Discover how OBN increased member engagement and attendance by replacing three software with Glue Up's all-in-one solution.
About OBN
OBN is a membership organization supporting and bringing together the UK's emerging life science companies, corporate partners, and investors. It has over 400 member companies located across the Golden Triangle and beyond that benefit from their networking, partnering, purchasing, advising, and advocacy activities.
Every year, OBN organizes over 40 events, including 30 in-person events and 12 webinars. They have four big events, including BioTrinity - Europe's Leading Investment and Biopartnering Conference attracting over 700 delegates.
OBN Revamps its Technology to Fulfil Its Mission
OBN’s mission is to provide the highest quality networking opportunities for UK life sciences companies, with events a core focus. Every year, they organize several events, most of which are in-person. This means that they must have robust technology to facilitate them in the successful planning and execution of events.
In the past couple of years, the team were using several platforms to manage events and keep track of their members' data, which took a lot of time. They were looking for one software that would facilitate their management process, as OBN reports it:
“Over the years we have used Eventbrite, Act!, Constant Contact, and other platforms. However, we were looking for software that would streamline all these processes, not only for us but also for our customers. This prompted us to begin the process of looking for a platform that would integrate all our membership workflows.”
The team discovered Glue Up through a simple web search and decided to implement its membership management module after a free demo.
According to the event manager, Kate Hitchman, the consolidation of their data with Glue Up’s all-in-one software has resulted in a higher number of event registrations coupled with an increase in membership retention.
Additionally, they can now see the overall attendance engagement through a centralized CRM, which helps them refine their customer service strategies.
Seamless Registrations and Check-Ins Resulting in a Higher Attendance Rate
Kate Hitchman, in an interview, emphasized the importance of seamless event landing pages for smooth registration. She explained how difficult signups can result in a lot of queries and issues from the customers’ end.
“Our attendees experienced several challenges during event registrations, especially with our signup process. Thus, we needed user-friendly event pages with easy signups and transactions. With Glue Up’s event management toolkit, we are now able to plan, promote, and execute all our events in just a few clicks. We have also seen a decrease in queries for our events as now we have a smooth registration process. And this has increased the number of event attendees as well.”
She also stresses the importance of smooth check-ins during events and how software can increase their efficiencies through automation and integration.
“We used a printed sheet of attendees and checked them in since the event platform that we were using didn't have an app or function to support this feature. Adding that data manually into our database was quite a task. But with the integrated modules, can easily perform check-ins and the data is automatically added to the CRM.”
A Powerful CRM with Integrated Modules
OBN is a large organization with over 400 membership organizations. In other words, OBN not only manages its own customer data but also that of its members. This includes managing email campaigns, events, memberships, and data. With Glue Up, this process has become easy, seamless, and mainly automated.
The powerful CRM holds a series of modules that facilitates the consolidation of data. As a result, the team can check the member engagements in the form of email open rates, attended events, renewals, and membership status. The website integration with the CRM automatically posts the created events to the website calendar, attracting audiences without advertising.
Enhanced Member Engagement with Automated Workflows
Large membership bases complicate organizations' ability to focus on their core mission when they have a stack of forms in front of them. This was one of the key challenges that OBN faced, as it mentions:
“For us, managing 400 members was a huge task .”
With Glue Up’s integrated platform, OBN was able to automate all their membership workflows so that they could focus on providing an impeccable experience to their members.
“Glue Up has made our lives easier by streamlining all the processes. We have automated workflows for all our functions. Essentially, we've replaced three different software programs with one, which we found to be very cost-effective. We have also managed to regain members that were lost during Covid-19 .”
Kate Hitchman, Events Manager
OBN-UK Improves Brand Consistency Through A Customized Interface
In addition to increasing attendance and engagement, Glue-Up has also helped OBN become more professional, and develop a consistent brand image. With the integrated website, campaigns, and event management modules, their customers now know what our event pages, emails, and website look like.
What’s Next for OBN?
OBN looks forward to elevating the development and growth of the member organizations within the innovative Life Sciences sector. With the help of Glue Up’s robust technology and integrated workflows, OBN is confident that it will be able to achieve its vision in the coming years.
Do you want to integrate your workflows with an all-in-one solution? Are you looking forward to achieving your mission with cutting-edge technology? Book a demo and discover how you can increase memberships in your association by creating an extraordinary user experience.
