EMEA Connect Conference 2022. Together again!

Our first in-person event was held in the UK after 2 years and over 80 guests joined us in sunny Birmingham. As always, we loved being with our community and we were delighted to have some great guest speakers on the day, including:

• Jo Da Silva, Harper Adams University
• Molly Hopkins and Oliver Ramsey, University of Bristol
• Antonia Berning, Collegiate UK
• John Mamo, University of Birmingham
• Liina Pasenau, Hines Europe Living Management Limited​
• Elaine McDermott, Sheffield University​

The sessions were well attended and very engaging. It was evident that our community enjoyed being able to network in person and hear from their peers and the StarRez team.

Sharing valuable Insights

Harper Adams talked about how contactless check-in and self-selection arrival time slot processes have reduced student onboarding periods and completion rates. The time saving and elimination of cumbersome, paper-based management with a move to visually friendly software offered a better student experience. With 800+ beds, providing fast check-in via the mobile app and live reporting for the team in the office meant they could streamline the process and monitor check-in's in real-time.

The University of Bristol discussed how they manage visitors on campus. They have 9500 beds and prior to using the visitor management module, it was very confusing to manage. Their goal was to understand who was in which room and when. This session raised many questions, most of which we answer in our recent blog on Tracking Residential Changes Across Sites.

Flexibility in rental applications

Antonia Berning talked about how the flexibility and modular nature of StarRez software allowed Collegiate UK to rapidly adapt their processes when needed during the pandemic. One example given was their rental application process, which they adjusted during lockdown. Before using StarRez this was a very manual process using emails, spreadsheets, and PDFs but they were able to utilise StarRez Web and PortalX providing a 57% reduction on time saving.

"This session showed some unique takes on the product and how it can be adapted to multiple situations"

Jamie Sutcliffe - International Student’s House

John Mamo from the University of Birmingham shared some great feedback they received from parents of students on how they managed to support their students during lockdown using our Concerns module. On StarRez he commented:

"We needed a system as flexible as StarRez to meet our requirements. Datasubs and PortalX are your friends"

Best practice with StarRez

Our StarRez team held deep dive learning sessions on the following solutions:

• Tour of report generator and overview of StarRez Web report designer
• How to use StarRez as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool
• How PortalX and room selection can reduce the burden on administrative teams
• How to use our StarRez email to build a successful email marketing campaign

Elaine McDermott from the University of Sheffield attended the session about StarRez email wizard and commented

"Really excited to start using the new templates; it was great how Simon went through the steps to show how easy it was to build; I will definitely be showing this webinar to the team and encouraging them to start creating their own."

We wrapped up this year's StarRez EMEA Connect conference with a panel discussion focusing on Student Experience and how much it has changed in the past two years. The panel included Liina Pasenau of Hines Europe Living Management Limited​ and Elaine McDermott of the University of Sheffield.

"We realise that we always used to offer both in-person and online events but now it's definitely more at the forefront of our minds. Also, it's great to see that universities and PBSA’s are working more closely together since the pandemic"

Liina Pasenau - Hines Europe Living Management Limited

"Covid hit and we were inundated with calls. I attended StarRez Connect virtually last year and we heard about Tawk chat. Implementation was easy and has been great. Calls have reduced and we have happier students"

Elaine McDermott - the University of Sheffield

These events are so important to StarRez to be able to join our community, learn from each other and continue to thrive. Thank you to all of our community, guest presenters, and Birmingham for hosting. We are already looking forward to next year.

For our customers who were unable to attend, you can download a copy of all the best practice and learning sessions from the day on StarCare Online.