CadmiumCD ( Speaker System)

Product Entered: Conference Harvester Speaker Data Management System

www.ConferenceHarvester.com

1. A brief overview / description of what your product or service is.

An online database-driven product that collects, sores and communicates with speakers - reducing the burden on both the meeting manager and speakers in completing their obligations.

2. How your product / service will meet customer's requirements, fulfil a need or solve a problem

The Conference Harvester addressed a number of different needs that education managers have in collecting and reporting information from their speakers. Typically, once a speaker has been selected, a variety of information needs to be collected from them including everything from arrival date and time to AV needs and W9 information and frequently financial disclosures.

This information is often collected over a period of months as promotional pieces are designed and various due dates are assigned to the different informational needs. Monitoring who has submitted the information, which information needs to be updated, and reminding speakers of the upcoming deadlines is often a full time endeavor for large events.

3. What is unique or innovative about your product?

The Conference Harvester is designed as a task based system. Tasks represent pieces of information required of the speaker. There are currently 23 different tasks available ranging from uploading presentations to collecting travel information and quiz questions. Each task is built to allow easy customization and can be assigned to a group of presenters or individual speakers. Since it is also an online database, reports can be easily created which allow managers to visually see the progress of each speaker.

4. What impact does your product have, or aim to have, on meeting professionals and the meetings/events industry?

"The Conference Harvester simplifies the speaker data management process by allowing customized tasks and deadlines associated with various speakers. Speakers can continue to log in numerous times to update/submit/change their information as well as receive the information they need back from the meeting managers - such as date, time and location of their presentation. Visual reports and database driven systems allow meeting managers to easily contact just those speakers who have not completed the various information requests.

The system also 'remembers' speakers, so if a speaker has used the system in the past, it migrates the data previously entered by them so they are not submitting the same information multiple times for different events within the same organization -saving time and frustration."

5. Please provide an outline of the product/service development so far, and how successful this has been:

The Conference Harvester has been actively used for the past two years, with the latest version released in the summer of 2011. Due to the web-based deployment of the software, updates are easy to make as more client feedback and suggestions are implement. This product development cycle has resulted in a product that meets meeting planner and speaker needs.

A major need that has been addressed by the Conference Harvester and is used by many associations and hospitals is the financial disclosure task, which collects financial information from speakers. With ACCME guidelines which require all medical education to comply with reporting financial conflicts, this can be a major hassle without the right tools, such as the Conference Harvester.

6. Please give an indication of pricing for using the technology product/service. Be specific as possible(e.g the pricing for an example event with xxx attendees.)

The cost of the Conference Harvester scales with the number of presentations and speakers involved as well as the complexity of the tasks assigned to speakers. There are three tiers for tasks - an Express, Standard and Pro version. The express tasks for 40 speakers and presentations would cost $1,400 and the pro tasks would be $2,600.

7. What research have you carried out to establish that there is a need for your product or service?

A competitive product evaluation has been completed as well as in-depth discussions with numerous meeting and education managers who have shared the challenges they have experience in managing speaker communications. Ease of use by the speakers has been repeated frequently as well as the quality and capability of customizing reports. Feedback is actively collected from the system, resulting in glowing reviews from the speakers themselves.

8. What do you see as being the next stages in the product/service development?

An enterprise version which could be deployed in hospitals and universities that have numerous small events and don't need as much customization would be an excellent addition to the Conference Harvester's service offerings.

Supporting Documents

www.ConferenceHarvester.com/demo - an example of how the speaker data management system works from a user's perspective.

www.cadmiumcd.com