Nobell Congressing has achieved great success and continues to grow. In today's interview, we talk about the company with Kate Wejsis, whose work combines the responsibilities of a venue finder and event manager.
Nobell Congressing has been operating in the market since 2005, providing congress and conference organizers with support in venue selection, hotel reservations, communication, and attendee management. Additionally, their team runs Poland's largest portal dedicated to conference venues, konferencje.pl. They also offer full logistical support for conferences and scientific congresses.
Our collaboration with Nobell Congressing began in 2013 when we implemented the event management software for a major international scientific congress organized by the European Materials Research Society, which takes place annually in Warsaw.
Nobell Congressing has achieved great success and continues to grow. In today’s interview, we talk about the company with Kate Wejsis, whose work combines the responsibilities of a venue finder and event manager.
Since 2005, you have been successfully developing your company, focusing on venue finding and hotel booking management. Is this strategy a response to competition, or is it a move to gain an advantage over other players?
This strategy is, on the one hand, a response to the needs of a market that has evolved significantly in recent years, and on the other hand, a way to find a niche where we can be leaders, thereby gaining a competitive edge. Our mission is also to introduce modern technologies for attendee management and event organization to the Polish meetings industry, technologies that are already successfully used worldwide. We want to convince event organizers that these solutions are worth using because they simplify event management and, most importantly, enhance the attendee experience both before and during the event. We have implemented many different IT systems that improve conference and congress management, from administration systems to visualization tools and the event management tool and hotel booking management. This is exactly why we partnered with CONREGO and purchased your software.
After years of working together, we see you as a very demanding client (this is a compliment, not a complaint) who always strives for advanced process optimization. Organizing various conferences, you use a registration system highly customized to your needs. Which CONREGO system features most improve the efficiency of your work?
First and foremost, the ability to manage the event website. It allows for intuitive and easy modifications to the content. In the case of conference and congress-type events, especially scientific gatherings, there are frequent, albeit minor, changes. However, details are crucial. The ability to respond quickly without having to use external services is very important to me. Another highly useful feature is the attendee data reports, which I can download as XLS files. At any moment, I can generate any report filtered according to my needs.
The most important thing is that once the registration process is properly configured, the entire attendee service is automated. This ensures that participants receive automatic notifications about their status, and organizers avoid mistakes that always occur with manual registration.
The accommodation booking module in CONREGO was extensively redesigned based on suggestions from Norbert Karczmarczyk. Most organizers offered a fixed number of hotel rooms of a specific type during attendee registration, for example, 50 single rooms and 100 double rooms.
As I mentioned earlier, we specialize in handling scientific conferences and congresses. The demand for accommodations usually follows a similar pattern. Most hotel stays are required during the conference days, but there are also bookings for the surrounding dates—2-3 days before and 2-3 days after the event. These are primarily used by people who need to arrive early or leave later due to flight schedules or those who simply want to stay longer for tourism. Why should we block the same number of rooms for these surrounding dates as we do for the main conference days? CONREGO’s flexibility, implemented based on our suggestions, allows us to set different room allocation blocks for each day. This helps us maintain good relationships with hotels—our suppliers—by not unnecessarily blocking excess rooms, while also keeping track of booking availability for each day separately. Meanwhile, attendees have the option to book accommodation for any dates they choose rather than being limited to those imposed by the organizer. As a result, they prefer our service, and we handle an increasing number of bookings year after year.
What do attendees typically look for when choosing accommodation?
For conference and congress events, the most important factor is the hotel’s location relative to the conference venue, followed by the price.
What information do attendees most frequently look for, and how does CONREGO help you provide it?
There is no single rule. Attendees care about prices and what’s included in them. They often write to us to confirm whether their registration or booking is indeed confirmed and paid. But there are also many other completely individual and unique questions. Honestly, I have never really analyzed this because, regardless of the question, I can find all the answers in CONREGO. You simply open the attendee’s record in the admin system during the conversation (because the system works very fast) and find the answer.
Is there any feature you feel is missing in CONREGO?
Nothing comes to mind, so I guess not :)
What challenges do you most frequently encounter in your work, and how do you solve them?
We don’t use the word “problem” in our company. We prefer to call it a “task to be handled,” which just needs to be taken care of in the best way possible, and that’s it. That’s exactly why we have implemented many modern systems and software solutions that allow us to positively respond to every challenge—every task that comes our way. One of the most fundamental tools for us is CONREGO. It provides us with many essential tools in one place, with easy access and intuitive operation.
Using the right tools makes many aspects of attendee management, communication, and work organization easier. Besides the CONREGO registration system, what other tools do you use daily, and how do they assist you?
We use many different tools, each tailored to specific needs and used for various elements of conference logistics. Of course, there is an advanced CRM, an essential email program, and two highly specialized applications: one for conference logistics management and another for designing conference space layouts, which also allows for creating visualizations.
Nobell Congressing is a highly demanding team that leads in its industry. Their success proves that using the CONREGO event management software is both easy and highly effective. Supporting such initiatives is a challenge and a source of pride for us.
