IAAPA Selects Sessionboard As Their Speaker & Content Management Solution For IAAPA Expo 2024

The IAAPA team just completed an extensive search for a speaker, session and content management platform for IAAPA Expo - the global attractions industry’s premier event. 

For background: IAAPA Expo is the largest gathering of amusement park and attractions professionals in the world, bringing together 40,000+ industry leaders, innovators, and experts for a week of networking, education, and exploration. The event highlights the latest trends, innovations, and technologies shaping the future of the attractions industry.

During IAAPA Expo, IAAPA North America hosts a comprehensive education program, featuring more than 90 sessions of various formats led by industry experts covering topics such as guest experience, marketing and communications, safety and security, technology, and more.

Sean Bonner, Director of Education and Membership for IAAPA North America was gracious enough to share a bit about their process. Hopefully this helps you with yours.

Why were you looking for a Speaker, Session and Content Management Platform?

"We are constantly trying to get better as a team and thinking about ways to save time and make ourselves more efficient. As event organizers our time is one of our most critical assets and we all have to find innovative ways to protect those critical hours we have."

"Within the last few years we had moved from one provider to another to support our Call for Presentations for IAAPA Expo. One of the common threads with each provider was that their primary product was not a module for a Call for Presentations." 

"Our team is very aware of the importance of our Call for Presentations. It is the starting point of the content that is delivered within our education conference. We were looking for a platform that aligned with our team’s high value placement on the education conference and not an add-on feature to an existing product.”

What were some of the critical components you and your team were looking for in a speaker and content management platform?

1. Ease of Use for Potential Speakers and Evaluators: Our conference program’s success is reliant on volunteers (dedicated committee members reviewing submissions) and we need to be respectful of their time and bring to them a process that reflects expected technology in 2023.
   
   Additionally, the call for presentations process quite literally sets the stage for IAAPA Expo as it is the first touchpoint we have with participants. We wanted a platform reflective of our brand, that is easy to understand, and provides a good environment whether making a submission or carefully reviewing the submissions.
   
   
2. Seamless Integration with Our Event App. There are always a lot of headaches when you try to export and import speaker data into another system, so it was really important that our speaker and content management platform spoke to our event platform and app: Swapcard.
   
   
3. One-Stop Shop for Speakers: We really needed a platform that is incredibly user friendly for our speakers so they can submit critical information like headshots, bios, presentations, etc. while also accessing all of the resources needed for a successful IAAPA Expo. The easier it is for our speakers, the more time our team can focus on the big picture. 

4. Strong Customer Support: We were looking for a company that was known for its customer support and really understood our process. As we undergo the onboarding process, it has already become clear the Sessionboard team is dedicated to understanding all aspects of our event and team dynamic in order to provide top value.

5. Customization: There are some unique nuances to our process so we were looking for a platform that we could easily customize to meet our needs. It was also important that we could do everything once we got accustomed to the platform.
   

6. Quick to Market: The education conference is a critical driver of attendance for various audiences and demographics that make up IAAPA Expo. The faster we can deliver all session and speaker details to the marketing team, the longer runway they have to promote the event details for attendee acquisition. 

How did Sessionboard stand out in those critical areas?

Ease of Use for Evaluator Volunteers

"Sessionboard's user-interface really stood out for us in all aspects. Since we have a variety of user types and capabilities with technology, we're excited to be able to put something that seems simple in front of our evaluator volunteers, speakers and our internal team." 

Seamless Integration with our conference app

"Sessionboard has a successful track record integrating with SwapCard. We’re excited to add the features of Sessionboard while retaining seamless integration with our conference app."

Ease of Use for our Speakers

"It’s been great to see and hear the positive results other organizers are having with Sessionboard and as we saw in our review, the user experience for speakers is a big part of that."

Strong Customer Support

"Sessionboard has a team of people that have sat in our shoes and our relationship with Megan Saad gives us complete confidence that we’re in great hands from a customer support standpoint."

Customization

During the review process, we could immediately tell how flexible the platform is to meet our needs and we have the ability to do essentially everything we need once we get comfortable with the platform.

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About IAPPA Expo

IAAPA Expo 2023 takes place from November 13-17 in Orlando, Florida. During the 2023 event, they will open a call for presentations for IAAPA Expo 2024. The Sessionboard team is excited to support their next program planning cycle to source, select and build out the conference for the global attractions industry’s premier event. 

About Sessionboard

Are you an event organizer or conference manager gearing up for an upcoming event? We'd love to connect with you and explore how Sessionboard can become your partner in simplifying the process of speaker and content management. Reach out to us today and discover the possibilities. Schedule a free demo with us today!

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