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Children are our future. That’s always easy to say. For a positive future, we must, therefore, pay special attention to our children. Since many parents are working, daycare is key to a positive future. This is where Anne Mader comes into play. She is the director of the pme Academy, which is constantly engaged in an intensive exchange with authorities and ministries to implement childcare innovations and to support the interests of nannies.
Once a year, the pme Family Service organizes a nationwide congress for children’s daycare. In 2019, Anne used an event app from LineUpr for the first
time. In this interview, Anne tells us how she was able to reduce the logistical effort and the e-mail traffic significantly. This was also a significant relief for participants. Have fun with this beautiful customer story. ?
LineUpr: Hello Anne? Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Please introduce yourself and the pme Family Service.
Anne: My name is Anne Mader, I have been with the pme Family Service for over 25 years and I am responsible for, among others, children’s daycare. As a nationwide product manager for daycare, I am in intensive contact with authorities and ministries to stimulate and to promote innovations in daycare and, of course, to support the interests of nannies.
I manage the non-profit pme Akademie GmbH. This is a subsidiary of the pme Family Service Group. It is an AZAV certified educational institution in the field of child, youth and adult education.
The non-profit pme Akademie GmbH. was founded in 2010 at the request of various municipalities to facilitate co-operation with public youth welfare organizations – such as youth welfare offices and ministries. On behalf of various youth welfare offices and state ministries in Germany, the non-profit pme Akademie GmbH undertakes various tasks for different target groups. Among our many offers include specialist counseling, placement, and qualification in children’s daycare and in the field of caretaking.
LineUpr: You used an event app from LineUpr for the Müggelsee Congress. Tell us more about this event.
Anne: Since 2009, the nationwide Daycare Congress has been held at several locations throughout Germany. We have already visited Neuss, Dresden, Münster, Jena, Bernried, and Berlin. The congress is a popular forum for exchange and further education for over one hundred participants. With informative lectures, interesting workshops and selected speakers, it is a highlight for nannies, specialist advisers and other persons involved in children’s daycare.
LineUpr: Do you also use printed products to market the event or to distribute information on-site?
Anne: We mostly use digital channels to market and distribute information on-site.
In order to reliably reach all participants during the event, it has been necessary to use printed products as well, since some participants are not able to use digital products. However, thanks to the use of LineUpr, we were able to reduce the printed materials greatly.
LineUpr: What added value does an event app offer you?
Anne: In addition to saving paper, we also have digitalization in mind. For us as pioneers in the field of digital learning in daycare, LineUpr was the ideal tool to share important information in real time. The directly evaluable feedback, the high level of individual configurability and the easy corrigibility made it possible for us to react immediately to all eventualities.
By providing information directly in the app, we could also reduce the email traffic with our participants and thus contribute to their comfort.
LineUpr: How did you start creating the event app?
Anne: First I entered the name of the event, the place and the time period. With this, the app was created. As more information was confirmed, I continued with the app creation.
LineUpr: How do you rate the app creation process with LineUpr? What do you like and what can we improve?
Anne: The creation process went smoothly. The user interface of LineUpr is logical and well-structured so we only needed a short period to familiarize ourselves with it and to integrate it into our event.
It would be nice if you could upload documents directly to LineUpr. So we had to go through our own file manager and could only provide the participants with the publication links.
The user interface of LineUpr is logical and well-structured so we only needed a short period to familiarize ourselves with it.
LineUpr: How did you use the survey function? How did you inform the participants about the use of the app and how did you integrate the results into the event?
Anne: We informed our participants in advance via email about the use of the app. For this purpose, we used the QR code provided by LineUpr together with a short handout, created by us, on how to use the app.
We also explicitly presented and explained the app at our event and also personally addressed individual questions.
Via the feedback function, we were able to digitalize all of our feedback (e.g. about speakers, workshops and even satisfaction with the catering). This also gave us the opportunity to incorporate the feedback directly into our final plenary session.
LineUpr: Did you still use your LineUpr app even after the event ended?
Anne: We used the app to post-release handouts, documents, and even videos of the congress afterward. We also conducted polls on topics for the next congress
LineUpr: How has your event or event organization changed by using an event app?
Anne: Using the app brought us a significant logistical relief. As a sustainability-driven company, saving paper and reducing transportation was of great concern to us.
By providing information directly in the app, we were also able to reduce the number of e-mail traffic with our participants and thus contribute to their comfort.
LineUpr: The event is over now but would you use the app the same way at the next event to communicate with your participants, or would you change something?
Anne: Since our first use of LineUpr was very successful, we do not intend to make any fundamental changes in the future use. Of course, we are also developing further, so it is quite possible that by the next time we will develop concepts on how to optimize the use of LineUpr for us.
LineUpr: Thank you, Anne, for the great interview. You really got the most out of the event app at your congress. Other organizers can derive many interesting ideas from you.
On their website, there is much more information about the pme Family Service. We also recommend a look at their Facebook and Twitter. We are already looking forward to the next congress with you.
