Interview: Convention Bureau – Wrocław
CONREGO wouldn't be the company and product it is today without our first and most important clients. I present to you Agnieszka Szymerowska and Jakub Grudniewski from Convention Bureau — Wrocław.
Years ago, I realized that the best way to learn is from the best. In my industry, I work with event organizers. I was fortunate that, at the very beginning of CONREGO’s journey, a few high-level professionals put their trust in us. They contributed the best ideas to our event registration system, and we initially built our tool specifically for them—today, every event manager can use it.
The interview was originally recorded on video, but unfortunately, we do not have a version with English dubbing.
Interview Transcription
CONREGO would not be the company and product it is today without our first and most important clients. Today, I present to you Agnieszka Szymerowska and Jakub Grudniewski from Convention Bureau — Wrocław.
Ms. Agnieszka, Mr. Jakub, could you tell us more about the activities of Convention Bureau — Wrocław? What is its mission, and what roles do you play in the team?
Convention Bureau — Wrocław is a foundation established in 2002. It was founded by the city of Wrocław and the Wrocław-based company Hala Stulecia. Its main mission is to present Wrocław as an attractive center for potential organizers of various types of events, including conferences, congresses, exhibitions, and fairs. We primarily aim to showcase the city as a desirable location for organizing such events by highlighting its hotel, conference, and congress infrastructure, as well as the various logistical solutions that are easily implemented here.
As part of the foundation’s activities, we also run the Wrocław Congress Ambassadors program. We organize meetings for this group and present them with the city’s conference and congress potential.
We participate in the council of business tourism experts and support the development of business tourism in Wrocław. This type of entity is quite rare in other cities. Additionally, we are often the first point of contact for organizers looking for a suitable destination in Wrocław.
In February 2011, I received a message from Ms. Magda Piasecka, who was then the president of Convention Bureau — Wrocław. Ms. Magda proposed a collaboration to implement a attendee registration system for the Wrocław Global Forum. This was the first event we supported with our system. It is also an event that has been continuously hosted in beautiful Wrocław ever since. What is the Wrocław Global Forum? What can you tell us about this event?
The Wrocław Global Forum is an international conference that has gathered around 350 participants annually since 2010. The attendees mainly include political figures and scholars who come to Wrocław to discuss security and transatlantic politics. The event is organized by the city of Wrocław (hence our role in the initiative), the Polish Institute of International Affairs, and the American think tank Atlantic Council.
It is worth mentioning that the Wrocław Global Forum also hosts the annual Atlantic Council Freedom World Awards, which recognize individuals fighting for freedom and democracy worldwide.
What experiences led you to choose the CONREGO event registration system at the time, and what advantages did it offer over competing solutions?
The entire idea of implementing the event management software was born after the first edition in 2010. At that time, attendee registration was carried out in the traditional way, through email applications. Applications from candidates were sent directly to us, and we later compiled them into simple Excel lists. This process was cumbersome for both the conference participants and for us. After the first edition, when we realized that there was a willingness to continue the Wrocław Global Forum, we began intensive research to find the right tools to facilitate both the registration process and the participant sign-ups. We conducted market research and sent inquiries to several companies. We received three specific responses and met with three potential system providers. You were one of them.
What was the deciding factor in choosing CONREGO?
First of all, we didn’t know what to expect, as this was a new experience for us. We had never used a registration system before, although we had often used various systems for event registrations. I think the key factors were the way the system was presented and the professionalism involved.
Thank you very much!
That’s true. It was a new experience for us, and we wanted to fully embrace the 21st century by making our work easier and reducing participant registration time. Your solution was the best fit for us.
The user-friendly interface and ease of use were also important factors.
You have been observing the development of the application since its inception. You are among the most experienced users (since few people have such long-term experience with CONREGO). Please tell us which features you use most frequently. Which functions are the most useful for you?
I’d like to start by recalling the first implementation in 2011. For me, as the person handling registrations and communicating with both participants and organizers, the report generation feature was a game changer. We no longer had to manually transfer all the data from text documents to Excel. The database was automatically generated for us. We could select exactly the data we needed at any given moment, allowing us to quickly update the organizers on the registration status.
Another important feature related to database creation is the mailing system. Most importantly, it allowed us to quickly communicate with participants and send all necessary information to a predefined recipient list…
...without the need for external exports or the use of another application.
It saved us a lot of time.
Reports and Communication are the two most fundamental modules. The integration of a registration system that collects participant data and allows this data to be used in other processes, such as communication or badge generation, is one of the reasons for continuously expanding CONREGO with new modules. Over time, we realized that more and more tasks could be automated to a significant extent.
Every year, alongside participant registration for the Wrocław Global Forum, you also use the Survey module for volunteer recruitment. This is a rather unique use of this module. How do you handle this process? How important is this element in the entire system for you?
Since volunteering is a significant part of the Wrocław Global Forum, we wanted to make the process easier not only for ourselves but also to provide solutions that allow potential volunteers to quickly and efficiently complete the registration and recruitment form. This tool has been incredibly helpful! Above all, we saved a huge amount of time. We no longer have to manually enter data from Word documents into Excel. It works similarly to the event management tool. A database is automatically generated, which we can monitor in real time—for example, to check how many volunteers have registered. This allows us to immediately request photos for ID badges, which are then used for both recruitment and interview scheduling. Moreover, volunteers can quickly fill out the application using a tablet or mobile phone. They don’t need to go to a computer, open a text document, fill it out, save it, and attach it to an email. The entire process has been significantly shortened. We also receive a lot of positive feedback, such as, 'Oh, great, I saw that I can do this quickly, even while commuting by tram or bus, and apply for a prestigious and well-known event.'
How many volunteers apply for each edition of the Wrocław Global Forum? How many of them pass the recruitment process? What kind of team do you need to support this event?
A quick calculation… On average, we need about 160 volunteers for the Wrocław Global Forum. Typically, around 220 candidates apply through these forms.
We have very interesting candidates because they come from various European and non-European countries. However, of course, not all of them eventually become volunteers. The recruitment process is quite thorough, and while we always try to give everyone a chance, not everyone meets the criteria.
Ultimately, between 130 and 150 people join the volunteer team, depending on the conference program and the tasks assigned to them.
Speaking of which—what tasks do you assign to the volunteers recruited through the system?
The tasks vary greatly, but one key requirement for volunteering is foreign language proficiency. Some candidates do not qualify because of this. The Global Forum is an entirely international event, so the primary language is English. Fluency in English is a fundamental requirement for anyone who wants to become a volunteer. Once selected, volunteers are divided into four task groups: hotels, the congress center, logistics, and a special tasks group. Within these four groups, specific tasks are assigned to individuals.
Does the survey module used for volunteer recruitment help in categorizing applicants based on their task group preferences?
It could, but we prefer to make the final decisions regarding group assignments. However, we always ask about preferences—where each volunteer would feel most comfortable.
This question is also included in the recruitment survey. This allows us to see whether the number of applicants selecting the transport group is sufficient, and we can adjust accordingly.
Beyond the Wrocław Global Forum, we have used the registration system for several other events. Let me go through the list: the Akademia Europa conference and The Climate-KIC Innovation Festival in 2013, the Central and Eastern European Christians' Meeting and Diversity in 2014, and the EAZA conference in 2015. Some of these events were free, while others required paid participation. To what extent did the system facilitate payment processing, transaction handling, and accounting for participant fees during the event organization?
The ability to process payments through the registration system was extremely useful and significantly reduced our workload. First, participants could choose between traditional payment methods, such as bank transfer, or credit card payments directly through the system. Another crucial advantage was that the entire registration process, including payment, took just a few minutes. From the start of registration to its completion, a participant spent a maximum of ten minutes completing the entire process.
Additionally, invoice issuance was simplified, as it was also handled through the registration system. If someone chose to pay via bank transfer, they would receive a pro forma invoice via email immediately after registration, making the payment process easier. Once we received the payment, we could confirm the transaction in the system and officially confirm the participant’s attendance.
You also decided to use CONREGO to create a responsive event website. How do you evaluate the content management system built into CONREGO?
For us, ease of use is always a priority. Modules such as agenda creation, speaker biography management, or Google Maps integration are key features that greatly facilitate our work and speed up our processes.
Can a responsive event website and the functional modules integrated within CONREGO replace a mobile application for event organizers?
Today, organizers who publish content fall into two groups.
(1) Organizers who specifically need a mobile app, for example, because they want to send push notifications instead of SMS messages; those looking for a tool that enables communication between participants, such as an in-app chat.
(2) Organizers who often think they need a mobile app but actually just want to display an event agenda in a readable format on a smartphone screen. This group primarily wants to present logistical information related to sessions, such as descriptions. A responsive website allows them to achieve this at a much lower cost. Deploying a mobile app requires development for at least two dominant platforms on the market—iOS and Android. In reality, a responsive website is sufficient for what we might call "non-interactive" communication. However, it does not meet needs such as participant networking, matchmaking, or push notifications, which can be replaced by SMS, though that is not always an elegant solution. It depends on the type of content you want to deliver—whether the message should appear instantly on the screen or if users should have to open their SMS app to read it. This makes a practical difference.
My answer is: it will be able to, but not yet. I believe that as technology advances and more features become available via web services, it will be entirely possible. It would definitely reduce costs and save organizers time. Currently, with both a website and a mobile app, we have to update content on both platforms simultaneously just to keep them current. This requires the work of one dedicated person, and in our case, where the event schedule often changes, this person spends a lot of time on it.
However, a major advantage of a website is its integration with the registration system—something an app cannot offer. The event system is synchronized with a website designed specifically for that event. This would undoubtedly be the more cost-effective option. If it offered the same functionalities, I think it would attract many users. For conferences, mobile apps are primarily used to display the agenda and speaker bios. Nowadays, social media is also a major component, but we see that it is more about social media than direct chat between event participants—at least, that’s what our experience shows. Twitter is very active, but chat features are rarely used. Participants often ignore push notifications. We use them, but they don’t have a significant impact.
In such an app, we also need a feature that provides participants with a map of the venue where the conference is taking place. When they click on it, they should immediately see what is happening in that area, especially if the schedule isn’t so dynamic that a new session starts every hour and a half. This is something that a website does not currently provide.
So, in essence, the ideal solution should include a registration system, a survey module, a communication module, a responsive website builder, and a mobile app—all managed from a single admin panel.
Exactly.
That would be ideal for our needs.
We are waiting for such solutions. Hopefully, they will come soon.
Using the right tools significantly simplifies work, streamlines various processes, and improves overall event workflow. Apart from the ready-to-use CONREGO registration system, what other tools do you use daily in your work?
Primarily, project management software. Also, programs for creating newsletters, sending mailings, and various other applications. When organizing conferences, a real-time flight tracking app is very useful, as we often host international guests. It helps us check if a plane is already in the air or delayed. Aga, what about you?
Above all, an application that allows us to share information within the team about pending tasks and those already completed. This is crucial for building schedules and preparing for congresses, conferences, and events we manage.
In our team, we also frequently use instant messaging tools during event organization so that we don’t have to call each other constantly. We exchange short messages, and even when the phone is on silent or we are attending a session, we can still communicate without leaving the room or answering a call.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
Well, Aga, go ahead—you start.
Above all, I love working with people. I can't imagine being in a job where I have no interaction with others. I need to talk to them, be around them. Of course, there are moments when we spend a lot of time at our desks, which is also part of the job. But for me, it’s primarily about the people. I also appreciate the opportunity to use foreign languages in practice. Thanks to international conferences, I am constantly using English. It’s a kind of continuous practice. What else? Gaining experience with new technologies. Learning to use mobile apps and social media. But most of all, it’s about the people!
I, on the other hand, appreciate working in an international environment because that’s what I always wanted. And luckily, I got it! Besides that, I like that you can see the results of your work very quickly. Some projects take years, but there are also conferences that we prepare for over six months. After those six months, we see that it worked out, that it was successful. You can see both your successes and your mistakes, which allows for rapid learning. I also value the need to be multi-skilled. You can’t be confined to just one area; you have to be able to adapt to any situation. Many times, events have shown us that you can’t be afraid and must be able to solve problems in various fields. You never know what kind of challenge a guest might present.
We can predict many situations, but we can’t foresee everything. And that flexibility is something we have all learned—and we hear it often.
If a young event manager approached Agnieszka Szymerowska or Jakub Grudniewski for advice, what would you say?
I would tell them to first learn how to organize their own time and work because that will make it easier for them to manage time for others.
My advice would be not to be afraid to make decisions and to be confident in dealing with people. Even the most introverted person who starts working in events will eventually face a situation where things get hectic, and they will have to make a decision on the spot, engage directly with others—sometimes with high-ranking individuals. That’s the one thing you should never be afraid of.
Ms. Agnieszka, Mr. Jakub—thank you very much for your time. I wish you great success in organizing events, smooth registrations, and for every event you organize in Wrocław to be a success. Wrocław is a beautiful city and deserves excellent promotion. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, we wish you continuous growth and many ambitious clients.
And we invite you to visit Wrocław more often!
I will definitely take you up on that!