Startup San Diego Partners with Sessionboard to Modernize & Streamline Speaker Management

San Diego’s leading community connecting local entrepreneurs and aspiring talent with resources, access to trusted networks, and inclusive community, have chosen Sessionboard’s speaker management platform to produce their signature event this fall, San Diego Startup Week. 

With a small staff and big community—events are a major driver for growth. Hosting a mix of virtual, hybrid and in-person events throughout the year to promote networking and professional development opportunities to their members.

Eager to take back more of her small but mighty team’s valuable time, Executive Director Alexa-Rae Navarro turned to Sessionboard to solve the challenges that come when managing well over 60 speakers across 30+sessions and experiences over the course of four days.

“We have had an amazing experience with the Sessionboard team—your products are solving real problems, our problems. We have used many other event platforms throughout the pandemic and for us as a nonprofit, our needs aren’t the same as larger corporate organizations."‍
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"The team has been so responsive to our challenges - they get our struggle. Whenever I’m in the Sessionboard platform I feel like it was built for me.”

Streamlining Communications & Improving Collaboration with Automation

With lofty event goals with a lean team—Alexa knew they needed to automate certain aspects of the speaker management process that were slowing them down. 

The biggest frustration? Time wasted wrangling communications with speakers, that would be better spent enhancing the content strategy and attendee experience:

“People underestimate how much time is spent communicating and emailing with people. Sessionboard will alleviate a lot of time and allow us to focus on what we need to be focusing on - the quality of the experience, and the quality of the content,” says Alexa Rae Navarro, Executive Director at Startup San Diego.

Overhauling Manual Processes to Maximize Productivity

The team’s productivity and efficiency were being further impacted by working across fragmented systems. Managing the manual processes across email inboxes, google forms and spreadsheets proved to be a major bottleneck.

These outdated and siloed systems made reporting and visibility into the process a nightmare—killing productivity and collaboration:

“We are a small team and volunteer driven - managing the scale of speakers we will have for startup week and the entire process in between - there are just so many steps. It’s inefficient and time-consuming for just two people who are doing it all manually,” says Alexa Rae.

With Sessionboard, Alexa Rae's small (but mighty) team will find new ways to drive efficiencies by reducing unnecessary admin with speakers, speeding up the evaluation process, and providing their speakers with an easy-to-follow experience.

Simplifying the Complex Speaker Management Journey With Sessionboard

Partnering with Sessionboard’s platform, they plan to see immediate value from the ability to automate communication with speakers—eliminating the endless back and forth across inboxes:

“It’s very user-friendly and intuitive, which is one of the things that I love,” says Alexa. “The ability to have automation to where everything was previously manual will limit the volume of emails we send—driving major efficiencies for us internally.”

Outside of these communication gains, Sessionboard’s speaker management platform keeps two-way collaboration flowing across all phases. Alexa’s team can manage the entire speaker journey (which often happens over the course of months) all under one roof. 

The team will use Sessionboard for the following:

• Centralize the call for papers and abstracts — Send, track and manage call for abstracts or call for papers.
• Simplify abstract grading— Gather, evaluate and grade abstracts all in one system.
• Build speaker agendas and manage sessions in real-time — Get out of spreadsheets and make updates on the fly with a real-time agenda builder. 
• Personalized portals guide speakers through every step - Each speaker can track their task, timelines and to-do’s to stay on track.
• Streamline communication for speakers and staff - Eliminate needless back and forth, track progress on one central dashboard and never ask for the same info twice.

A Win-Win for Speakers and Staff Alike

The task of communicating their progress with speakers will transform with Sessionboard.

For staff? No more chasing down emails, getting lost in spreadsheet approvals or wrangling speakers for headshots and bios.

For speakers? Access personalized portals to track individual progress on key tasks, timelines and to-do’s.

“A major benefit of switching to Sessionboard is our ability to provide an easier experience for speakers to take action. This will eliminate the needless back and forth and keep everyone on the same page by providing speakers with a personalized portal to clearly track their progress,” says Alexa.

Reinvesting Time Saved to Elevate the Attendee Experience 

From the earliest stages of speaker management to day of logistics, Sessionboard will improve Startup San Diego’s productivity and enable the team to be more collaborative—while raising the bar for the speaker and attendee experience:

“Alleviating these manual processes means we have more time to invest in a better attendee experience and be more forward thinking in our approach. How can we become more data driven? How can we develop higher quality content and sessions?” says Alexa.

The Speaker Management Solution You've Been Waiting For

Fact: Content and speaker management is the most complex yet least transparent aspect in live event production.

That’s why we created Sessionboard—our platform simplifies the complex workflows and disjointed communications that exist around speaker and content management.  

The results? A faster-growing event, more productive staff, seamless collaboration with speakers and more time back to build unforgettable experiences.

Learn more about Sessionboard and how it’s helping conferences like Startup San Diego transform their speaker and event content management processes from end-to-end.

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Startup San Diego - San Diego Startup Week 

This annual premier conference brings together entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, executives, and talent to connect, educate, and inspire the San Diego innovation ecosystem. The event is jam-packed with seminars, workshops, panel discussions, special events, and networking sessions aimed to foster inclusive and collaborative community.

Sessionboard, INC

Sessionboard is a next generation speaker and content management platform that helps conference and meeting organizers save time, relieve stress and get their event content to market faster.

Sessionboard Contact:

Chris Carver 

Co-Founder & CEO 

chris@lennd.com

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