How the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong Grew 30% with Glue Up

Read about the Italian Chamber of Commerce's increase in membership when it utilized Glue Up's all-in-one chamber management software solution.

This success story is a result of feedback received from the Italian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong & Macau (Italian Chamber) where a solution was needed to help move away from using tools that encouraged the separation of databases, increased professionalism in the digital space, and grow members.

Here's what the Italian Chamber's General Manager, Anna Romagnoli, had to say about their experience with Glue Up (previously called EventBank).

Seeking Consolidation

As a Chamber of Commerce, the Italian Chamber relies heavily on the management and engagement that's necessary to deal with contacts and members without spending a lot of time dealing with these objectives. In the beginning, the Italian Chamber utilized spreadsheets (as most member-based organizations do) to manage members, and later with the advent of CRMs, adopted Salesforce.

However, Salesforce could only manage contacts and email engagement then had to come from MailChimp. As needs arose and so on, tool-after-tool was used to ease the pressure, but in the end, this multi-tool approach only served to separate contact databases and made it increasingly complex to manage.

SalesForce was simply too complicated and the need to use further tools to engage members and manage events only added to the confusion for junior staff at the Italian Chamber, leaving more responsibility on the shoulders of senior management to do basic tasks like knowing who was a member and who wasn't. The mindset now was to find a one-stop solution that was able to contribute to all necessary tasks, in a simple manner as possible, while keeping all the data in one place.

You can also find out about Glue Up's role in the success of IACC Karnakatka or check out a case study with the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Poland.

Search for all-in-one Chamber Software

This propelled the Italian Chamber to seek a platform that could harmonize all their databases into one, automate member engagement, and manage events with a full suite of options. After swiftly seeking throughout solution-after-solution Glue Up's Chamber of Commerce Management Software was eventually chosen after getting in touch through our representatives in Hong Kong at the time. 

The Results

Soon after the adoption of the Glue Up platform, migration of the data from an assortment of previous software became an immediate challenge. The first six months were indeed a bit difficult to adapt to, and the new platform required intense on-boarding coordination from Glue Up to help the Italian Chamber migrate data into one place. This is a typical reaction when data gets separated and staff becomes accustomed to tools prior to using Glue Up. These are the types of challenges most organizations may face when changing solutions, but the Italian Chamber was assigned an experienced Customer Success Manager who was and continues to be there to help the Chamber with anything they might need.

The Italian Chamber's General Manager Anna Romagnoli says that any chamber of commerce out there that seeks to find an all-in-one solution like Glue Up will need to dive into the deep end and make sure someone with IT passion who understands the chamber is taking full control and seriousness of the platform. Initially, the Italian Chamber approached the migration with a tentative mindset and because of that, the on-boarding process took longer than expected.

Regardless, after 6 months the onboarding process was completed in full color, and the Italian Chamber was able to move junior staff into an engagement and management position on the platform. This further consolidated all of the Italian Chamber's data into the Glue Up platform, which reduced management needs as all necessary lists and their associated tool for each task was all available in one place.

With the new platform in place, and in the past 3 years from problem-to-solution, Italian Chamber has seen a near-30% hike in membership growth. Romagnoli remarks that while there is not singular benefit that she can point out about the Glue Up platform that caused this rapid growth, it is very likely the wide range of benefits, both intrinsic and extrinsic to the Glue Up experience, contributed to making the Italian Chamber HK one of the fastest-growing chambers in Asia.

This includes the automation of membership renewals, push notifications via Glue Up mobile app, email campaigns, event page set up, and the complete professional look and feel when members register for the events, apply for and manage their memberships or receive communication from the Chamber.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong & Macao is a non-profit organization established as of March 1997. Its roots are in the Italian Business Association, established in 1993 with the aim of promoting business exchanges involving Hong Kong, Macao, and Italy and at the same time establishing a common platform for the Italian business community based in Hong Kong and its local members.

Want to explore how Glue Up can help your organization? Request a demo of Glue Up now and we’ll give you a tour of all our modules, automation, and other great features.