BACKGROUND

The University of Southern California (USC) is a private research university in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1880 by Robert Maclay Widney, it is the oldest private research university in California. The university is composed of one liberal arts school and 22 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools, enrolling roughly 21,000 undergraduate and 27,00 post-graduate students from all fifty U.S. states and more than 115 countries. The Office of Orientation programs manages all programs for new students, both graduate and undergraduate.

GOALS

Modernizing orientation at USC: A fresh approach for today’s students

Recognizing the evolving needs of incoming students, the Orientation team at USC embarked on a transformational journey. They saw an opportunity to enhance their traditional, two-day onsite orientation program, aiming to better align it with the expectations and preferences of today’s students.

With 59% of admitted students residing outside of California, USC acknowledged that many could not attend the in-person summer orientation – leaving students feeling disenfranchised and disconnected from their peers. Additionally, USC understood that the massive amount of information shared during the short orientation timeframe sometimes left the students who could attend in-person feeling overwhelmed, leaving them without the  opportunity to fully absorb and process the valuable insights provided. 

In turn, USC recognized the need to establish an orientation experience that fostered a sense of inclusivity, ensuring that all students – regardless of their geographic location – felt connected and equipped, from admission through their arrival on campus for classes.

Delivering the right information in a just-in-time approach using Cvent solutions

Adopting a hybrid approach to accommodate in-person and virtual attendees, USC leveraged various solutions such as emails, webinars, on-demand videos, and optional in-person sessions, all powered by Cvent. This approach enables them to engage new students and their families with the right information at the right time. “We really had to expand that hybrid opportunity,” notes Lisa. “We needed an orientation program that keeps students and their families excited about their USC experience—and we found Cvent to be the best solution for powering this experience.”

With the help of Cvent, USC manages the hybrid orientation program using a number of integrated event technology solutions. The flexibility of Cvent’s Registration solution allowed USC to create differentiated registration paths and attendee types, making it easy to foster personalized experiences for students based on their attendee profile, audience type, and audience segment. This ensured they had accurate data for all attendees and provided a more tailored attendee experience. Moreover, Cvent’s payment processing solution offered a straightforward means of collecting fees through a seamless, automated process for additional guests or onsite orientation expenses.

Integrated email marketing solutions within Cvent allowed USC to quickly and easily facilitate weekly emails to keep students informed and engaged across their orientation journey. These topics progress in line with the students’ journey, from registering for orientation to financial aid, student life, and auxiliary services. Importantly, the USC team is able to track and measure marketing engagement and overall campaign performance directly in Cvent for real time insights.

They also now host all live webinars within Attendee Hub to introduce new students and their families to important topics and connect them with key individuals and offices across campus. “With Cvent, we’ve created an experience where every student, whether they’re online or come to campus, get consistent onboarding information in a way that’s not overwhelming,” explains Lisa. “Cvent allows us to put out a top-notch orientation for our students and their families.”

Importantly, embedded feedback surveys offer insights at the session and event level for USC staff to enhance their planning strategy year over year. “We use premium Surveys to collect all of our data, and it really simplifies our process as it’s tied to both the event and the sessions,” notes Christine D’Arcy, Cvent Administrator. She adds that the “ease of use is amazing, and the power behind the system is really important to us.” By coalescing feedback in a single system with on-demand reports, she says their team spends far less time aggregating reporting after the close of the event.

RESULTS

USC and Cvent: Achieving excellence through a valuable partnership 

USC’s orientation team acknowledges Cvent as a valuable partner, attributing their selection of Cvent to its strong support team providing round-the-clock assistance and superior event management solutions. “The support we get from Cvent is amazing,” states Christine. “Cvent’s 24/7 support was a major driver for us selecting them as our event platform.” 

The USC team further highlights the significance of Cvent’s continuous product development, which empowers them to continuously innovate across their program. They also credit their close partnership with their Cvent client success team. “Our Cvent client success team understands our needs, brings ideas to the table, and helps us solve problems,” insists Christine. “We never feel like we’re alone in this and our partnership with Cvent enables us to focus on improving our program rather than dealing with technical details.” 

She adds that the training provided by Cvent helps USC event managers stay up to date with the latest product improvements. Christine states, “The fact that we have this huge database of knowledge, training, and resources helps us grow our system and keep up with trends in technology, and it allows us to put out a really top-notch product for our students and our guests.” Leveraging available resources like the Cvent Community and Cvent Academy training ensures the USC team never misses important updates or opportunities to grow their knowledge about their Cvent solutions.

In addition to the impressive statistics, USC’s team gauges their success by the reduction in constructive comments received. Previously, the team frequently received calls from concerned parents who lacked essential information. However, according to Lisa, these calls have become a rare occurrence.

USC has experienced enhanced performance and efficiency by leveraging Cvent to power its new orientation programming. The user-friendly platform and centralized event management have resulted in notable efficiencies for USC with reduced staff time in modifying registrations and processing refunds, faster check-ins onsite, reduced material costs using solutions like OnArrival and Attendee Hub, time savings in event prep, and reduced staff time in compiling survey data. They’ve also seen a significant reduction in support calls to their team from parents or students who lacked essential information. “The exceptional performance of Cvent has allowed my team to fully concentrate on their tasks, resulting in significant benefits for both our team and USC as a whole,” summarizes Lisa. “It is an investment in your programming, and the fact that my team has been able to be more effective certainly is a value added and it has been very successful.”

PRODUCTS USED