The National FFA Organization has over 500,000 members in 7,210 chapters across America. Read this to learn how implementing Certain’s software has been a huge success in the organization and hosting of their annual 50,000 attendee National Conference.

Profile

The National FFA Organization has a membership base over close to 500,000 in 7,210 chapters across the United States. Each year the organization hosts a massive convention to bring together agricultural students and educators.

Challenge

For their 79th Annual National Convention held in Indianapolis in 2006, FFA sought to improve the registration experience for both their planning staff and over 50,000 attendees by implementing an online registration system.

Solution

Certain Meetings delivered FFA a highly flexible online registration application capable of scaling to the demands of such a high volume. Registration for past FFA conventions was done via manual processes or on-site. The implementation of online registration forms created with Certain Meetings streamlined data collection during the pre-convention registration period, freeing staff up to focus on completing on-site preparations.

Though a large amount of member registrations were entered directly online during preregistration, FFA also allowed members to register on-site at the convention. Certain’s account management team was able to help FFA move members through lines faster by equipping staff with special registration forms designed for rapid data entry. Certain Meetings generated reports on session capacity to help staff keep members informed of what sessions were still available for buying tickets.

Results

• Streamlined planning experience by allowing FFA to collect and use registration data online prior, during and after the convention.
• Reduced member wait times in on-site registration lines by 75% over the previous year.
• Enabled staff to generate customized, comprehensive reports.
• Allowed staff to process a variety of payment types including credit cards, checks, purchase orders and cash.
• Minimized effort to generate attendee name badges on-site.