GLOBAL SOF FOUNDATION

The Global SOF Foundation is a professional organization for the international special operations community. It connects government, industry, academia, and nonprofit partners to discuss critical issues, foster networking, and collaborate on innovative solutions. Chelsea Hamashin, Vice President of Marketing and Events, has been a driving force behind the foundation’s rapidly expanding events program. “We help and support the international special operations community in bringing them together to talk about common issues, network with one another, and create solutions for the current war fighter,” Chelsea explains. 

This includes their annual conference, Global SOF Week. Chelsea shares, “It’s the only event of its kind that brings together commands from over 70 nations to the same venue along with industry, academic, and nonprofit partners.” The week-long event includes a broad mix of programming such as general sessions, breakouts, keynotes, and opportunities for nonprofits to support issues affecting the SOF community. It also includes transition programming for members leaving military service and a large outdoor capabilities demonstration from USSOCOM. 

GOALS

Ensuring the security of attendees was crucial due to the sensitive nature of the included technologies and participant’s backgrounds. The Global SOF Foundation needed robust measures to protect information and ensure safety, given the high-profile nature of the event. Managing the registration and credentialing of over 20,000 attendees securely and efficiently was a significant logistical challenge. The foundation required a system that could handle large volumes of registrations seamlessly while ensuring accurate credentialing to maintain participant flow and uphold stringent security protocols.

Chelsea also needed detailed insights into attendee behavior to better understand preferences, optimize programming, and enhance the overall event experience. This required the strategic expansion of their tech stack. She explains, “We are trying to grow our software suite as smartly as possible to make sure we’re not wasting time on add-ons and instead, grabbing the tool that’s going to give us the most bang for our buck – and that was Cvent.” 

APPROACH

Enhancing registration security and efficiency with Cvent Registration

Adopting Cvent’s comprehensive Registration platform means the Global SOF Foundation can now create customizable and repeatable registration processes, providing a consistent attendee experience and efficient data management on the backend. Having a single source of truth has been a clear benefit. “Replicating processes in multiple systems is a huge challenge, so having everything contained in one system that’s really integrated with itself and talks to itself is incredible,” Chelsea says. 

Cvent Registration offers Chelsea’s team a flexible means for managing complex registrations, including differentiating registration paths and attendee types for more personalized experiences. They’re able to help drive key metrics by tracking registrations using code snippets and reference IDs to know where registrants are coming from and which marketing tactics are most successful. Attendees can also easily modify or cancel their registration, saving the team valuable time. 

The security Cvent offers is paramount to ensuring a successful Global SOF Week. “We have very specific requirements for our registration due to the level of security required for our attendees,” Chelsea says. Cvent was able to work closely with her team to ensure even the most stringent security requirements were met. “Cvent really did everything possible to customize the experience and keep all those security requirements in mind, so it was a smooth process for our attendees,” she shares. “With Cvent, you’re not just getting an out of the box solution that can only do one thing.”

In fact, Cvent maintains high standards of data security, adhering to and surpassing PCI DSS compliance standards. Built on a robust Information Security Management System and underscored by an ISO 27001 certification, Cvent offers a comprehensive security strategy with strict network and data controls to protect payment data. The information security program is formalized, documented, and supported by a range of administrative, technical, and physical security safeguards. Additionally, Cvent maintains several certifications to ensure a strong security posture and compliance across all solutions and data centers, adhering to industry best practices for security.

Chelsea also credits Cvent for improving their ability to capture accurate data while maintaining a single source of truth across different solutions. She says, “Having an integrated system like Cvent that has Registration, OnArrival, Attendee Hub, and so on is really helpful for us because all of that data is kept in one location.” This means no manual syncs between systems, saving time and ensuring accuracy. “If I do one update in one location, it’s updated everywhere else and I don’t have to change things in lots of different locations” she adds. “The fact that everything updates in real time is obviously really helpful.”

Chelsea’s team can also use specific features to create a more personalized experience in Attendee Hub. With audience segmentation, they can send targeted notifications to drive session attendance based on specific criteria like title or industry. Custom cards and session recommendations help curate a tailored agenda, and the team can send targeted communications to specific groups via push notifications. “The customization Attendee Hub offers is helpful in that we’re able to highlight the things that are important to us – no one is having to search for information,” Chelsea says. 

Importantly, attendees can watch live streamed or on-demand sessions directly within the Attendee Hub. “We don’t always have room in all of our theaters so we worked to ensure everyone knew they could watch sessions right on the app,” Chelsea shares. She adds that given government restrictions against phone use in certain locations, “it was really helpful to offer the web version for those government and military participants so they can stay up to date on everything that’s happening in real time.”

Using automated solutions like Attendee Hub saves Chelsea’s team valuable time. As an example, she notes how syncing recorded content to the on-demand library eliminated several days of work. “I saved at least 20 hours of time because the live streaming occurred within the Attendee Hub and then automatically went into the on-demand video library,” she explains. “The previous year, I had to get the hard drive, download every video, upload to a separate platform library, and put it on a password protected secure website for our attendees.” 

Global SOF Foundation relies on OnArrival 360 to provide attendees an effortless check-in and badging experience, whether at the registration desk or at standalone mobile kiosks. Attendees can check in via a QR code or quick name search and receive their badges immediately. This eliminates lengthy queues and reduces wasted badge stock due to misprints or reprints - not to mention hours often spent pre-printing and stuffing badges. “We had lots of people make use of the onsite badge printing, which were located in different strategic locations around the SOF Week campus so it was a smooth process,” Chelsea adds. OnArrival 360 also offers additional capabilities like signature collection, check-in planner alerts, and more. Chelsea’s team can receive support from onsite technical experts with access to additional badge supplies and hardware.  

They’re also able to track attendance and monitor session capacity through session scanning. Real-time data in the OnArrival app ensures stakeholders always know where attendees are spending their time. “It’s really helpful from an event planning standpoint because we know where to put our energy for future events,” Chelsea shares. “We see where we can allocate more or less staff, where we can amplify the programming, and so on based on the data we get through OnArrival and session scanning.”

RESULTS & LOOKING FORWARD

Creating a foundation of growth for the future 

Together, these solutions have helped support the rapid growth of Global SOF Week. The most recent event saw over 22,000 registrations, up from 15,000 the year before – resulting in an impressive 47% increase. They also saw a 25% increase in exhibitors, from 600 to more than 750.  As they continue to grow, Chelsea notes she deeply appreciates the tailored approach Cvent provides for the Global SOF Foundation. “Cvent offers a lot of options for flexibility and opportunity that other software doesn’t really provide,” she says. “Whether we’re working with professional services to meet our specific requirements or seeing what the end-to-end project management team can help us achieve while ensuring the integrity of our data, you really feel their dedication to the project.”