Posted by John
Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:15:00 GMT
"The Congress for the New Urbanism is very excited to be using Zerista this year! Attendees have been impressed to find an event networking site that looks great and connects them with the colleagues they'll see at our conference. They're also using it to select and find sessions. It definitely surpassed our expectations." -CNU Communications Director
We recently completed a fun project working with a leading urban design conference in Denver. The Conference for the New Urbanism (CNU) is the nation's leading forum dedicated to advancing urbanism and promoting alternatives to sprawl.
We were excited to work on this project - not only because we support the general new urbanist principles, but also because we live and work in the types of communities that new urbanism seeks to encourage.
As background, New Urbanism is an urban design and development movement dedicated to implementing community-oriented principles of traditional town and city planning in contrast to the prevailing system of formless sprawl. New Urbanist developments are walkable, provide a diverse range of housing options, encourage a rich mix of uses, and provide welcoming public spaces as detailed in the Charter of the New Urbanism.
The conference attracts more than 1,000 attendees from around the world who particiapte in several hundred planned activities throughout the week.
Some of the key challgenges faced by the conference organizer:
• Strengthen relationships between core stakeholders - attendees, speakers and exhibitors
• Increase networking between attendees, speakers and exhibitors
• Increase productivity at the conference
The solution included the following key components:
• Attendee, speaker and exhibitor directories with detailed info on all key stakeholders
• Online conversations for attendees, speakers and exhibitors
• Personalized scheduling tools with ability to export MS Outlook, iCal and other calendar aps
The solution generated a significant ROI:
• 27% average increase in event networking due to Zerista (based on survey data)
• 10% average increase in overall event productivity due to Zerista (based on survey data)
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free comment below.
Posted in Conferences | Tags case, event, media, networking, new, social, study, urbanism | no comments
Posted by John
Thu, 28 May 2009 23:09:00 GMT
"The Zerista application is the perfect dashboard for managing conference meetings, messages, while also prospecting......in the past, I would go to a meeting thinking I'm missing something. With your tool I feel like my prep time is well spent and assured I'm not missing a beat. Well done! Thanks again for the tool." -Exhibitor
“Just a note to say how much I am enjoying using Zerista. Thanks for providing this great tool! “ -Attendee
“Great tool. Really enjoying it!” -Attendee
As highlighted by the user quotes above, the Zerista application had a significant impact on the event experience for attendees and exhibitors. The event organizer's intent was to significantly improve the event ROI for attendees and exhibitors. Zerista played a key piece in achieving this objective.
Customer Needs:
• Increase meetings between attendees and exhibitors
• Increase networking between attendees
• Decrease the planning effort for attendees
Solution:
The Zerista team worked closely with the event producer to deliver a custom Social Event Site that delivered the following key features:
• Attendee directory and integrated networking tools
• Exhibitor directory and integrated networking tools
• 1:1 meeting scheduler
• Real-time event feed with aggregated social media content (youtube, flickr, etc.)
Return-on-Investment (ROI):
The solution generated a significant ROI that substantially exceeded expectations:
• More than 14,000 messages, meetings and contacts created
• More than 800 1:1 meetings scheduled
• Roughly 80% of exhibitors and 50% of attendees used the application
• Exhibitors scheduled 40% to 80% more meetings due to Zerista
Feel free to contact us with questions or comments.
Posted in Conferences, Features | Tags at, conferences, event, media, of, ROI, site, social | no comments
Posted by John
Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:45:00 GMT
"The finished product looks fantastic, and the best part is people are already using it. We're really excited and hope that this rubs off on the membership and makes the event that much better." -Conference & Trade Show Organizer
We recently completed a successful project for a leading financial services conference and trade show. Given the turmoil in the financial services industry and resulting cutbacks in event attendance at financial services events, this client was focused on differentiating their event vs. competing events. Since attendees and exhibitors are reducing the number of events they attend, this client wanted to make sure that their event stands out and, as a result, remains the preferred event within their industry niche for attendees and exhibitors.
The client perceived the use of social networking as a key point for differentiation. This client took a multi-platform strategy that includes both general purpose social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) and event-specific social networks (Zerista). They decided to use Zerista to meet a significant functionality gap within the general purpose platforms: in-depth event-specific social networking and scheduling functionality.
Key functionality provided by Zerista included the capabilities to:
- Search a complete attendee directory
- Schedule 1:1 meetings with other attendees
- See who else is attending specific sessions, keynotes, and workshops
- Build and export a personalized schedule and itinerary
The solution had a significant impact on the conference experience:
- More than 3,000 messages, contacts, and meetings were created within the solution
- More than 475 attendees created event-specific profiles to share with other attendees
- Strong positive feedback from users
To read more about this case study, please click here: Financial Services Case Study.
Posted in Conferences, Features, Events | Tags at, conferences, differentiation, event, events, financial, media, services, social, tradeshows | no comments
