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Catawba College’s Events Planning and Scheduling Is a "Much More Seamless Process," Thanks to 25Live

Catawba College

Salisbury, North Carolina

Products

25Live® Automated Scheduling and Calendar Publishing

Why 25Live?

“We looked at several event scheduling systems, but the choice was easy…. We saw that 25Live did everything we wanted.” — Jodi Bailey, Director of Marketing and Communications, Catawba College

Benefits

• Robust scheduling tools

• Streamlined workflows

• Automated communication

• Automated calendar publishing

• Customizable forms and processes

• Mobile-friendly event management

• Outstanding customer support

Catawba-College

The Challenge

By the time Catawba College decided it was time to upgrade its events management system, the school had been relying on Coursedog scheduling software for six months. According to Jodi Bailey, Director of Marketing and Communications at Catawba: “Coursedog didn’t work like we were promised. We had a lot more emailing and manual work than we expected when it came to scheduling and approving event details. There just wasn’t much functionality or automation in the platform. One thing we were lacking and desperately needed was a master calendar for both internal planning and promotion. We wanted an easy way to post events onto our promotional calendar on our website, but we realized our scheduling software just wasn’t equipped to manage that. The system wasn’t feeding the calendars,” Bailey explained, “so people just stopped using it for that purpose.” And then there was the lack of mobile access. “With Coursedog, event planners and service providers couldn’t use their phones to monitor event details or communicate any changes through the platform. It made event management much more complicated than it should have been.” According to Bailey, the Marketing and Events Management teams “stumbled through for a year” with that scheduling process, until they were finally able to switch to a better system.

The Solution

“We looked at several event scheduling systems, but the choice was easy,” Bailey said. “We saw that 25Live did everything we wanted.” With the implementation of the 25Live events scheduling, calendaring, and resource management system, Catawba events schedulers, administrators, and service providers were immediately able to enjoy a robust set of tools that automated every step of the event scheduling and management process, from simple room requests and equipment reservations through forms and permits submission. Complete mobile compatibility has made it easy for event managers and service providers to monitor event details—and send updates among all stakeholders—from any location. Best of all, from the Marketing team’s perspective, is having events automatically posted to all internal and public-facing calendars, thanks to the 25Live Publisher feature, which also immediately updates all calendars whenever event details change.

The Results

When describing the immediate impact of switching to 25Live, Bailey said: “Everyone was excited to make the shift because they could see it’s a much better process than what we had before. As a result, we’ve been able to bring everyone on board and ensure every room and facility is using 25Live. Now, the entire process is much easier, from room planning and promotion to everything in between. 25Live has streamlined our efforts, so it saves us so much time. It’s allowed everyone to work smarter, with much less back-and-forth—much less manual work. And the calendar looks a lot better, too. It’s a win-win for our conference planning team—now they can schedule more efficiently AND promote events more effectively.

For the Conference and Events team, using 25Live has been “a monumental shift in workflow,” according to Bailey. “Events planning and scheduling is a much more seamless process now, which allows planners and administrators to focus on other things, instead of scrambling to manage every detail. Staff love all the features and capacities in 25Live—how it gives them easy visibility into the calendar, so they no longer worry about double booking a room or scheduling multiple events at the same time.” Bailey continued: “From a marketing perspective, we couldn’t be happier. Our webmaster was able to build out an amazing public facing calendar—all using the tools in 25Live. It looks beautiful! And it’s so much easier to maintain. With 25Live, the public calendar gets fed automatically from our internal scheduling calendar. We couldn’t do that before.” View Catawba’s events calendar

Conclusion

“We’re really happy with the product,” Bailey said. “We’re excited about all we’re able to do with the software. One of the great things about 25live is how customizable and flexible it is. When we did our soft launch, we were able to make all the tweaks we wanted to the automated form and the request process. A lot of products don’t allow you to make any changes.” And the Catawba team has also been happy with CollegeNET service. “Implementation and Customer Support have been wonderful," Bailey said. “Everyone has always been very responsive and thorough, getting everything up and running, and helping us feel comfortable using all the tools.”

About Catawba College

PSU Campus
© Photo provided by Catawba College
Founded in 1851, Catawba College is a four-year, private, liberal arts college located in Salisbury, N.C. Ranked as one of the best regional colleges in the South, Catawba is known for its intellectual rigor, dedicated faculty, beautiful campus, and strong commitment to sustainability and the environment. The College offers more than 70 undergraduate and four graduate programs, allowing students to explore diverse interests and create their own academic pathway. Additional information is available at catawba.edu.

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