Do you ever feel like you are drowning in sticky notes? “Update Sally’s email address.” “Keynote speaker needs hotel.”"Tony P. not coming to dinner.”"10 vegetarian meals.”"Change room for afternoon sessions to Fireside room.”Traditionally, registration is a paper intensive process. Direct mail pieces go out, and registrations come in by mail or by fax. And, then there are the little reminders that you write on a sticky notes from the phone messages waiting for you on voicemail.With an online registration system, you greatly reduce, if not wholly eliminate, all of this paper.

• Using email invitations and event websites to promote your event instead of direct mail saves the paper and the fuel costs for postal delivery.
• Accepting registrations online, or typing phone registrations directly into the online system, eliminates all of the paper coming into your office. And because you have an electronic copy of the registration, you don’t need to have a hardcopy of the record to refer to.
• Instead of printing out reports to provide to your vendors, team members, management or clients, email them reports directly out of the registration system.
  Have your speakers upload presentation materials and other information directly into the registration system and allow your attendees to download the materials they want. No more printing out hardcopies of every presentation for all attendees.
• No more sticky notes! If you use a registration system that is accessible from anywhere, that gives attendees the tools to easily communicate their contact information, preferences and choices to you directly electronically, and that allows you to email information directly to vendors and other stakeholders, what do you need sticky notes for?

An interesting article by Stanley Fish in The New York Times this week about the self-service economy we live in. The article is about getting a cup of coffee – but it  is extremely relevant to those of us working with online software systems. – many of which are self service these days.This is the way we live today – and frankly we all like the control we get from being able to have our hands-on.   But does it always lead to the best solution?  Fish describes the problem:

“A coordination problem (a term of art in economics and management) occurs when you have a task to perform, the task has multiple and shifting components, the time for completion is limited, and your performance is affected by the order and sequence of the actions you take.  And these days, you will face a coordination problem if you want to get a cup of coffee in the United States.“And your real problems begin when you turn, holding your prize, and make your way to where the accessories – things you put in, on and around your coffee – are to be found.  There is a staggering array of them, and the order of their placement seems random in relation to the order of your needs. “And two things add to your pain and trouble. First, it costs a lot, $3 and up. And worst of all, what you’re paying for is the privilege of doing the work that should be done by those who take your money.“The coffee shop experience is just one instance of the growing practice of shifting the burden of labor to the consumer – gas stations, grocery and drug stores, bagel shops (why should I put on my own cream cheese?), airline check-ins, parking lots. It’s insert this, swipe that, choose credit or debit, enter your PIN, push the red button, error, start again.“At least when you go on a “vacation” that involves working on a ranch, the work is something you’ve chosen. But none of us has chosen to take over the jobs of those we pay to serve us.”

It’s an issue we are constantly grappling with for our Clients at MeetMax.  The control and immediacy are what most of them want (and we’ve worked hard to make it happen)…most of the time.   But they do not want it all of the time.For new clients, understaffed clients, rushed clients, clients whose expertise lies away from software systems, clients who do not like administering a software system – then self-service is not the right choice, at that time. We have many clients who want to administer only urgent changes, and the reporting that is important to their event.  They do not want to administer file uploads, graphics – even setting up a new event.  They want us to do it so they can spend their time on menus, signage, facilities, room blocks and the other numerous aspects of a successful event.And it’s hard to argue that’s the wrong decision sometimes.If you want to read the whole article by Stanley Fish