form with all teams and users before coding anything.
4. Built a single, dynamic 'smart' form for all attendees (international and domestic registration) which was translated into multiple languages.
   

In person event check-in required a new customer portal.

1. Event check-in used significant manpower and time as attendees came to conference locations PRIOR to the event to check-in and collect conference materials.
2. Paper registration forms were being collected and supplementary data entry staff were hired to add and update records because customers could not make their own edits.
3. Customers could manage a wide-range of features and content reducing support calls and allowed for a white glove approach for large groups.

Project prioritization based on highest cost savings due to non-profit status.

1. Allowing attendees to edit their own registration AND print their own tickets saved the live broadcast event team in South Barrington, IL $80,000 alone on paper.
2. Mobile responsive, customer portal allowed participants to manage event registrations, lunch tickets and membership subscriptions, set up recurring or one-time donations, access free and paid digital content and purchase event specific books and materials.

OUTCOME

The work my team of eight did involved significant process improvements impacting physical locations, and IT infrastructure, in addition to automating both analog and digital processes. Streamlining internal processes improved the overall experience for staff across all departments (marketing, membership, registration, international, event operations, team support, IT operations, etc.) and positively contributed to the experience of conference attendees globally.

Improved tools and process took a year to complete and another to refine. 

1. Participants show a QR code on their printed tickets or mobile devices when they walk in. No pre-event check-in needed.
2. Greeters use hand held scanners to check people in, valid ticket holders get a lanyard allowing them to collect conference materials. 
3. Attendees with registration issues access onsite kiosks or use their mobile devices to update their information.

Initial rollout highlighted infrastructure issues for conference attendees.

1. WI-FI network could not support 15,000+ attendees at the live broadcast.
2. Two organizations, co-located, had to agree on network upgrades (ie. T1, Cat 6 and/or other fiber optics) to support four distinct venues housed in the same building.
3. Infrastructure improvements were made the following year.

Annual savings of $5,000,000.00

1. Reduced material costs (ie. printer ink, paper, stamps) and eliminated the need to hire supplemental personnel by creating a customer portal.
2. Exponential savings allowed the organization to expand into other countries, translate content into more languages and bring in big name speakers like Ron Howard, BONO from U2, Condoleezza Rice, and Melinda Gates.

NOTE: Process and service design improvements still used today in 2022..