Directory of Social Change run their conferences with Progress Events module

The Directory of Social Change (DSC) has been using Progress since 2002.

It is a national trading charity providing advice, information, and training to voluntary and community organisations in the UK. It runs many training events and conferences throughout the year as well as organising the annual charity fair.

Adrian Mitchell (Mitch), IT Manager at the DSC, explains how they use the Events module to manage the administration of their many events. "The DSC organises around 650 training events and conferences a year, with around 200 active at any one time, and we have approximately 13,000 delegates a year attending these courses.

"Some courses are one-day events others can be three day residential courses. In addition, there is the Charity Fair, which is over three days, with many breakout sessions, and 7,000 delegates. As you can imagine the administration of all these events is quite intensive and we use the Events module to handle it all."

"We start by planning an event and entering all the event information into Progress; we give the event a sensible name and description - with so many active events it's vital to make the description something that can be recognised straight away rather than numbers - and we also ensure that we record which department the event belongs to which is useful when it comes to batch printing. The dates and pay types are also entered. We then use the options tab to record the specific information for each component of the event - main registration, accommodation if applicable, break out sessions, food, workshop rooms etc."

"Where we have many breakout sessions being able to check capacities and pool options is extremely helpful, this allows us to set a maximum total capacity for concurrent sessions."

Mitch also makes use of the extra customisable tab that is available in the module, which he uses to record additional information such as tutors' names, full address of the venue, room layouts, and urls. All of this information can be merged into MS Word for inclusion in joining instructions.

"We then book the delegates on to the events attributing the source of the booking so that we can analyse our marketing activities. In many cases, the delegates that make the booking are not the person the invoice should be sent to so the 'Charge To' function is handy for assigning the red line to the Accountant's record."

"As you can imagine with so many events, we produce lots of paperwork. For a typical event we print confirmation letters, waiting lists, venue and course information, invoices, tickets, delegate lists, registration lists, signposts, badges, and certificates. All of this is printed from Progress and we use the batch printing facility to make it easier. We tend to batch print according to the department whose event it is, which is why it is so important to record this in the set-up stage. After the printing of the documentation the event takes place. We occasionally cancel an event if there is not enough delegates attending and we use the 'Cancel Event' feature for this. Otherwise, the event goes ahead and we mark the attendance on the Attendance List so we can calculate the non-attendance rate."

In addition to booking delegates on to events, Mitch uses the module creatively so that the DSC can book advertising for their newsletter and exhibition space at the Charity Fair. He does this by creating options for square metres in the case of exhibition space or pages for advertising space. The newsletter is actually set up as an event in it's own right.

By using the Progress Events module in such a structured and organised way the DSC is able to ensure that its events run smoothly.

For any ticketed events, the Progress Events module provides the functionality for you to administer these successfully. Whether your event is a conference, ball, or AGM the module helps you define your events, join delegates/visitors, produce documentation and record the income generated.

Some benefits of the Events module are:

• Reduced duplication of data. Rather than holding the information on your events in a separate spreadsheet or database, you can record it within Progress and keep only one centralised record of each donor and their behaviour and details.
• Better picture of your donors.
• By recording the events information in Progress alongside other transactional information you can build a more complete picture of your donor and all the touch points they have with your organisation.
• Superior reporting and analysis.
• The Events module allows you to report and query in the same way as the other tabs within Progress.
• Streamlined administration. Handling the administration of your events is easier with Progress - you can set up your event details, join delegates, process the income, and produce all the necessary documentation.

For more information on The Directory of Social Change visit www.dsc.org.uk