Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency 4th Annual Conference
“The ASN team were a pleasure to deal with throughout the entire process of delivering our annual conference. Nothing was too big nor too small for them to handle – and there was always a solution to those inevitable urgent matters that unexpectedly arise on event day. Their positive attitude and can-do spirit were greatly appreciated, together with their eagerness to ensure a successful conference was delivered”
Justine Baranauskas, TEQSA
The Brief
Prior to ASN Events involvement, the Tertiary Education and Standards Association (TEQSA) conference had been run for three years. TEQSA undertook a tender process to select a new PCO partner for the delivery of both 2019 and 2020 conferences. ASN Events were highlighted as a PCO who could provide high-level strategic support to re-invigorate the annual national conference which had become imitative.
The previous service provider were not a PCO, but rather an education services company. They were closely aligned with TEQSA’s existing skills, but lacked the industry skills and knowledge to bring the conference to the next level. ASN Events were able to demonstrate to TEQSA our strategic development experience in taking lagging conferences and turning them around by developing a strong understanding of the people we would be working with, the issues at hand, and the solutions required to ensure success.
In the early stages of the planning process, we undertook regular meetings with several different TEQSA employees across the various teams, enabling ASN to gain a strong understanding of the regulatory aspects of TEQSA’s role and expectations of senior stakeholders. This clear understanding led ASN to address quality and capacity issues which had persisted with the existing venue during previous events. TEQSA did not want to return there, but didn’t want to move to a Convention Centre. They wished to have a collegiate and networking-based event which they felt would be hard to achieve at a larger venue. We undertook a comprehensive analysis and after many discussions, we contracted Sofitel Melbourne who were faultless in their service levels and desire to “make it happen”.
Making it happen
Building Trust
The team at ASN made open and clear communication with TEQSA a priority, with regular meetings ensuring the team were achieving and exceeding TEQSA’s expectations. Feedback from previous events provided ASN the opportunity to reinvigorate and enhance several aspects of the conference.
Budget Optimisation
ASN’s strong industry contacts and combined experience allowed us to re-budget the meeting and reduce the registration costs by 30-40% on previous years. This also allowed us to offer group and international registration packages which lead to an overall increase in delegates. ASN selected a new venue which not only fit the budget but enhanced the quality of the conference. Despite an initial expectation of decreased delegate numbers, the conference experienced a huge growth. Through clear and open communication with the venue, contingency plans were made to ensure movement through the space, access to catering and delegate experience was unaffected. This was achieved by closing internal escalators to hotel guests and the public, allowing our unrestricted use of the lobby, additional security guards to assist with delegate flow and additional catering stations and staff to increase delegate access to food.
ASN Innovation
We introduced Expo-scan as a registration scanning solution, which provided a simple solution to what had been a pain point in the past. This allowed hassle free collection of name badges, allowing the swift processing of 1000+ delegates.
Working with a new venue layout, ASN took the opportunity to reinvigorate the conference program, decreasing the number of concurrent streams and introducing two additional presentation types. Clear marketing ensured delegates felt their feedback had been listened to and addressed and ensured there was an understanding of the changes being made. We designed the program to keep delegates engaged, book-ending each day with plenary talks and group panels, with a variety of session types throughout the day. To compliment the educational speakers, we secured journalist and author George Megalogenis as well as an address from the Minister from Education Dan Tehan.
The Outcome
Outcomes of the 4th Annual TEQSA Conference exceeded TEQSA’s expectations in several ways:
105% increase in expected delegate numbers
68% increase in budgeted surplus, despite reduced registration price
Contract to deliver a 2020 meeting was already in place, with venue locked in, but has been postponed due to the Coronavirus Pandemic
Two pre-conference forums successfully managed which both sold out
Two ticketed lunch events increased engagement between students and providers, as well as case-managers were both conference highlights
New presentation types allowed more authors to present their work and engage with their community
ASN was also responsible for re-creating the conference website, working closely with TEQSA’s marketing team to ensure coordination of design and news across various platforms
Our partnership and trust in the Sofitel were evident in the outcome with TEQSA wishing to re-contract the venue. We had none of the issues which had affected the conference in previous iterations, and introduced several new highlights. Planning for the 2021 5th Annual conference is already underway, as well as new initiatives to keep the community engaged throughout 2020.