Case Study: How CSC Cut Their Agenda Launch Time By 83% With Sessionboard

‍The Challenges - Before Sessionboard

Before Sessionboard, the Campus Safety Conference team at Emerald struggled with time-consuming manual processes.

This included:

• Cumbersome call for papers
• Lengthy speaker onboarding
• Inefficient communication
• Manual website updates

The team needed a solution that would streamline their workflow without sacrificing organization.

"Historically, our call for speakers process was quite manual and would take about six weeks to convert a prospective speaker into confirmed and loaded into our client facing agenda."

The Solution: Sessionboard Implementation

Enter Sessionboard. The platform allowed Campus Safety Conference to digitize and automate their speaker management process. They used Sessionboard for:

• Streamlining their call for papers process‍
• Efficiently evaluating and selecting speakers‍
• Building and managing their conference agenda‍
• Collecting speaker assets through a centralized portal‍
• Automating speaker communication and reminders‍
• Automatic updates to their conference website

"Sessionboard is easy to configure and use, making it a seamless tool for our teams at Emerald."

The Results: Quantifiable and Qualitative Benefits

The results were immediate and significant.

This 83% reduction in time freed up the team to focus on other critical tasks.

• Efficiency Gains: The team saved countless hours on speaker communication and asset collection.
• Improved Speaker Experience: The speaker portal and automated communication enhanced the overall experience.
• Enhanced Team Collaboration: Sessionboard's user-friendly interface allowed for seamless collaboration.
• Data Consistency and Modernization: 'Personally, I’ve found tremendous value in the platform’s data consistency, the speed at which it delivers an end product, and its modernized approach to Speaker and Session Management,' says Manuel.
• Customer Support: 'From a service perspective, customer support has been outstanding—your team is responsive, collaborative, and truly listens to customer feedback,' Manuel adds."

Favorite Features

When asked what two Sessionboard features stood out for the Campus Safety Conference team, they pointed to:

Speaker Communication Tools‍

"The portals and email tools are huge. We manage about 45 speakers for the event and have individual needs for each," Dana explained.

‍Call for Papers Management:

‍This feature significantly reduced the time spent on speaker selection and onboarding.

A Game-Changer for Evaluations & External Collaboration
The Call for Papers Management tool didn’t just help internally—it also transformed how the team collaborated with their external partners, advisory board, and editorial team.

“We have an advisory board and an editorial team (about 10 people) that reviewed 165+ sessions. Before Sessionboard, we sent around an Excel sheet for comments. The ability to collaborate with comments and rankings in Evaluation Plans was a big part of our time savings.”

This improvement eliminated the back-and-forth of spreadsheets and allowed seamless feedback collection, faster decision-making, and a more structured review process.

These tools provided the efficiency and organization the team needed.

Conclusion

Sessionboard has transformed how Campus Safety Conference manages its speakers and content, resulting in significant time savings, improved speaker experience, and enhanced team collaboration. If you're looking for a solution to streamline your event management, Sessionboard is worth considering.

Want to see them in action? Schedule a demo today.

About Campus Safety Conference

Campus Safety Conference (an Emerald Show) is dedicated to being the foremost national authority event, fostering safe and secure campus environments across K-12, higher education, and corporate sectors. Our mission is to lead the charge by offering unparalleled thought leadership, cutting-edge technologies and collaborative networking. With these, and our access to a network of experts, we offer an unmatched conference experience. Our goal is to set a new standard for safety, ensuring a protected and conducive environment for learning and student growth.

About Emerald

Emerald’s talented and experienced team grows our customers’ businesses 365 days a year through connections, content, and commerce. We expand connections that drive new business opportunities, product discovery, and relationships with over 140 annual events, matchmaking, and lead-gen services. We create content to ensure that our customers are on the cutting edge of their industries and are continually developing their skills. And we power commerce through efficient year-round buying and selling. We do all this by seamlessly integrating in-person and digital platforms and channels. Emerald is immersed in the industries we serve and committed to supporting the communities in which we operate. As true partners, we create experiences that inspire, amaze, and deliver breakthrough results. For more information, please visit www.emeraldx.com

About Sessionboard

Sessionboard’s focus on continuous innovation in speaker and content management has resulted in saving organizers hundreds of hours per event while providing speakers with a streamlined, modern experience. From call for papers, abstract evaluation, awards, applications, agenda building, to speaker onboarding and communication, Sessionboard helps event organizers work smarter, move faster, and improve their ROI.

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