Orchid Event Solutions - News Room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Salt Lake City, Utah - Press Release

The 2014 dōTERRA Aspire Conference held at the Salt Palace Convention Center September 17-20, represented the largest attendance of any single-company corporate event in Salt Palace history, and one of the largest registration events handled by Orchid Event Solutions. 

Approximately 20,000 people registered for the event in the Orchid registration system.  dōTERRA attendees were so eager that 12,000 checked in a day before the general session, with Orchid’s system processing up to 2,000 attendees an hour with an average wait time of 4 minutes that day.  Thanks to great planning by the dōTERRA events team and their forward-looking use of registration technology, it was a huge success.

Another measure of this year’s success was the enthusiastic response to the pre-registration offering for next year’s event.  dōTERRA offers attendees special pricing for a limited time on next year’s event registration to generate excitement and encourage attendance.  Pre-registration for dōTERRA’s 2015 event was opened on the last day of this year’s event using Orchid’s self-registration kiosks in addition to online.  Initial pre-registration totals are already more than half of the total attendance for 2014. 

The collaborative relationship over the past five years between dōTERRA and Orchid insured that industry best practices for event registration were used to maximum advantage.  “dōTERRA has been a driver of innovation in event registration, streamlining the attendee registration experience, both online and on-site.  It has been exciting to work with such a progressive company that wants to take full advantage of what Orchid technology has to offer,” said Amy McMinn, CIO, Orchid.

About Orchid Event Solutions

Orchid provides full service online event registration and housing solutions to over 200 events annually.  Orchid offers customized web/mobile multilingual registration services, software, and on-site support.  Staffed with an in-house customer service center, Orchid leverages Passkey’s® hotel reservation system to provide web/mobile booking sites and specializes in sub-block exhibitor management. For more information, visit www.OrchidEventSolutions.com.

Position Title: Call Center Agent, Bilingual Spanish/English Preferred
FLSA: Part-Time, Non Exempt
Position Available:  ASAP
Shift:  20-25 hours per week, Monday - Friday, afternoons preferred
Pay:  $10 per hour

Orchid Event Solutions (OES) is seeking candidates to work a flexible part-time schedule in our in-bound call center, based in our Salt Lake City Office.  OES is a full service provider of online event registration services, on-site registration support and convention housing management for a variety of events and conventions. 

Primary Responsibilities:
Agent is responsible for answering inbound telephone calls from guests, to assist them with making and modifying hotel reservations and conference registrations and providing excellent customer service.  Agent will also process written requests for hotel reservations and conference registrations. 

• Must be able to work effectively with the public and possess excellent oral communication skills
• Inbound call center and/or hotel experience highly preferred
• Strong working knowledge of basic computer applications, including Microsoft Excel and the ability to learn new programs
• Bilingual candidates preferred with ability to fluently speak, read and write both Spanish and English
• Great organization skills and ability to adapt in a fast-paced work environment

Submit resume to:

Orchid Event Solutions / Human Resources at jobs@orchideventsolutions.com 

Application Deadline: 
Position opened until filled.
Final candidates will be subject to a background and reference check.  E/O/E.

Salt Lake City, UT - Press Release

Orchid Event Solutions (OES) has been awarded a multi-year agreement to be the official convention housing service provider for SAE International for over 10 technology events annually through 2016.  Combined these meetings represent over 10,000 hotel room nights booked and over $1.7 million dollars in hotel room night revenue for the destination hoteliers annually.

World Congress is SAE International's largest event and is attended by more than 9,000 Engineers, Industry Executives, Academics, Government & Military Officials and Consultants, as well as 150 Exhibitors from 45 countries.

"Orchid's use, understanding and implementation of Passkey's GroupMAX ME systems and features have streamlined a custom convention housing process which aids in maximizing our contracted room blocks.  Orchid provides SAE International a custom web site, eMarketing services and dashboard reporting.  Orchid's convention housing room block management combined with providing our attendees' excellent customer service and continuity year after year is why we are pleased to extend our partnership through 2016."
Cindy Cavanaugh
Event Buyer, SAE International

"Orchid is dedicated to being a valued partner.  We have had the pleasure of being the official convention housing service provider to SAE since 2004.  This stands as a testament to our commitment to providing the highest level of customer service to our clients and their attendees."
Tina Stark
Director of Sales, Orchid Event Solutions

SAE International:
SAE International is a global association of more than 133,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries. SAE International's core competencies are life-long learning and voluntary consensus standards development. SAE International's charitable arm is the SAE Foundation, which supports many programs, including A World In Motion® and the Collegiate Design Series™.

An average of 350 days of sunshine per year and a thriving hospitality industry has solidified Greater Palm Springs as an ideal meeting location for event planners. To enhance benefits for meeting planners, the Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) has teamed with Orchid Event Solutions - utilizing Passkey's GroupMAX hotel booking technology - to offer comprehensive full service convention housing management to its client base.

Following an extensive RFP and review process, Palm Springs selected Orchid Event Solutions as the official housing convention housing service provider for the Greater Palm Springs area, due largely to its employment of Passkey's GroupMAX technology.

"Orchid Event Solutions is among the largest users of Passkey's GroupMAX, a system that planners everywhere know and trust; that made Orchid the obvious choice for us," said Robert R. Osterberg, director of convention sales and services, Greater Palm Springs CVB. "Using these tools, we can now provide superior housing services to clients and hotels alike, placing us on the same level as major destinations."

"The Greater Palm Springs CVB's recent brand launch and new direction promotes an 'oasis' concept for its nine distinctive cities, focusing on their unification into a single destination," Osterberg said. "This partnership promises to enhance our brand and the meeting experience for meeting planners and attendees by providing an easy and seamless booking experience throughout the destination. Orchid and GroupMAX's combined housing and marketing toolset not only helps to increase attendance and hotel bookings but helps to market the destination, our local attractions, hotels and restaurants. This, in turn, delivers greater economic value to the Palm Springs community."

GroupMAX provides event attendees with the convenience of online hotel booking, and automates inventory tracking and reporting for meeting planners and hotels. Reservations are seamlessly transferred into a hotel's central reservation system, reducing potential errors and labor costs associated with manual data entry.

"Working with the Greater Palm Springs CVB and their hotel community has been a great experience for our team. As a major user of Passkey's GroupMAX tool, we are confident of our ability to drive attendance and bookings for their events and pleased that our services can contribute to the success and growth of their community," said Tina Stark, director of sales, Orchid Event Solutions.

Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau
The Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is a Joint Powers Authority that serves as a coordinating agency for sales, marketing and promotional efforts aimed at potential tourism, corporate, incentive and convention group markets. The CVB is dedicated to a program of work to benefit and promote the hospitality industry in the member cities in Riverside County, which include Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Indio and Coachella.

Passkey International, Inc.
Passkey (www.passkey.com) is the travel industry's de-facto standard hotel booking technology for meetings and events.  The Company's cloud-based platform, GroupMAX ME, is used by thousands of hotels, destinations and meeting planners worldwide to manage the hotel accommodation process for events of every size.  At the heart of GroupMAX ME is the ability for clients to offer event-specific web/mobile booking sites for event attendees to book their hotel rooms online while enjoying multiple stay and upgrade options.  With offices in the US, the UK and Singapore, the Passkey global network now includes over 90% of major US and UK Convention and Visitors Bureaus, as well as a wide range of hotels, casinos, resorts, meeting planners, corporations and meeting management companies.  

Salt Lake City, UT, August 2012 - Press Release
Orchid Event Solutions (Orchid) was awarded a multi-year agreement from American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) to be the official Convention Housing Service provider for ASHP’s largest event’s: the Midyear Clinical Meeting and the Summer Meeting. 

The Midyear Clinical Meeting is attended by more than 20,000 members and over 200 exhibitors from 86 countries.  Combined these meetings represent close to 50,000 room nights booked annually and over $10 million dollars of room revenue for the destination's hoteliers.  

“Orchid’s professionalism, integrity, and excellence have made them a valued partner of ASHP.  Besides providing excellent housing management, Orchid understands the importance of maintaining quality relationships and providing personalized attention to our exhibitors and attendees.  Orchid’s services are one key to the success and growth of our convention room blocks.”
Fran Lappin Byrnes
Director of Conference and Convention Planning, ASHP.

 “Orchid is thrilled to continue our long term partnership for convention housing services with ASHP.  Orchid has been the official convention housing service provide for ASHP’s Midyear Clinical Meeting and The Summer Meeting since 2008. We are dedicated to helping ASHP meet their event objectives. “
Tina Stark
Director of Sales, Orchid Event Solutions 

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists:
ASHP is a national professional organization whose nearly 40,000 members include pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy students who provide patient care services in hospitals, health systems, and ambulatory clinics. ASHP is the only national organization of hospital and health-system pharmacists and has a long history of improving medication use and enhancing patient safety.  ASHP hosts a number of national-level meetings and conferences each year to provide health-system pharmacy practitioners with venues for updating their knowledge, networking with colleagues, enhancing their skills, and learning about the latest health-system pharmacy issues, products and technologies.

Orchid Event Solutions:
Orchid is a full service provider of online event registration and convention housing services with over 20 years of experience.  One of the nation’s leading convention housing services providers, Orchid's focus is to assist event organizers in maximizing their hotel room blocks and minimizing any risk of attrition.  Utilizing the leading hotel booking and management technology, GroupMAX ME by Passkey, Orchid provides event specific web/mobile booking sites, extensive sub block and exhibitor management, in-house customer call center and on-site attendee support. 

Orchid provides customized web/mobile multilingual online event registration services, software, on-site registration support,  secure payment processing, exhibitor registration and exhibit booth personnel allocation, name badge and ticket production, attendance tracking, CEU management and certification, computer and printer rental and lead retrieval services.

Orchid Event Solutions books 108 room nights outside of the original contracted block with GroupMAX’s wait list feature for American Chemical Society 243rd National Meeting & Expo

As the official convention housing service provider for the American Chemical Society’s National event, Orchid Event Solutions sought to fulfill the event’s contracted room block, while offering protection from hotel attrition clauses and providing a more efficient way to handle fax, mail and phone requests for hotel reservations.  Historically managing attendee reservation requests for sold out nights or room types was a very manual process and did not provide the best experience for attendees.

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION - Enable Passkey GroupMAX Wait List Feature

• Increased room block pickup by accommodating event date and shoulder night requests
• Reduced attendee request call volume with automated wait list night fulfillment

In the interest of preventing attendees from being turned away from the block, Orchid Event Solutions enabled GroupMAX ME’s wait list feature, addressing limited inventory availability concerns. When booking through the dedicated reservation website, attendees were able to enter their desired check-in/out dates and request to reserve room nights, even if no inventory was available that matched their preferred stay dates.

As nights were added to the wait list, Orchid Event Solutions automatically fulfilled requests as inventory became available. Shifting these requests online significantly improved block pickup and dramatically reduced time spent managing telephone requests.

Once a wait list night was accommodated, attendees instantly received a customized acknowledgement to inform them their request was successfully fulfilled.

“Implementing and managing the Wait List feature not only increased our contracted room block pickup, it also provided our attendees a much better booking experience. This represents just one of the ways Orchid Event Solutions continues to expand their services to maximize our room blocks and provide personalized service to our attendees.”
Nancy Todd
Manager, Conference Management and Vendor Relations

RESULTS

• 108 unplanned room nights picked up
• 85% of reservations booked online

 Orchid Event Solutions Deployed GroupMAX ME in 2007

 About Orchid Event Solutions, LLC (OES), Provides customized web/mobile multilingual online event registration forms,  secure payment processing, exhibitor registration and complimentary booth personnel allocation, on-site technical and registration staffing support, name badge and ticket production, attendance tracking, CEU management and certification, computer and printer rental and lead retrieval.

One of the nation’s leading convention housing services companies, OES focus is to assist event organizers in maximizing their hotel room blocks and minimizing any risk of attrition.  Utilizing the leading hotel booking and management technology, GroupMAX ME by Passkey, OES provides event specific web/mobile booking sites, extensive sub block and exhibitor management, in-house customer call center and on-site attendee support.  OES is the official Convention Housing Service Provider for Visit Salt Lake, Utah Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Authority.

Salt Lake City, UT - Orchid Event Solutions a full service provider of online and on-site event registration services, software and convention housing services for association, trade show, direct selling and government events expands its software development team with the addition of Tim McPhie.

McPhie brings over 20 years of software development and database design experience to Orchid.  McPhie’s recent experience has been large enterprise projects with the Department of Defense, OSHA Technical Center and Hexcel Corporation.  McPhie will be added to Orchid’s new product development team.   

About Orchid Event Solutions, LLC (OES), Provides customized web/mobile multilingual online event registration forms,  secure payment processing, exhibitor registration and complimentary booth personnel allocation, on-site technical and registration staffing support, name badge and ticket production, attendance tracking, CEU management and certification, computer and printer rental and lead retrieval.

One of the nation’s leading convention housing services companies, OES focus is to assist event organizers in maximizing their hotel room blocks and minimizing any risk of attrition.  Utilizing the leading hotel booking and management technology, GroupMAX ME by Passkey, OES provides event specific web/mobile booking sites, extensive sub block and exhibitor management, in-house customer call center and on-site attendee support.  OES is the official Convention Housing Service Provider for Visit Salt Lake, Utah Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Authority.

To learn more, visit www.orchideventsolutions.com. 

Salt Lake City, UT - Orchid Event Solutions a full service provider of online and on-site event registration services, software and convention housing services for association, tradeshow, direct selling and government events expand its software development team with the addition of John Visser.

Visser is being added to the Orchid software development team to fill the position Project Manager.  Visser brings years of software development project management experience to Orchid, recently acting as the Project Manager for Overstock.com overseeing their Everging Business development team.  John will be responsible for overseeing new product development as well as all client production online registration releases.

About Orchid Event Solutions, LLC (OES)
OES Provides customized web/mobile multilingual and multicurrency  online event registration forms,  secure payment processing, exhibitor registration and complimentary booth personnel allocation, on-site technical and registration staffing support, name badge and ticket production, attendance tracking, CEU management and certification, computer and printer rental and lead retrieval.

One of the nation’s leading convention housing services companies  OES focus is to assist event organizers in maximizing their hotel room blocks and minimizing any risk of attrition.  Utilizing the leading hotel booking and management technology, GroupMAX ME by Passkey, OES provides event specific web/mobile booking sites, extensive hotel sub block and exhibitor management, in-house customer call center and on-site attendee support.  OES is the official Convention Housing Service Provider for Visit Salt Lake, Utah Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Authority.

To learn more, visit www.orchideventsolutions.com. 

Orchid Event Solutions, LLC Adds 8 new languages to its online multilingual event registration software.  Orchid Event Solutions now supports online event registration in Danish, Deutsch, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Romanian, Russian and Slovak.  

Orchid Event Solutions now provides multilingual online event registration in 16 languages.  

Jodi Durrant, Vice President, Global Events and Recognition at Nu Skin International asserts, "I have had the opportunity to work with Orchid for over 18 years. We have engaged Orchid Event Solutions for our registration and housing for multiple global convention and top leader incentive trips.  Nu Skin has asked a great deal of Orchid as our global markets, conventions and multilingual online event registration needs have grown.  We have looked at numerous registration processes throughout the years, but Orchid stands our as the leader in multilingual event registration.

About Orchid Event Solutions, LLC.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with over 20 years of experience, Orchid Event Solutions provides customized web/mobile event registration services and software to support the unique business needs of our diverse customer base.  Services include customized multi-lingual and multi-currency event registration forms, secure payment processing, Exhibitor registration and complimentary booth personnel allocation, on-site technical and registration staffing support, name badge and ticket production, attendance tracking, CEU management and certification, computer and printer rental and lead retrieval.

As one of the nation’s largest Convention Housing Management companies, Orchid Event Solutions processes over 120,000 hotel reservations annually.  Our focus is to assist event organizers in maximizing their hotel room blocks and minimizing any risk of attrition.  Utilizing the leading hotel booking and management technology, GroupMAX ME by Passkey, we provide our clients and their attendee’s event specific web/mobile booking sites, extensive sub block management, and with GroupMAX ME’s RezHUB technology automated electronic room list management.  Orchid Event Solutions is the official Convention Housing Service Provider for Visit Salt Lake and the Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Authority.

To learn more, visit www.orchideventsolutions.com.   Follow Orchid Event Solutions on Twitter @Orchidevents and on Facebook.