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Empowering Events: CUE’s Enhanced Member Experience with Conference App 

CUE is on a mission to create the most positive work environment possible. As a membership organization specializing in positive employee relations, CUE works to provide its members with the resources they need to improve labor relations, maximize employee engagement, and improve workplace environments for employers and employees alike. Founded in its current form in 1995, CUE’s clients run the spectrum from small companies of 500 employees or less to global empires with hundreds of thousands.

CUE has found that nothing serves its members better than the power of the conference. Conferences are a great way for people to gather, exchange ideas, hear new perspectives and discover how best to apply them. And although CUE has come a long way since 1995 in terms of digitalization, the organization still needed a little help going fully paperless and moving operations not just online, but on app — Conference App, to be exact.

To explore how CUE leverages MemberClicks and Conference App to deliver impactful events, we spoke with CUE Executive Director Elizabeth Huston, who talked up the app’s data security, flexibility, and customization, customization, customization!

Securing Member Data in a Digital World

Once CUE found the right software in MemberClicks, and the perfect add-on in Conference App, it was all smooth sailing. When the company first began using Conference App, Elizabeth had only been with them for about nine weeks — yet the impact was immediately apparent, tackling key challenges including data security and operational efficiency.

“Having all our information online has helped tremendously with data security.” Elizabeth said. Robust data security has always been a major priority for CUE, and with MemberClicks, they can offer their clients peace of mind that their data is in capable hands. 

Another benefit of hosting CUE on a secure, encrypted network is that the app is only available to CUE members. Rather than attendees finding CUE through a search in the app store, CUE is only accessible to their members through the use of a designated code.

“Our attendees find our app by using a customized code allowing us to limit usage to only those who have registered for the event. It allows us to provide the data only to those who are part of the conference experience,” Elizabeth said.

Going paperless has also saved CUE a lot of time, money and mess. “Using the conference app saves money and trees,” she said. “Printing a single-colored page is about 25 cents. It also saves time!  Previously, if a speaker needed something printed in color, we’d need to receive it three weeks in advance because it took so long to print. So that’s been amazing.”

Members and attendees appreciated the change as well. Elizabeth says the org received lots of positive feedback about ease of use, logging in and availability of presentations post-conference. Thanks to centralized data, presenters can make notes cross- referencing other slides, allowing for more depth of information. Presenters can also load documents straight into the app for easy, direct access.

Finally, for both added security and an enhanced user experience, the Conference App enables users to login without a password. The app simply emails a unique code to each user for a quick and secure login. “Secure yet uncomplicated,” as Elizabeth described it. “No one has to remember their registration password. Just easy.”

Flexibility and Centralized Data

For an organization constantly hosting live events, flexibility is a must. Thanks to Conference App’s agility, ease of use, and centralized data capabilities, CUE finally gained the flexibility they needed to take their events to the next level.

Conference App has helped CUE make life easier not only for presenters, but for attendees as well. In the App, each member can customize their conference experience through personal itineraries, along with event details like schedules, venue maps and educational sessions. CUE can also update members about schedule changes in real time with easily customizable push notifications right in the app.

According to Elizabeth, this feature became especially useful during a recent incident at a conference.

“At a recent event, two lawyers planned to present all the legal updates since the last conference. During the presentation immediately before theirs, one of the presenters came up to me and said that the last speaker had just presented all their material, and it was about to be their turn. They asked to be switched with someone while they figured out what they were going to do. So, I took their presentation down while I was sitting there,” Elizabeth said.

“Hadwe printed it, it would’ve been a lot harder to change it after the fact. But I took down what they had, and we were able to switch the schedule and update it in real time in the app. And from a conference attendee point of view, you would have had no idea that any of that happened. Everything worked out great.” Rather than disrupting the members’ experience due to a minor setback, CUE was able to rearrange things quickly and discreetly within the app.

“The last thing someone running an event wants is change,” Elizabeth said. “If a presenter needs to make changes or updates because they found typos or something, it’s so simple to do. You can do it right from your phone as easily as sending an email.”

Customization for Every Event

Customization has been vital to the way CUE promotes their events. With Conference App, Elizabeth can easily brand the user’s entire experience, from a customizable banner to CUE’s logo displaying on the loading screen. The app itself, Elizabeth explained, is branded with CUE’s logo, while the conference specific elements can be easily swapped out for each event.

“We have really done a lot to personalize the event landing pages,” Elizabeth said. “Because we don’t customize only CUE events, we customize conference by conference, so that people can get the full experience with the color palette and images they’re used to as they go through. For example, we have one event in Canada, which I can design to be hyper- Canadian. It feels more personalized for what they’re experiencing rather than being stuck in a standard CUE branding, even though it always ties back to that. Each event feels special.”

Aside from coordinating landing pages and banners to match each event, CUE is also able to customize conference-specific icons in the Conference App. These come in handy especially when CUE hosts longer events. Attendees need information about the venue, hotels in the area, restaurants, etc., and the in-app icons provide a perfect and easily customizable means to direct them.

In the case of shorter events, attendees only need information on the speakers, the schedule and the presentations, which CUE can also easily plug and play into the app. Information can be made available for attendees’ perusal both before, during and after each conference, allowing members to download and reference favorite takeaways at their convenience.

CUE can also create and customize surveys and send them directly through the app to collect important data from their members. Elizabeth encourages members to complete surveys immediately after each presentation, capturing their feedback while everything is fresh. She then uses this data to create a list of key takeaways that serves two purposes: providing a concise event summary and sparking a bit of FOMO (fear of missing out) to encourage more memberships.

“We collect different data from attendees like ‘what you are going to use going forward,’ ‘what was your key takeaway’, and ‘have you added anything to your to-do list based on the presentations?’ We can then share those takeaways more broadly. So having the surveys built into the same place has been super useful,” Elizabeth said.

When asked about her advice to other organizations, it all came down to customization. Elizabeth recommends exploring customizable design elements, ensuring graphics are the right size and using QR codes for easy app download and website connection.

“We’ve started using a lot of sub features,” she said. “For example, if we have an event, we put a map in so that they can find directions. So, I would just explore all the possible features. Because at first, I was like, well, we’re never going to use that. But then we ended up using it. So, I would just explore all the possibilities and then see what would fit, because I think most likely there’s more there that you could use that you just haven’t thought of yet.”

Driving Impactful Events with Conference App

CUE’s use of MemberClicks and Conference App has improved its conferences and unlocked powerful new benefits for both its presenters and members. By enhancing data security, streamlining event logistics and offering unmatched customization, Conference App has empowered CUE to create more impactful, flexible and user-friendly events. The app’s ability to personalize every aspect of the conference experience—right down to custom icons and venue maps—ensures each event is both seamless and memorable for attendees.

For CUE, these tools have done more than simplify operations; they’ve elevated the quality and accessibility of their events, all while supporting their mission of positive workplace engagement.

Ready to see how Conference App can transform your organization? Schedule a MemberClicks demo today to discover its full potential!