AACR Doubles Event Capacity with HopSkip

AACR Drives Growth and Efficiency with HopSkip

Background:

The American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) is a prestigious organization committed to advancing cancer research by facilitating events and networking opportunities among scientists, researchers, and medical professionals. AACR membership includes more than 54,000 laboratory, translational, and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and patient advocates residing in 130 countries and territories worldwide.

AACR hosts annual meetings and events, such as conferences, educational workshops, and networking sessions. These events are crucial for sharing the latest cancer research findings, promoting knowledge exchange, and driving innovation in the field. 

Lauren (Senior Director, Meetings) and her team at AACR are responsible for sourcing, recommending, and booking hotels for all meetings across their association. Before adopting HopSkip, Lauren's team relied on a 20-year-old event management platform to source their meetings and events.

The Challenge:

Lauren (Senior Director, Meetings) and her team faced several challenges with their previous process. Their old event management platform's lack of specialization in sourcing and insufficient customer support created difficulties for the management team as they struggled to monitor the status of AACR's active RFPs and access historical RFPs and proposals.

These challenges led to workflow inefficiencies for the team and significant time spent requesting and comparing hotel options, following up with hotels, and narrowing down options.  They also grappled with their current solution's pricing as a non-profit organization.

The Solution:

HopSkip presented a comprehensive, modern solution to AACR's challenges without breaking its budget. The platform enabled AACR to efficiently organize RFPs while providing real-time visibility into hotel responses.  

A game-changing feature for Lauren and her team was HopSkip's ability to filter out proposals that didn't meet their initial requirements, streamlining their process and allowing them to concentrate on higher-priority tasks, ultimately reducing time spent on sourcing.

The Results:

2x increase in meeting revenue generated without increasing costs

Implementing HopSkip led to a 100% increase in meeting growth for AACR without expanding their team size and increasing costs. The platform's streamlined process enabled the team to manage a higher workload, saving valuable time and resources while enhancing overall productivity.

This increased efficiency directly contributed to the organization's bottom line.  AACR can host more events and accelerate its mission to advance cancer research. This impressive growth allowed the organization to reach a wider audience and promote its mission more effectively within the cancer research community.

100% visibility into all RFPs across the team

HopSkip's platform provided AACR with 100% visibility of proposal statuses across the organization, enabling seamless collaboration and communication between team members. This transparency ensured that everyone was aware of the progress and updates of each proposal, minimizing duplicated efforts and reducing the risk of miscommunication.

As a result, AACR experienced enhanced efficiency and coordination throughout the sourcing process, leading to better-informed decision-making and, ultimately, more successful events.

More time available to allocate to higher-priority tasks

Lauren and her team had more time to allocate to higher-priority tasks. This allowed AACR to focus on event strategy, better quality negotiations, building stronger relationships with stakeholders, and ensuring a high-quality experience for all attendees.