In 2014, the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors’ Association (OJFSDA) began using Results at Hand’s ConferenceBeat Event App to support its conference. Then, in 2023, OJFSDA moved to a fully paperless conference experience, making the app its primary source of information for attendees and everyone supporting the event behind the scenes. The goals were clear: reduce the costs associated with printed materials and decrease the staff time required to prepare and maintain event information.
Now, more than a decade after OJFSDA first began using ConferenceBeat, the app has become an integral part of its conference experience. It supports personalized schedules, time-sensitive updates, volunteer coordination, and much more while helping the association’s small team work more efficiently.
At a Glance
The Challenge: Printed Information Required Work but Still Created Confusion
Before going paperless, OJFSDA relied on a combined name badge and printed program alongside its event app. Sessions were labeled by time block on the badge, but attendees frequently struggled to understand how those time blocks corresponded to sessions and locations in the program. The readability of the badge/program format often caused confusion.
Creating, formatting, and maintaining the printed program also required a significant investment of staff time and effort.
The Goal: Go Paperless Without Leaving Attendees Behind
OJFSDA wanted the event app to become the primary source of conference information, reducing both printing costs and staff time. The platform itself was not the concern. The bigger questions were whether the venue’s Wi-Fi would be reliable and whether attendees would be willing to download and depend on an app throughout the conference.
ConferenceBeat’s web-based option helped address the adoption concern by allowing attendees to access event information without downloading an app to a personal or work device. According to OJFSDA, the transition was smoother and encountered less resistance than expected. Today, the app is an accepted and streamlined part of the event experience.
The Solution: One Place for Each Attendee’s Event Experience
The agenda became the center of OJFSDA’s ConferenceBeat experience. Organizers can customize it by track and strand, control access to specific agenda items, and use agenda types creatively to organize information. Attendees receive their complete, personalized conference schedules in one place, helping them stay organized and move between sessions and activities with less confusion.
The platform also supports an operational need that is easy for attendees to overlook: room-capacity management. By controlling which sessions can be added to individual schedules, OJFSDA can better manage space while keeping each person’s event information accurate and relevant.
A New Use Case: Bringing Volunteer Assignments Into the Schedule
OJFSDA extended the personalized agenda beyond sessions by adding volunteer assignments for breakout support staff and Conference Committee members. Previously, volunteers received a PDF inside the app and had to switch between that document and the conference agenda, or print the schedule ahead of time.
At the 2026 Annual Training Conference, OJFSDA piloted placing volunteer assignments directly into each volunteer’s conference schedule. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Conference activities and event responsibilities now appeared together, creating a more convenient and user-friendly experience.
Less Administrative Work for a One-Person Event Team
OJFSDA’s events are managed by a single staff member, making repeatable processes especially valuable. ConferenceBeat allows previous events to serve as templates, so each new conference can build on an established structure rather than starting from scratch. As content and processes have stabilized, setup and event management have become substantially more efficient.
The move away from printed materials also makes content easier to maintain. Updates can be made and communicated almost immediately instead of requiring a revised schedule or handout. OJFSDA created a one-page attendee guide based on Results at Hand’s instructions, and attendee questions have continued to decrease as familiarity with the platform has grown.
Speaker and sponsor portals further distribute the workload. Giving speakers and sponsors access and responsibility for maintaining their information has reduced the administrative burden on OJFSDA while maintaining accuracy and accountability. Results at Hand’s responsive support team has also helped the association explore new ideas, troubleshoot challenges, and better understand available functionality.
What Changed
A Better Experience for Attendees, Speakers, and Sponsors
For attendees, the value is convenience: schedules, room information, notes, handouts, and presentation materials are available through the same experience. Participants can take session-specific notes and email materials to themselves for later reference. Those experiencing “download fatigue” can use the web version instead.
Sponsors report appreciating opportunities to engage with attendees, participate in the exhibitor scavenger hunt, share company materials, and connect with the broader event agenda. Speakers use the platform to upload session materials, monitor registrations, confirm room assignments, view evaluation results, and connect with participants.
Evaluations are also housed within the platform attendees already use during the event. That centralization reduces the manual effort involved in distributing, collecting, and compiling feedback while giving attendees an easy way to respond while the experience is still fresh.
The Result: A Paperless Conference That Became the New Normal
OJFSDA reports that the transition exceeded expectations, delivering significant savings in printed materials and staff time. With 95% of attendees using the event app and typical event attendance of approximately 1,000, ConferenceBeat has become a reliable part of the association’s conference experience.
The platform also gives one event planner a practical way to manage complex schedules, make timely updates, coordinate volunteers, collect feedback, and share content across multiple audiences. The result is not simply less paper. It is a more centralized event experience that is easier for OJFSDA to manage and easier for participants to navigate.
Ready to Simplify Your Event Experience?
Results at Hand helps associations bring schedules, content, communication, engagement, and feedback together in one flexible event platform. Explore the possibilities at resultsathand.com.