Many associations use conference management tools that house data for every aspect of their meetings, from exhibit floor plans and registration, to session information and networking.

Online systems like EShow, ExpoCad, and membership management software such as netForum, give organizations the tools to tap into their conference data and information about attendees, speakers, and exhibitors in a fast and effective way.

Conference CRM tools also provide powerful tools to manage every detail about a conference including exhibit hall maps, housing and networking between attendees and vendors. This data can power iOS and Android apps where a conference goer can plan session schedules and find exhibitors using their smartphone or tablet.

But leading up to a conference, your organization’s website is the most popular place for people to find information about your event. Now, with expanded capabilities of Drupal and WordPress, associations and non-profits can take advantage of connecting the data from their conference management directly to their own website pages.

The Association of Research Clinical Practitioners (ACRP) did just this for their upcoming 2016 meeting and expo site. Their conference website, built in Drupal, integrates directly with data entered from their EShow account, their conference management platform. OmniStudio worked with ACRP to build the site and develop custom features that make finding information easier for their website visitors. The site is responsive, so that all of the website content can be found quickly on smartphones and tablets.

“Integrating our conference website with eShow was the best solution, not only to improve efficiencies in-house by preventing duplicate work and possible inaccuracies within the systems, but it also allowed users to plan their conference schedule more effectively,” noted Marcela Leon, ACRP’s Manager, Digital and Web Content.

Taking advantage of the exhibitor information entered in EShow, web visitors can find vendors and booth numbers. Vendor logos that were uploaded to EShow automatically flow into the ACRP conference site. The same goes for speaker photos and bios. Information is entered once in EShow and then automatically comes into the association’s website within minutes. Changes to sessions, bios and times are also timed to update several times an hour.

OmniStudio, a Capitol Communicator sponsor, built custom filters that enable visitors to find educational sessions by topic areas, intended audience, and attendees’ experience levels. When a prospective attendee is sizing up the conference, this type of tool can influence a decision to register very quickly.

While EShow has the ability to create conference sites using its platform, ACRP decided they wanted the conference information to be customized for their website. Marcela Leon said that a key factor in favor of integrating data into their website was control of their brand within their own site.

“Having the conference info on our site gives us the ability customize the look and feel of the site to our brand,” she said.

Thanks to open source content management systems like Drupal and WordPress, organizations have the ability to flow in many types of data to their site, organize it using advance search and filtering tools, and then enable it to update as often as they wish. The benefits are enormous:

• Enter and update data in one place— a CRM or conference management system

• Update your web pages automatically from your database—taking care of formatting, navigation and organization

• Make it easy for customers to find crucial information

• Give people the ability to filter content based on their interests

• Create pages that are easily viewed on mobile devices

Please let us know if you have questions about integrating conference database into your website.