Overview

A comprehensive registration system saves meeting planners a significant amount of time. Registrants are happier with a system that can flexibly respond to registration changes. Fee collection and accounting proceeds smoothly. Vendors are able to quickly identify and list interested registrants.

Registration System Entry Screens

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Here’s how it works

Mr. Rivet is attending a three-day conference put on by the HWS (High-rise Welders Society). He is one of 5000 welders at the conference. He approaches the Registration Desk.

The HWS clerk enters his name using the ConferenceMinder Registration System. 

Immediately the computer informs the clerk that Mr. Rivet is pre-registered, has paid with a valid credit card, signed up for a field trip, and a workshop.

Mr. Rivet tells the clerk he wants to make some changes to his schedule. He wants to cancel the field trip, substitute a lecture for the workshop, and he needs 2 tickets for the banquet dinner. He will pay for the banquet with cash. And he wants to register his wife, Rosie, as a guest.

"No problem," the young, inexperienced clerk replies, and punches in the changes and new registration. 

The clerk, using the ConferenceMinder System, cancels Mr. Rivet’s field trip and credits his account. The Registration System verifies that the lecture is not sold out, automatically adjusts the head count for the workshop that Mr. Rivet canceled, and informs the clerk that only 1 ticket is available for the banquet. The clerk signs up Rosie as a guest. The system calculates the price and stores the payment information.

The ConferenceMinder System prints out a single sheet for Mr. Rivet, and one for his wife. On it are Mr. Rivet’s nametag, ticket to all free events, the ticket for the banquet, tickets for the lecture and workshop with directions printed on the ticket, and a receipt that Mr. Rivet can use for reimbursement. 

The ConferenceMinder System calculates the cost of the extras, debits the field trip, and calculates the balance.

Mr. Rivet walks away happy. All his needs have been met at a single stop.

The HWS Convention organizers are happy. They have an up-to-the-minute head count for all events. They have a general ledger printout for accounting. They have the night off!

System Description

The ConferenceMinder Registration System collects registrant demographics, ticket orders, and associated payments in a single database.

The ConferenceMinder System is written in Microsoft Access and Microsoft Visual Basic. It runs on Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP and 2003 systems. It supports both small and large conferences from 100 to 50,000 attendees. The same software and database runs both for pre-registration and on-site. A Pentium 500 with 128 MB RAM or better will support a single user or client workstation. A second server can be used for real-time backup of registration data.

For simple conference registration only basic demographics need to be collected to generate a badge. More complex registration supports an unlimited number of ticketed events with pricing by category (such as student, regular, comp, etc). Prices can be changed for pre-registration and on-site registrants or guests. Integrated accounting software keeps track of registrations at ticketing by account, supports credit and refund processing, credit card information, payment adjustments, and export of data to other accounting software.

The ConferenceMinder System edits data as it is entered. The conference manager can customize the data entry edits via easy-to-use forms. There is no duplication or reentering of data. Registration and ticketed events can be customized for each event for each conference. The Registration System also provides 6 security levels and built in auditing. Over 90 help files and extensive online help make training a snap.

There are numerous badge styles. For a meeting with multiple ticketed events a badge will be printed on the top of the form with a bold Registration Id. The sheet is roughly letter size. To the right a receipt is printed. The rest of the sheet, and subsequent sheets as needed are filled with tickets. Optionally some tickets may not be printed. Tickets, such as reception tickets, may be generated based on another ticketed event. Special badges may be printed by event for meals, field trips, etc. At the bottom of the sheet is a mailing address block. Pre-registration badges are printed in batches. On-site badges are printed as soon as the registration or registration change is complete.

The vendor lead subsystem generates vendor labels and data based on a registrant Id list provided by the vendor. Vendors do not need to rent or purchase bar code scanners or card imprint equipment. 

Ticket levels are controlled for each event. The ticket level maximums can be changed at any time in order to respond to room size changes. Standby ticketing is supported. Standby ticket level maximums also can be changed at any time. Returned tickets are automatically returned to the ticket pool. Events can be cancelled with ticket amounts reverting to unused credit.

For pre-registration, confirmations and itineraries can be Faxed or printed for mailing.

Over one hundred financial and registrant report variations are available. Some of the reports are:

Generic Report (user selected report by registrant demographic fields) 

General Ledger (for accounting)

Ticketed Event History Report (to-date tickets sold and money received by event)

Payments Sums by Account Report (to-date payments by account, totals)

Batch Edit Report (accounting)

Cancelled Events Report (cancelled event and ex-registrants)

Registrant Report (registrant demographic, ticketed event and payment details)

Event Roster Report (field trips) 

Itinerary Labels (registration follow-up)

Vendor Lead Report (Report or labels for follow-up contact)

Existing databases can be easily imported into the ConferenceMinder System. Handley Computer Corporation staff can take existing membership demographics and quickly import the data into the ConferenceMinder System.