An Ode to etouches

Tahira Endean, CMP

I do not do registration. In fact the last time I was responsible for registration of anything meeting related I was using a DOS based system, printing on a dot matrix printer and dreading any influx of onsite registrations.  Thank goodness we had an awesome registration manager and I only had to do the events under 200 people. Did I mention the manual processing of registrations that arrived by reams of fax-roller paper? The endless duplication of information; manually writing all the cheques into deposit slips for the bank; manual processing of every credit card… that anyone did this still impresses me!

Now, as the Director of Creative and Production, I am endlessly grateful for the people who take on the details of planning an event, conference or meeting, but none more so than the task of registration.  We have used many different systems over the y ears, from the one mentioned above, to custom built databases to outsourcing and being able to see the back end as an administrator… the list goes on. I know people who excel at this, I do not. So when it came down to ECV registration coming out of our office… well all I can say it TGFE (thank goodness for etouches / thank goodness for Eric / thank goodness for Missy!)

NEVER BEFORE have I used a system that I was comfortable with, not until etouches (choir sings inserted here) that is. From the first phone call with Suzanne explaining some of the features to me,and then finding a designer (Eric Lukazewski – who only had to use his html skills on the collaborator page!) this process was very simple.  We did not even begin to use the all the features, but we used enough to know it is really, really great.

Some of the things that were really easy

• integration we had with the QuickMobile app
• linking to the community building we could enhance with Pathable
• connections between the web address we wanted to use, and the site we did use
•  being able to build the entire site (with the design support of Eric Lukazewksi) on one etouches platform
• payments streamlined
• easy to send updates and information to the participants
• easy for the participants to ask questions, navigate and find information
• easy to print name badges (we could have had lanyards too but we had people bring their own favorite lanyard)
• easy reporting – in a nanosecond even I could see who was coming to camp and who was joining remotely

We are looking forward to the next time when we can introduce this to a client and use so many of the features we missed out on enjoying this time.  It shows that planners helped build this system and we really appreciated the responsiveness of the team when we needed a little assistance.  Thank you etouches – I am kind of excited about registration again!

Kiki Camper