University of New Brunswick & St. Thomas University

Each year, the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences holds CONGRESS – a 9-day multi-disciplinary conference for between 5,500 and 9,000 attendees – the largest of it’s kind in all of Canada. In 2011, Fredericton, New Brunswick hosted the event, with the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University charged with coordinating food service, audio-visual and accommodation logistics – not the least of which included lodging for 30% of overall attendeeship.

UNB’s own Director of Conference Services Michelle McNeill was appointed as project manager for a 1-year term to assist with all relevant logistics related to producing such a large-scale event.  “We were able to provide excellent customer service to our guests from beginning to end. With KxB&B we eliminated mistakes and guests had their confirmations instantaneously.”

Real-Time Lodging Availability
The main reason Kinetic software was selected was due to the software’s ability to handle all aspects of each university’s business, with special focus on the online web reservation product to coordinate all guest reservations.

Through dedicated websites for each venue, Congress was able to electronically publicize accommodation options to guests, who could then go online and book their stay at their leisure.
For the first time, both universities weren’t locked into the back-and-forth of taking a reservation over the phone or by email – a process that Margot Young (Interim Director of Conference Services) said took “a minimum of 7 touches back and forth to get all the information we would require.” Instead, guests could open their internet browser and book their room(s) any time of day or night and even on holidays – whether the UNB or STU offices were open or not.

Data capture allows ease of communication
Michael Carroll, Coordinator for Events & Accommodations said “it became a case of managing reservations once they came in, rather than having to sit and do hours of data entry ... We had their email addresses and other important data so communicating with them later on was easy!”

As the event drew closer, it was necessary to communicate pertinent details to individual guests – like which check-in location they needed to report to, what time to arrive, rooming assignments and more. With email addresses previously captured during the booking process, UNB and STU were able to send a personalized email to each individual guest with a couple clicks of a mouse. Furthermore, with guest details stored in one central location within Kx, any member of the office staff was able to assist a guest when they phoned in with a question or needed an adjustment to their existing booking.  “Once it’s setup – the system pretty much runs itself. Kx has really improved our efficiency ... Logistical reports, rooming lists or post-event statistics that previously took days to put together, we were able to do in a matter of clicks”

Automated check-in slashes wait-times
When it came time to actually welcome their guests, UNB and STU were able to drastically reduce wait-times at check-in locations spread out across campus. UNB said their average check-in time was less than 2 minutes per person – and the biggest time-crunch was actually waiting for the printer to physically finish printing a registration card. STU staff said that the speed of checking guests in prevented any long wait-times or winding lines.