Wayne State University
As is the case in many higher education settings, there are hundreds of events that occur each year at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan — and they’re all managed by one department. So if planning one event is challenging, imagine managing multiple all at once, each with very different needs!
According to Deidre Turner though, a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and Event Specialist at the University, using ePly has created significantly more transparency between her team and their internal clients.
The reporting capabilities, in particular, have been a game-changer.
“I was overjoyed by the ability to give others access to reports,” said Turner. “When our office is juggling over 300 events a year and clients are asking about attendee numbers, I can send them a link to a real-time report. Hands down the biggest benefit. It takes me off the hook of having to constantly run reports. When it’s one or two events it’s no big deal, but when it’s multiple? That’s nuts.”
ePly has also made it a total breeze for the Event Specialists to manage the unique needs and details of each client.
For example, Turner says, “The alumni department likes to capture a lot of information, whereas other departments may not need to. We’re able to quickly incorporate any kinds of fields or columns of information that our clients would like.”
That customization carries over into other aspects of their registration forms, like using specific header images, logos, and brand colors within the form. They’ll even create custom form URLs and email notifications.
All of this to say, Turner’s favorite thing about ePly is the level of service she receives compared to that of other systems: “The sun broke through the clouds when we had tech support with ePly. There’s no comparison, they were on opposite ends of the continuum. It’s apples and oranges.”
Wayne State plans to continue using ePly for the foreseeable future for all events, and Turner has even pitched the system to the decision-makers for the Society of Plastics Engineers’ Blow Molding Annual Conference, a group she consults for outside the University. She’s particularly excited to give her treasurer real-time visibility into the numbers, after using a system that would only give him monthly updates. (“My board is going to save money using ePly instead of what we’ve been using the last 10 years.” — wow!)
