We’ve been working with College Training since 2015, helping the team manage registration and payments for their annual summer college training event.
The goal of College Training is to supply college students with a vision, equip them with truth, help them in their experience of life, perfect them in the preaching of the gospel, and develop their character.
After using Google Forms to manage registration, the team found it challenging to reconcile payment information with registration data. They looked for a solution that would integrate payments into the registration process to more efficiently manage these admin tasks.
Check out what Michael has to say about his experience using Regpack and how the platform continues to evolve to make automating payments, and collecting registration data easy!
What is College Training?
The organization that supports the event is a network of churches and we all work together. We all have a presence on a university campus through an outreach ministry. We come together at least once a year and host an event for college students.
I got involved as a student way back in the day. In 2015, I came on initially in a very minimal role and then gradually stepped more into the registration process. I actually got familiar with Regpack through another of event that I help out with! I was able to utilize my familiarity with Regpack with College Training.
We’ve been having this event since 1991 and at first it was just in one place and it was just in a small region of the country. But as we grew, we realized Google Forms was not working for us. Regpack provided a registration tool that matched our growth. We now have 5 regions across the country, with annual regional events and once every four years, we bring all the regions together for one central event.
How does Regpack work with all 5 regions, especially when you come together for your main event?
All of the registration teams from each region work together on the main event. It’s helpful to have Regpack as a central place that we can all log in. We’re all doing registration the same way, so for our main event it’s just bigger numbers!
What were you doing before Regpack? What was the reason for the change?
Regpack was the best price for the most functionality. We didn’t want to jump into a big system with a big price tag. We try to keep the cost to attend low for the students, coupled with a high cost to run the actual event – so it was important to find a system that was cost effective without sacrificing functionality.
With Google Forms, it was hard to incorporate payment information, which made managing that side of things really hard. It’s really nice to keep attendee information in one spot, and have the ability for students to pay online, refund online. Makes for less headaches on our side!
Do you utilize our Autobill tool, and if so, what do you like about it?
We planned to implement Autobill for the first time this year, but with Covid-19, we lowered our virtual event price considerably and it didn’t make sense.
We were excited to use it this year as a way to offer more options for our students. We really think it will help the students to pay for the event in a better and more manageable way.
How is your Regpack system set up?
Our goal in the system is accountability. When a person hears about us, and they inquire about the training, they begin the application. Regpack allows us to vet inquiries as they come in, and filter students from the beginning. We take our training program really seriously, so we want to make sure that the students signing up understand the commitment and are 100% sure they want to continue signing-up. Our event is 6 days with a demanding schedule. Our goal is to find and register the ones that are interested in having that experience.
Regpack helps us keep people where we want them in the process, and allows them to progress through the application process easily. The automated emails helps a ton since we are talking to so many people from all over the country. The system also helps keep everyone on our team in the loop about all the applicants coming in.
We use triggers in the system a lot to show the right questions, and hide others. We also use the roadblock feature to stop the application at certain points based on the answers they’ve given us, in certain cases if there is a red flag.
We also love that we can add unlimited admins to our system. It allows our entire team to jump in and manage the process so we can be efficient.
How have you managed to transition your in person training to a virtual training event?
We did it all through Zoom, everything was online! We scaled the event back in terms of the amount of hours of the training, but we still had a great response considering.
What is your favorite Regpack feature?
The interface of Regpack flow! It is easy to move through the back end, and has lowered the time it takes to review an application, see the data, and get moving on it. It is really easy to communicate with applicants as well!
I also love the support and having a person to directly reach out to. Regpack provides a lot of functionality but if there is ever a hiccup or a question, we can reach out to Support and get a quick response. Knowing Support is there and continuing the dialogue is great.
Would you recommend Regpack, and if so, why?
Yes! The amount of functionality you get at this price point is hard to beat. Looking at the market, you either have to invest a lot more money or give up a lot of functionality to find the right balance. We feel confident that as our event grows and changes, Regpack has the features and resources we need.
