How Fienta got sTARTUp Day flying
"We don't have many people here, but we do great things," said Marili Vihmann, Head Organiser of sTARTUp Day.
Tartu, where the event takes place, is home to Estonia's oldest and highest-ranked university, which has produced many entrepreneurs and engineers over the years. They, along with anyone interested in starting a company and solving problems with innovative solutions, could join the event from 29 to 31 January 2020 at the University of Tartu (startupday.ee).
sTARTUp Day uses Fienta as its ticketing and booking solution, after trying several competitors in previous years, because, according to Marili, Fienta offers something the others do not. "Really great customer service. I've never seen anything so responsive and quick. Every organiser is trying to optimise their workload, and when you find a partner that helps you share responsibility and find solutions, that's what it’s all about, and Fienta does that."
One of the challenges for any event organiser is making sure delegates are properly registered and accredited. It used to mean maintaining long spreadsheets, creating mail merges, and printing badges on an old office laser printer. Thanks to Fienta and a custom solution created for sTARTUp Day, things looked very different.
"All of our ticketing is connected to Fienta and goes straight from attendees to us, and then straight back to them. Together with Fienta, we have a live printing system that allows us to print badges on-demand, at the venue. It's one of the best systems we've ever used. Fienta is a startup, and they're really fast; whenever we ask for something, they support us and come up with a solution quickly."
Marili explained how the system works. "We started with the idea of not printing all the badges in advance and then searching for them. Fienta offered us a great solution with a database, and another partner provided iPads, which we also connected to the system. It all works online, but it can also operate offline if needed."
“As participants arrived at registration, our volunteers looked them up by name or by scanning their ticket. Fienta had its own registration software connected to the database, and once the ticket was scanned, the attendee was marked as present. They also created another button so we could send the information we needed to the printers, which were set up for batch label printing.”
"Before that, we printed all the name tags in advance and sorted them by team and name. It took 20 people two nights to sort those thousands of name tags into alphabetical order. It then took even more time to search for each participant by name, so we ended up with lines that lasted 45 minutes to an hour just to get into the hall. This was one of the main things we wanted to improve."
Of course, not everything always goes exactly as planned. "There are always people who do not arrive, and in the past all the tags we had printed were thrown away, which was wasteful. Creating a solution that let us print on site helped us enormously. We tried an independent solution without Fienta and had problems with the database connection, but when Fienta came in with their solution, we had no lines and people got inside very easily. We also created time slots for badge printing on other days, so people could pick up badges early if they wanted, and no tags were thrown away unused, which helped us get as close to zero-waste as possible."
It's a demanding job, and Marili needs all the energy she can muster to get everything done. "sTARTUp Day has grown so much that it's now a full-time job. We also have paid roles like Programme Manager and Marketing Manager, and for the first time we now have a Community Manager who is trying to level up the community as a whole. We also have students and volunteers working on it, because it has grown so much and we need all the help we can get. If you work on sTARTUp Day as a volunteer, it can lead to many future career opportunities."
"Last year we had 65 countries represented, and we're always looking for new startups to take part, but it takes time to spread the word. Every year it gets easier and we welcome more international visitors. We cover more than 15 topics, while also running marketing meetings and guiding the volunteers who lead parts of the event, so there are a lot of meetings and a lot of coordination involved."
"In the days before sTARTUp Day, things get even more intense because we're working around the clock and putting in a huge amount of effort. Luckily we're young enough to handle the long days and long meetings. Today alone, I still have five meetings left!"
Despite all that hard work, Marili and the team love working on sTARTUp Day. "There are so many things I enjoy, especially the energy and the vibe. We're doing big things, some of which seem impossible, but we always find a way to make them happen. The team and the people are the most valuable part. When we need mentoring, we also have a great advisory board with a lot of experience."
When asked what she felt was the best thing about sTARTUp Day, Marili said, "I think it's the fact that we bring together so many organisations. It can be challenging to organise an event with nine separate organisations and companies involved, but the people behind it are genuinely motivated and inspiring. There's a really good energy and great people, and that's what makes it such a special and unique community festival."
Fienta makes sTARTUp Day much more efficient, and Marili is full of praise. "It's faster and easier for the organiser because it takes a lot of work off our shoulders, so we can focus on what matters most."
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