University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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University of Nebraska-Lincoln - Read how Kinetic Software responded to the needs of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln to achieve success.
In March of 2009, the Conference Services team from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln (UNL) approached Kinetic Software with a unique situation. They had been selected as the site host for the 2010 USA National Games of the Special Olympics. In July 2010, a crowd of nearly 4,000 athletes and coaches as well as over 15,000 family members and friends would descend upon Lincoln and the UNL campus.
The Conference Services team would be responsible for all on campus accommodations and food service, including meals to be provided both on campus and off-site. Many additional campus departments and city organizations were also involved to complete the full picture of this event, which had been held only once before in 2006.
In addition to questions such as how to handle the preparation and distribution of 10,000 boxed lunches, the Conference Services team also asked themselves other pressing questions. Given this was a population they had never previously served in such a massive quantity, what would this mean for such concerns as tornado warnings? What would the response be? What accommodations needed to be made to address these? How would they prepare for and prevent medical issues such as the Norovirus outbreak experienced during the previous National Games? What other potential issues did they have to consider in preparing for the event and managing responsibilities on campus?
When the Conference Services team met with Kinetic Software, they explained that they would need to provide certain specific information to the Special Olympics staff. As a result, they needed a mechanism for recording information in Kx, the Kinetic Software product UNL uses to manage their conference and events business. They would need to track data such as the delegate’s role (coach, athlete, official, etc); in which of the 13 sporting event they were participating (softball, track, etc); and to which delegation they belonged.
This information not only needed to be recorded, but also used in cross-referencing means to produce lists immediately upon request. Some delegations consisted of over 300 people and were housed across as many as 10 campus buildings, making information access critical. At a moment’s notice the Conference Services staff would need to generate a list of all delegates from Ohio. They would need to provide an answer to questions such as “have all softball players arrived?” or “have all the coaches from California checked in?”
Kinetic Software set to work on new functionality development that would allow the UNL Conference Services staff to address these requirements. Over the course of the next 10 months, Kinetic Software developed new fields relative to specific delegates and restructured the existing grouping features. The fields were added to a number of existing screens with the ability to sort, filter and export any combination as needed. Additionally, modifications were made to existing reports to allow for dietary reports to be produced on an event by event basis. Speed improvements on check-in and check-out screens were also made to accommodate the need to check-in/out hundreds of guests with one click.
While the development was done specifically at the request of UNL, Kinetic Software recognized that the work being done could be highly beneficial to all Kinetic customers and could be used in a variety of ways to meet the changing needs of individual conferences and events. As a result, the development would be completed at no cost to UNL and made available to all customers in a new version release of the software.
In February 2010, UNL was provided with two days of on-site training of the new development. This was also used as a time to conduct test-runs of real-life scenarios expected during the Games in July. With only minor adjustments required, the Conference Services staff set off to prepare during the remaining months leading up to the National Games.
The July Games came and went without complication. 9 full-time University staff members, 47 student employees, 150 dining hall employees and a 15 person boxed lunch crew worked around the clock to ensure the entire event ran smoothly. When asked what they learned from the experience, Tony Rathgeber, Conference Services and Events Manager replied, “there were two big takeaways for us. First, that as a department and as a University, there isn’t anything we cannot do. The event was a great unifier and confidence builder. Second, that the Special Olympics is a tremendous organization to work with. The daily interactions with staff and people made us all realize what the true spirit of competition should be.”
The Conference Services staff has been identifying new uses for the development work that had been done. They expect to use it extensively in the future and continue to discover ways in which data can be searched and collated to provide them with the necessary information quickly and easily. When asked about their experience working with Kinetic Software on this project, Tony stated, “we wouldn’t have been able to pull off the event in the manner that we did without it. We would have needed to develop a system outside of Kx to maintain, update, track the information and that would have taken time and slowed down our ability to respond. Having it all in one system that we use daily allowed us to manage the information easily, alleviate our time demands and allow us to provide higher level of service to the Special Olympics.”
To learn more about UNL Conference Services, please visit their website: housing.unl.edu/conferences/
Want to know more? Contact Kx Software now!