NHS Modernisation Agency, "Collaboration in Cardiac Care"

Background: ICC, Birmingham, 1000 delegates.  The "Collaboration in Cardiac Care" conference brought together 1000 delegates from all levels of cardiac care. Following on from last year's successful online registration and delegate management Symphony was once again chosen to provide online facilities to delegates registering for the conference.

Using our in-house expertise we built an event website that included

• An introduction to the work of the Coronary Heart Disease Collaborative.
• An introduction to the content and purpose of the event.
• A programme of events for the conference, this included biographies of speakers and could be instantly updated by the event managers.
• An interactive map of Birmingham city centre that included location and details of the accommodation available to book.
• Online registration form that allowed delegates to submit their contact details, reserve their accommodation and workshops for the conference.
• A post-event questionnaire that allowed delegates to submit their feedback on the conference.

Benefits delivered:

• A simple and easy to use registration form for people wishing to book onto the event
• Hotels could be booked online thus reducing the number of inbound phone calls and emails the event team had to deal with.
• Information on all delegates and speakers was available to the administrative team at the touch of a button.
• Top line information for the management team could also be downloaded from Symphony at any time.
• Because delegates booked their workshops online, personalised itineraries could be produced using data from Symphony – this meant that on the day of the event each person had a timetable specific to them.
• The event website became a ‘one stop shop’ for potential delegates.  It gave them information on who was speaking at the event, where the hotels where and the best way to get to the venue. By providing this information all in one place the number of queries the event team had to deal with was drastically reduced.
• The post-event evaluation form hosted online mean the events team could receive feedback instantly and not have to spend time collating and evaluating the data themselves.

Event Manager, NHS Modernisation Agency.