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EMS LIVE! 2017

Recruiting your service providers - like AV and Catering - can be a great way to expand the footprint of EMS, get a greater return on your investment, and give your end users a true one-stop-shop. In this session, we will review the configuration needed to support service providers, explore end-user workflow advantages when they use EMS, and review the easiest ways to manage the operation through Manage Services and reports. This session is not to be missed if you are looking to add service providers into your EMS database!

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

Are you preparing to publish a new academic schedule within EMS Campus and not sure where to start?  Designed for new users, this introductory hands-on workshop will teach you the basics of how to use the academic scheduling options within EMS. You will learn how to synchronize and publish the academic course schedule, manage course changes, and run common academic reports.

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

Do you ever wonder if you're truly assigning a course to the most appropriate room or space?  Designed for users new to the optimization functionality within EMS Campus, this introductory, hands-on clinic will teach you the basics on how to use the Optimizer to create your academic room assignments. You will also learn how to configure the software to support optimization and run reports to help you assess optimization success.

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

So, you’ve decided that you want to expand the footprint of EMS so that your users can more seamlessly book space and services & invite attendees all at once.  You’ve purchased, or are considering for purchase, EMS for Outlook and aren’t sure what to do next? Let us introduce you to this popular tool – how end users will leverage it, best practices to configure it, and some considerations when doing a widespread roll-out.

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

Designed for users new to EMS, this introductory hands-on, half-day workshop will teach you the basics on how to use the software for event and meeting scheduling. Get an introduction to making and managing reservations with basic services like AV/Catering, search for existing reservations, be introduced to common reports, and review tips/tricks along the way.  Perfect for a brand new user or one familiar with the system that is looking to perfect their skills.

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

You’ve mastered the basics and can make and manage reservations like a pro. Now, you are looking for more advanced tips, such as a deep-dive into tools that may be beneficial, a review of configurations that would support more automation and efficiency like the Reservation Wizard Templates, and to move beyond basic reporting.  This is a session for the intermediate EMS user, one that has a firm foundation and is looking to understand the under-utilized aspects of EMS that could benefit a complex environment.

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

Want to learn more about how others are using EMS in their workplace and campus strategies? We will be hosting two networking sessions from 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM. Each will be about 90 minutes long. The networking sessions are designed for you to network with fellow attendees by geography / industry and by role in your organization. Networking sessions will be facilitated by an EMS executive and will cover a range of topics of interest to the group. Add the Networking Session to your registration to attend this event.

Add the Networking Session to your registration to attend this event.

Welcome to EMS Live!

The rate of change in how and where we work is increasing at an unprecedented rate. Technology is surely a key catalyst in this transformation. However, the evolving nature of how we work, learn, and interact with each other contribute as well. This discussion will explore the confluence of technology and new work styles that are beginning to shape a smart workplace.

Trends are great guides. They help us understand likely user-demands so we may plan appropriately for the future. This mainstage panel will explore campus and corporate trends in space, technology, and collaboration — what’s causing them, how best to plan for them, and how EMS can be used to address them.

At EMS Live! 2016, we announced our new Cloud Services for EMS. In the intervening year, a growing number of EMS customers have deployed to the EMS cloud and enjoys the benefits of managed services from EMS. Join the EMS product team for a session that digs deep into the details of our Cloud Services for EMS, including what factors you should consider when moving to a managed cloud solution and how EMS has continued to improve the overall Cloud Services experience. Come prepared for a lively, informative discussion.

Meetings that require some form of video conferencing (VC) are beginning to dominate bookings in most large organizations. Prior to the Spring 2017 release of EMS, users booked VC as a managed request via an oftentimes complex, multi-step, multi-touch workflow. Now, with Skype for Business Integration and the Exchange Room Integration, organizations can offer their everyday EMS users the ability to create self-service video conference meetings. Join EMS product managers for a VC demo of how organizations can enable these hybrid meetings to reduce administrative overhead, improve VC booking efficiency, and improve user satisfaction.

When tasked with improving space utilization, you need the ability to offer greater knowledge and control of your space, while also giving your people flexible options for managing their bookings on-the-fly.  With tools such as EMS Room Sign, Kiosk, and Mobile, you can meet your users where they are, allowing you to employ business rules to ensure space is prioritized for people ready to use it.  This session will review these options, explore the most effective ways to leverage EMS, and review reports that shed light on utilization trends within your operation.

In June of 2015 (in Version 44.1), EMS introduced the Web App - a new and improved version of Virtual EMS.  If your organization has not yet made the move, but are planning to upgrade - join this session to ensure that your transition  is successful.  We will review the workflow changes that enable the new end-user-focused design and outline configuration recommendations that will make the transition as smooth as possible.  Additional tips on effective use of help text and simplification of your web process templates will ensure that your end users are able to adopt quickly and easily.

Often EMS isn't the only system tracking building and room data, but it can be the most detailed.

Review the most successful methods of integrating your facilities data from outside systems, implementing the proper workflow and review process, as well as get tips on keeping the most critical fields up-to-date to optimize the user experience.

Are you considering expanding the footprint of your operation within EMS to include the management of services and resources? 

Commonly, such expansion includes AV equipment, IT equipment, facilities set-ups/furniture, or food service. This introductory session will explore a day-in-the-life of these operations, highlighting the benefits of managing these operations within EMS and sharing configuration and workflow design tips for initial implementation. Don't miss the Managing Your Service Operations Workflow Effectively session as well for additional tips on day-to-day effectiveness.

Designed for new users, discover tips and tricks as two of the most powerful tools in EMS – the Book and the Wizard – are covered in detail. Topics include display options, adding reservations more quickly, dragging and dropping for quick edits, swapping rooms, and more.

Keeping the building blocks of your academic configuration up-to-date is critical to scheduling success. 

These tips will ensure that you are reviewing the synchronization information coming from your Student Information System on the right time table, making updates to your configuration that will support your desired workflow, and utilizing the proper configuration fields to make your academic course scheduling operation efficient.

In 2013, Harvard rolled out a new instance of EMS, which incorporated the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, including the undergraduate college, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. Collectively they comprised over 11,000 students, faculty, and staff. Since going live, this instance has expanded to include the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Divinity School, and the School of Dental Medicine, bringing the total population to over 12,500. As with all implementations, each constituent brought a unique set of needs and challenges. Attend this presentation with Michael Kinney, EMS System Administrator, as he discusses the lessons learned from each roll-out, including the benefits of expanding an implementation, what to look out for when considering adding a new constituent, and potential problems that may be encountered during an implementation. 

Have you heard this before? “All the rooms are reserved, but many of them are sitting empty.” This was a consistent message coming from Verizon’s largest facility, and with EMS utilization reports backing up this story, the company’s Real Estate team determined action was needed. In this session, Cynthia Hedlind, Global System Administrator of EMS at Verizon, will share how a collaborative team changed the user experience surrounding the reservation of meeting rooms. Learn how the team leveraged EMS APIs to integrate with occupancy sensors and increased the availability of rooms, as well as made it easier to find an available room.

Choice Seating allows employees to choose where and how they work at the office based on what they need to accomplish on a particular day and who they need to work with. Join David Kornfeld, Vice President at JPMorgan Chase, as he discusses the many daily issues that arise within the workplace, and why and how JPMC implemented a workplace strategy that considers not just scheduling work space, but many other factors, such as lockers, hygiene, technology support, etiquette, training, and more. David will also share results of JPMC’s High Performance Workplace initiative as well as some future goals.

Space. Is it mine, yours or our employers? How can we all benefit? In 2014, Yale University had a total of nine departments using EMS spread out over five different licenses. The university undertook a project to consolidate the disparate EMS instances with a goal of getting to one. Attend this session as Jeffery Campbell, Associate Director of Shared Application Services, shares Yale’s approach to get to one instance. He will also discuss benefits as well as challenges for expert and everyday users working within a shared instance.

There are many moving pieces and parts with EMS. This makes monthly maintenance updates and annual/biannual updates challenging. We will outline best practice strategies for tackling the maintenance process; discuss desktop client and Outlook add-in deployment strategies; and how all of this applies to a load-balanced environment.

It can be difficult to find the balance between customizing your Web App site and keeping it easy-to-use for your end users. Take a tour of sites that are in-use by several organizations that have used style sheet changes, smart web text and/or a simplified approach to everyday user templates to keep the end users happy, but also incorporate organization colors and meet operational needs.

In this session, we will explore how EMS Mobile App allows everyday users to book meetings and reserve spaces while "on the go" followed by live demo. We will show you how you can use this app to enable self-serve video conferencing in your organization. We will also present the major UX redesign planned for upcoming releases and the product roadmap.

Are your users asking for ways to quickly search for and book an available workspace? If self-service spaces and hoteling are a part of your organizational strategy, then the EMS Kiosk App is just the ticket. Join us in this product session where we discuss the recently redesigned Kiosk App and how kiosks play a role in workplace productivity and brand differentiation. We’ll highlight the user experience improvements made in September and preview the major enhancements on the Kiosk App product roadmap.

Does your organization currently schedule video conference rooms or resources using EMS? 

Learn the features that support the unique needs of scheduling video conference meetings for both everyday users making requests from the web and for expert users from the client. Come prepared to share some of your video conference scheduling ideas.

Let's review best practices in executing your service operation workflow. 

Ensure that deliveries are made on time and items are picked up and returned to inventory. Facilitate quick and easy cross-communications with customers and give them the ability to make requests. The use of EMS Web App, service-level notifications, and managed services will be reviewed as critical points in the service-provider workflow.

There are over a dozen tools in the EMS Reservation Navigator to help with the day-to-day maintenance of your events and meetings.

Whether you need to copy an entire event, move a set of bookings, rapidly edit attendance counts, or apply a discount to an entire reservation, this session will review the common utilities that can save you a great deal of time. 

Are you currently drowning in a sea of spreadsheets or emails with course changes? Streamline the process by incorporating the use of Define and Edit modes into your planning cycle.

Review the collection and reporting options that can make these updates more manageable and help you keep your sanity during the course scheduling process.

Non-academic events are an important part of a healthy campus ecosystem. Managing these events requires a separate set of requirements. Attend this session and learn from Sue Burket, Assistant Director of Event Management at James Madison University, about how JMU implemented EMS and used templates to enable customers to request non-academic events online based on category and priority. Attendees will learn how the university customized templates allowing faculty, employees, and students to make a variety of requests for classrooms, events, info tables, banners, etc. This session will also show how JMU leverages UDFs to ask event-specific questions which has drastically reduced the need for additional paperwork and approvals.

With the implementation of EMS, the Project Team at McKool Smith thought that if they trained the schedulers on EMS, then the rest of the support personnel would just adapt. They quickly realized, however, that all support personnel needed to be trained and that they also needed to re-evaluate the workflow of the entire scheduling process. Attend this session presented by LeAnn Davidson, Software Trainer at McKool Smith, as she shares the firm’s process of implementing EMS in a multi-office legal environment. This session will include how the organization customized EMS to meet the needs for each office and each support group. LeAnn will also share how the McKool Smith is deploying the web application to the rest of the firm.

At EMS Live! 2016, we announced our new Cloud Services for EMS. In the intervening year, a growing number of EMS customers have deployed to the EMS cloud and enjoys the benefits of managed services from EMS. Join the EMS product team for a session that digs deep into the details of our Cloud Services for EMS, including what factors you should consider when moving to a managed cloud solution and how EMS has continued to improve the overall Cloud Services experience. Come prepared for a lively, informative discussion.

In this session, we will explore the year in review for the EMS Web App (formerly called Virtual EMS). You'll see how we've simplified the steps for everyday users to book a meeting or reserve space to work, study, or practice. We'll review important considerations for upgrading from older versions. We’ll take a look into the near future to glimpse into the future of Web App.

Microsoft Outlook is a great tool for email and personal scheduling, but what if it could also be used in conjunction with room scheduling?

The EMS for Outlook add-in and Exchange integration enhances Outlook’s already familiar interface with powerful room scheduling capabilities. See if EMS for Outlook is a fit for your organization especially after its recent facelift!

The key to making the end user experience satisfactory for reserving a simple meeting or conference room, desk space, study room or other self-serve space is that it needs to be quick, easy, and accessible from multiple end-points.

Review best practices for reducing reservation request complexity to provide a better user experience. In addition, review the workflow for the same reservation across multiple end-points, such as web, mobile, digital signage and Outlook. Ensure that the experience is consistent with these simple checks.

Are you wondering if you're missing a search trick that everyone else is using?

Ensure that you are getting the most out of the Browser and Query Builder by reviewing the most popular uses of the saved search and query functions.

There are many elements to performance: the software, the hardware, the network. EMS developers have the software piece covered, so we will discuss the infrastructure recommendations and ongoing database practices that will enhance the performance of the software. This will include database optimization, hardware configurations, application configurations and parameters, and load balancing settings.

Review the most critical reports and saved searches that are used to manage and analyze your service operation. From ensuring that deliveries are made on time to analyzing the frequency with which a particular piece of equipment is used in order to determine replacement timeline, take this opportunity to hear about successful strategies and best practices for your service teams.

The math instructors require chalkboards; all history courses must be in one building, and the business instructors prefer the third floor. How can you manage this easily?

Collecting, storing and reporting on preferences and requirements is an important part of the scheduling process, especially if planning to use optimization. Review best practices and design tips to make this process efficient and easy.

In 2013, the University of Nebraska Lincoln designed their new Learning Commons Project that converted library space into a collaborative learning space for students. As part of that initiative, they were looking for a solution allowing students to easily reserve study spaces without needing to directly contact scheduling personnel. Join Corrie Svehla, Manager, Special Events and Projects at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as he details how UNL launched the EMS Web App and EMS Room Sign App to enable students to schedule study spaces in their new learning commons building and the results of the launch, such as how now the university rarely see conflicts in the student spaces. Corrie will also present how the university combines EMS with other solutions like Visix to create a digital campus experience, as well as their future plans for EMS.

Over the course of three years, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center meetings doubled and conference rooms were being used to capacity during peak business hours. Additionally, upcoming construction projects anticipated a scarcity of rooms. Attend this session hosted by Kate Scott, Team Lead of Conference Services, and learn how she and her team earned a seat at leadership’s table by presenting EMS hourly room utilization reports that illustrated current and upcoming real estate challenges. Kate will also share how the value that her team demonstrated led to increased collaboration from other departments, and helped to drive change within the organization, specifically in terms of executive leadership decisions regarding project timelines and new space.

In this session, we will look at the upcoming product roadmap for the EMS Academic Planning tools.  Highlights include a new Campus Planning Interface, enhanced academic reports, and more sophisticated integrations with Banner and PeopleSoft Campus Solutions.

Once you are convinced that Outlook and Exchange integration are right for your organization, ensure you are implementing them with care. 

Because Outlook is a familiar interface, people often overlook tips and tricks they should be sharing with their users at-large to ensure a smooth user experience. Join our implementation expert in reviewing the best practices that our most successful organizations have used in their implementations.

Combining built-in EMS reports with query builder data provides dynamic and valuable insight into space utilization.

EMS offers many built-in statistical reports that show how space is being used. Additionally, the query builder may be used for custom reporting and to export and analyze statistical information. Learn how to combine the built-in reports and query builder to gain the most insight into your space utilization.

Are you considering adding the EMS pricing / billing functionality to your operation?

Walk through the actual steps involved in the EMS billing-cycle process. Topics include: payment entry, billing worksheet, invoicing, adjustments, general ledger distributions, and additional reports designed to organize your financial information. 

Plan on this configuration overview session if you are considering, or have recently started, using EMS to manage your organization’s catering resources.

Topics will include the configuration of categories / resources, utilizing selections and production items within your menu, and considerations for configuring allowing online resource requests.

The user-configurable dashboard is an all-in-one view of your reminders, tentative reservation follow-ups, web requests, waitlist maintenance tasks and other notifications. This session will review how to use the dashboard, demonstrating simple methods for managing all your scheduling tasks, accessing notifications and even generating “on-the-fly” metrics and reporting.

Your users are on the go - give them the capability that they need and deploy EMS Mobile into your organization.  It will allow users to make just-in-time reservations, review their own reservation schedule, and check-in for reserved space. We will provide configuration and authentication tips so that you can be a success with your deployment.

Automatically enabling EMS Web App everyday user accounts, tracking the right information on the accounts, and ensuring they have access to all of the correct permissions can be challenging in a complex environment.  

This session will review common strategies for account creation and maintenance, enabled by the HR Toolkit and/or integrated authentication options.

In 2009, prior to purchasing EMS, an ad hoc committee was tasked with determining what was wrong with scheduling at BYU-Idaho. It was determined there was mutual disrespect between constituents and that communication was significantly lacking. Fast forward eight years to the campus wide implementation of EMS and establishment of a professional scheduling office. Attend this presentation by LaNae Poulter, Scheduling Manager at Brigham Young University-Idaho, as she shares how EMS has been utilized and extremely well-received across departments. For example, those who previously felt most frustrated with the old system are the first to respond, “Just put it in EMS, then we’ll know.” Additionally, those who were once reluctant to include ‘their’ space in the EMS deployment, now enjoy and have come to depend on custom-fit configurations within EMS and its integration with Outlook.

This is not the EMS for Outlook you have always known.  In this session, we will explore the new user experience in the September 2017 release of EMS for Outlook. We'll show you our faster, friendlier way to book and change meetings, and you'll see how we've made it easy for you to create and manage recurring bookings – even if you need two or more different rooms to satisfy all occurrences. For EMS Exchange Room Integration, we will review what exactly this means and why you might want to use it to help enable self-service video conferencing in your organization.

If you want to make it easier for your users to view room availability and schedule rooms on-the-fly, then this session is for you. Join us to learn about the user experience improvements introduced in the EMS Room Sign App, formerly known as Glance. We will discuss how room signs play a role in workplace productivity and brand differentiation in the context of a live demo. We will also preview the major enhancements on the long-term Room Sign App product roadmap.

The key to getting your users to make requests online rather than call or email you is to ensure that it is as simple as possible.

Simplicity can be challenging when you are managing complex space with many business rules. We will review tips on simplifying your request form while honoring the necessary rules. Have you reviewed your request form from the user's point of view lately? It may be more complicated than you think...let's get that changed!

Plan on this configuration overview session if you are considering or have recently started using EMS to manage the pricing / billing of your rooms and resources.

Review how to build and ensure accuracy of your rate schedules and pricing plans, and put a strategy in place to keep them up-to-date.

Join us to learn best practices around using EMS to manage your catering operation!

Learn how your users will utilize the EMS Web App to submit requests, how requests are processed, and how additional details are captured. Get tips and tricks to ensure a smooth workflow and which reports can be used for operational and sales needs. 

Understanding and accurately defining your EMS core data is central to effective software performance. This session will provide an overview of basic event-related configuration in EMS including event types, messages, comment types, reminders, and more. It’s the perfect introductory session for those interested in learning how to start configuration of their EMS system.

No matter what you call it - hotelling, hotdesking, or workspace scheduling - EMS can help! We will walk you through the configuration needed, the most common business rules, the built-in reports, and outline common challenges that EMS will help you overcome. If you are considering launching a workspace initiative, this session will help you plan how EMS will support that.

Automating the assignment of courses into rooms can lead to a more efficient process.

Automation reduces the amount of time needed to schedule and increases seat fill and room utilization. Review best practices to execute this process accurately.

Implementing Outlook and Exchange Integration?  Attend this session presented by Robert Gonzales Jr., Director of Event Management at Stevens Institute of Technology to get a first-hand account on their campus-wide Outlook and Exchange Integration implementation. Robert will also share his implementation story along with the best practices and benefits of the implementation process. This session will be focused on small- and medium-scale deployments in higher education with emphasis on the end user and configuration process.

Reservations are often associated with the process of booking a room or space to host some event. However, reservations can also be used to schedule non-event related spaces, physical properties, and even individuals. Attend this session, presented by James Tucciarone III, Technical Analyst at Yale University, as he explores some of the ways Yale University has leveraged the power of EMS in order to manage non-traditional ‘space’ including possible considerations, pitfalls, and trade-offs that have been encountered. James will also discuss reevaluating the way we think about ‘space’ and the definition of rooms for alternative use cases.

In this session, David Lopez, Facilities Specialist from Great-West Financial/ Empower Retirement, discusses the evolution of how EMS came to Empower Retirement /Great-West Financial. Starting in 2014 the road to solve how three different space management systems could be forged into one began. Hear how the process started, what was done to capture feedback and how the single system operates today.

The statistical reports and query builder on powerful tools. But, how should I be analyzing the data? How are others making decisions using this information? Join us as we do a deep-dive into how the report data can be useful in making planning decisions and how other organizations have used them.

In this session, we will explore the year in review for the EMS Web App (formerly called Virtual EMS). You'll see how we've simplified the steps for everyday users to book a meeting or reserve space to work, study, or practice. We'll review important considerations for upgrading from older versions. We’ll take a look into the near future to glimpse into the future of Web App.

EMS Platform Services is the new middle-tier component that provides a modern, scalable way (RESTful APIs) for partners and customers to integrate with the EMS Platform. In this session, we will explore how you can use this tool to build your own integrations more quickly and with less complexity.

Once a user has made a request, do you have a seamless process mapped out in EMS that ensures proper internal communication and collection of details?  

Are you using notifications, reminders, comments, and user-defined fields to their fullest? If not, come see our tips for ensuring a smooth workflow.

Do your users forget to cancel their reserved space even though they don't plan to use it? Do they need directions to a hard-to-locate venue? Do they need to guarantee their catering count?

Automating reminders to your users by utilizing group notification rules can add an important layer of communication, making their life easier and your operation more efficient.

Looking to draw a crowd to your next event? Trying to keep your employees informed about the next professional development opportunity?  

Spread the news! Let's find ways to share this information by touring those that are already doing it well within their organization or institution.

New users need training to get onboard. Existing users need to stay up-to-date on EMS features and internal policy. Additional departments are interested in joining in the operation. Where do you start?

We've compiled best practices and tips from our most successful customers in order to keep your EMS system use healthy and thriving, to expand the footprint of EMS and increase the return on your investment, and to keep your users humming within the system.

You've published your term....but now the changes come rolling in. Learn how to keep the courses in EMS from your Student Information System (SIS) up-to-date. 

Analyze some of the most efficient ways to keep EMS in sync with your SIS, determine what approach (manual versus automatic) makes sense for you, and see what features are available to keep you informed.

Infrastructures, police, housing, performances, athletic events, and education are all hallmarks of a city. They are also attributes of a college campus. Linda Martellaro, Assistant Registrar at the University of Notre Dame shares her stories of how EMS became an effective partner in managing the vast array of activities, classes taking place on a daily basis.

Gathering course offering information from multiple academic departments can be a daunting task for any academic planner.  A lack of structure and consistency can exacerbate this process. In this session, Jill Herbst, the Academic Curriculum Specialist at Gonzaga University, will highlight how moving from an unstructured practice to the structured processes provided by the Campus Planning Interface (CPI) streamlined and organized the university’s course offering information gathering and editing processes. 

EMS Platform Services is the new middle-tier component that provides a modern, scalable way (RESTful APIs) for partners and customers to integrate with the EMS Platform. In this session, we will explore how you can use this tool to build your own integrations more quickly and with less complexity.

At EMS Live! 2016, we announced new and improved ways of ensuring Quality across our features and our applications. In the intervening year, we have made humongous strides in ensuring just that! Join the head of Quality at EMS for a session that digs deep into the details of how we ensure a Quality product gets released and how you can help us become a better advocate for ensuring that the way you use our product is tested by us at every release. Come prepared for a lively, informative discussion where your voice around product quality can be heard!

Communicating the details of a confirmed reservation is an essential function of a scheduler or site administrator. 

Learn how versatile the Confirmation report can be when used for proposals, event confirmations, to confirm cancellations, and more. When combined with the CRM module for contracts, it can make your operation even more efficient. Take a tour of the many ways that your peers are using the Confirmation function in order to increase communication and decrease administrative workload.

Of the many reports available in EMS, this workshop will identify and review the most applicable reports for operational use.

Receive tips on the best use of options, memorization, and how to analyze the data presented.

Learn configuration and end-user experience tips that will make the workflow less cumbersome and ensure correctly publicized information.

Whether you are using the EMS Master Calendar or have a different tool to publicize your reservations, learn to walk through your event cycle to determine the best ways to collect and flag your reservations so they end up on the correct calendar. 

Improve communication with notifications! In this introductory session, learn how to configure the system so you are notified of new requests from the web, new service orders needing review, cancellations requiring action, and more.  Notification capabilities reviewed in this session are available in Enterprise-level systems; a lightweight version of notifications is also available in EMS Professional.

The user-configurable dashboard is an all-in-one view of your reminders, tentative reservation follow-ups, web requests, waitlist maintenance tasks, and other notifications.  This session will review how to use the dashboard, demonstrating simple methods for managing all your scheduling tasks, accessing notifications, and even generating “on-the-fly” metrics and reporting. 

How are classrooms being utilized?  Which departments are violating prime time agreements? What are the semester-to-semester (or year-to-year) trends in scheduling?

Come see the best practices for running and understanding academic reporting in EMS.

In an average year, the University at Buffalo manages over 1,200 large scale events across three campuses and throughout the community. For the new Incident Management Team on campus, having the right contact and event information during particularly busy times of the year is essential.  Join Steven Rutz, Associate Director of the Office of University Events, and Stephanie Lichtenthal, Project Manager in the Office of University Events, as they take you through the process of what prompted their office to utilize the functionality in EMS to create a standardized information packet called the Event Action Plan. Steven and Stephanie will also discuss how the packet information is shared with key leadership to create a safer campus environment for students and event attendees. 

In this session, Lori Freda, Director of Scheduling & Event Services and Amy Pethick, EMS Functional Administrator at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will share how using EMS to track and bill accurately for staff and services significantly improved productivity and increased revenue. Knowing when and where you need to assign staff, making sure staff know where to go, and billing correctly for staff and services are crucial to successful customer service. Lori and Amy will discuss how they use EMS to know which bookings need staff, assign and track staff for each specific service order, communicate with service providers, and bill correctly for services provided. They will detail why and how they separate regular time and overtime for staff, in order to handle different pricing policies depending on the day and time.

In this session, we will explore how EMS Mobile App allows everyday users to book meetings and reserve spaces while "on the go" followed by live demo. We will show you how you can use this app to enable self-serve video conferencing in your organization. We will also present the major UX redesign planned for upcoming releases and the product roadmap.

This is not the EMS for Outlook you have always known.  In this session, we will explore the new user experience in the September 2017 release of EMS for Outlook. We'll show you our faster, friendlier way to book and change meetings, and you'll see how we've made it easy for you to create and manage recurring bookings – even if you need two or more different rooms to satisfy all occurrences. For EMS Exchange Room Integration, we will review what exactly this means and why you might want to use it to help enable self-service video conferencing in your organization.

There are many facets to security: how the software is written, how the data is protected, how the network is configured, and how software administrators are trained.  While many of those elements are beyond your control, we will outline best practices for those that you can influence: How to secure your EMS database, using SQL or Windows accounts, how to secure EMS Applications via SSL and Integrated Authentication. 

Do your users forget to cancel their reserved space even though they don't plan to use it? Do they need directions to a hard-to-locate venue? Do they need to guarantee their catering count?

Automating reminders to your users by utilizing group notification rules can add an important layer of communication, making their life easier and your operation more efficient.

In June of 2015 (in Version 44.1), EMS introduced the Web App - a new and improved version of Virtual EMS.  If your organization has not yet made the move, but are planning to upgrade - join this session to ensure that your transition  is successful.  We will review the workflow changes that enable the new end-user-focused design and outline configuration recommendations that will make the transition as smooth as possible.  Additional tips on effective use of help text and simplification of your web process templates will ensure that your end users are able to adopt quickly and easily.

Are you wondering if you're missing a search trick that everyone else is using?

Ensure that you are getting the most out of the Browser and Query Builder by reviewing the most popular uses of the saved search and query functions.

There are over a dozen tools in the EMS Reservation Navigator to help with the day-to-day maintenance of your events and meetings.

Whether you need to copy an entire event, move a set of bookings, rapidly edit attendance counts or apply a discount to an entire reservation, this session will review the common utilities that can save you a great deal of time.

Whether your scheduling system has 1 or 100 users, it makes sense to give each individual a specific set of permissions according to use. In this session we’ll review the concept of Template security and the most critical security processes, as well as discuss how to limit rights to specific rooms, areas, and statuses for client users.

At first business processes drove technology: spreadsheets mimicked ledgers, word processing was an improvement on typewriters. Then came the internet and mobile devices. Brick and mortar gave way to cyber. The smartphone changed everything. These technologies changed the way we work and now work space management is catching up to those changes as the desire and ability to measure and manage these new work strategies evolves. Sean McBrien, Senior Vice President at Citigroup, will present an overview of how we got here, what “here” is and share some of the advances Citi is making in the space as well as discussing some key challenges.

Recruiting your service providers - like AV and Catering - can be a great way to expand the footprint of EMS, get a greater return on your investment, and give your end users a true one-stop-shop. In this session, we will review the configuration needed to support service providers, explore end-user workflow advantages when they use EMS, and review the easiest ways to manage the operation through Manage Services and reports. This session is not to be missed if you are looking to add service providers into your EMS database!

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

Are you preparing to publish a new academic schedule within EMS Campus and not sure where to start?  Designed for new users, this introductory hands-on workshop will teach you the basics of how to use the academic scheduling options within EMS. You will learn how to synchronize and publish the academic course schedule, manage course changes, and run common academic reports.

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

Do you ever wonder if you're truly assigning a course to the most appropriate room or space?  Designed for users new to the optimization functionality within EMS Campus, this introductory, hands-on clinic will teach you the basics on how to use the Optimizer to create your academic room assignments. You will also learn how to configure the software to support optimization and run reports to help you assess optimization success.

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

So, you’ve decided that you want to expand the footprint of EMS so that your users can more seamlessly book space and services & invite attendees all at once.  You’ve purchased, or are considering for purchase, EMS for Outlook and aren’t sure what to do next? Let us introduce you to this popular tool – how end users will leverage it, best practices to configure it, and some considerations when doing a widespread roll-out.

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

Designed for users new to EMS, this introductory hands-on, half-day workshop will teach you the basics on how to use the software for event and meeting scheduling. Get an introduction to making and managing reservations with basic services like AV/Catering, search for existing reservations, be introduced to common reports, and review tips/tricks along the way.  Perfect for a brand new user or one familiar with the system that is looking to perfect their skills.

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

You’ve mastered the basics and can make and manage reservations like a pro. Now, you are looking for more advanced tips, such as a deep-dive into tools that may be beneficial, a review of configurations that would support more automation and efficiency like the Reservation Wizard Templates, and to move beyond basic reporting.  This is a session for the intermediate EMS user, one that has a firm foundation and is looking to understand the under-utilized aspects of EMS that could benefit a complex environment.

Note: Clinic workshops require an additional fee. Be sure to select this option during the registration process.

Want to learn more about how others are using EMS in their workplace and campus strategies? We will be hosting two networking sessions from 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM. Each will be about 90 minutes long. The networking sessions are designed for you to network with fellow attendees by geography / industry and by role in your organization. Networking sessions will be facilitated by an EMS executive and will cover a range of topics of interest to the group. Add the Networking Session to your registration to attend this event.

Add the Networking Session to your registration to attend this event.

Welcome to EMS Live!

The rate of change in how and where we work is increasing at an unprecedented rate. Technology is surely a key catalyst in this transformation. However, the evolving nature of how we work, learn, and interact with each other contribute as well. This discussion will explore the confluence of technology and new work styles that are beginning to shape a smart workplace.

Trends are great guides. They help us understand likely user-demands so we may plan appropriately for the future. This mainstage panel will explore campus and corporate trends in space, technology, and collaboration — what’s causing them, how best to plan for them, and how EMS can be used to address them.

At EMS Live! 2016, we announced our new Cloud Services for EMS. In the intervening year, a growing number of EMS customers have deployed to the EMS cloud and enjoys the benefits of managed services from EMS. Join the EMS product team for a session that digs deep into the details of our Cloud Services for EMS, including what factors you should consider when moving to a managed cloud solution and how EMS has continued to improve the overall Cloud Services experience. Come prepared for a lively, informative discussion.

Meetings that require some form of video conferencing (VC) are beginning to dominate bookings in most large organizations. Prior to the Spring 2017 release of EMS, users booked VC as a managed request via an oftentimes complex, multi-step, multi-touch workflow. Now, with Skype for Business Integration and the Exchange Room Integration, organizations can offer their everyday EMS users the ability to create self-service video conference meetings. Join EMS product managers for a VC demo of how organizations can enable these hybrid meetings to reduce administrative overhead, improve VC booking efficiency, and improve user satisfaction.

When tasked with improving space utilization, you need the ability to offer greater knowledge and control of your space, while also giving your people flexible options for managing their bookings on-the-fly.  With tools such as EMS Room Sign, Kiosk, and Mobile, you can meet your users where they are, allowing you to employ business rules to ensure space is prioritized for people ready to use it.  This session will review these options, explore the most effective ways to leverage EMS, and review reports that shed light on utilization trends within your operation.

In June of 2015 (in Version 44.1), EMS introduced the Web App - a new and improved version of Virtual EMS.  If your organization has not yet made the move, but are planning to upgrade - join this session to ensure that your transition  is successful.  We will review the workflow changes that enable the new end-user-focused design and outline configuration recommendations that will make the transition as smooth as possible.  Additional tips on effective use of help text and simplification of your web process templates will ensure that your end users are able to adopt quickly and easily.

Often EMS isn't the only system tracking building and room data, but it can be the most detailed.

Review the most successful methods of integrating your facilities data from outside systems, implementing the proper workflow and review process, as well as get tips on keeping the most critical fields up-to-date to optimize the user experience.

Are you considering expanding the footprint of your operation within EMS to include the management of services and resources? 

Commonly, such expansion includes AV equipment, IT equipment, facilities set-ups/furniture, or food service. This introductory session will explore a day-in-the-life of these operations, highlighting the benefits of managing these operations within EMS and sharing configuration and workflow design tips for initial implementation. Don't miss the Managing Your Service Operations Workflow Effectively session as well for additional tips on day-to-day effectiveness.

Designed for new users, discover tips and tricks as two of the most powerful tools in EMS – the Book and the Wizard – are covered in detail. Topics include display options, adding reservations more quickly, dragging and dropping for quick edits, swapping rooms, and more.

Keeping the building blocks of your academic configuration up-to-date is critical to scheduling success. 

These tips will ensure that you are reviewing the synchronization information coming from your Student Information System on the right time table, making updates to your configuration that will support your desired workflow, and utilizing the proper configuration fields to make your academic course scheduling operation efficient.

In 2013, Harvard rolled out a new instance of EMS, which incorporated the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, including the undergraduate college, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. Collectively they comprised over 11,000 students, faculty, and staff. Since going live, this instance has expanded to include the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Divinity School, and the School of Dental Medicine, bringing the total population to over 12,500. As with all implementations, each constituent brought a unique set of needs and challenges. Attend this presentation with Michael Kinney, EMS System Administrator, as he discusses the lessons learned from each roll-out, including the benefits of expanding an implementation, what to look out for when considering adding a new constituent, and potential problems that may be encountered during an implementation. 

Have you heard this before? “All the rooms are reserved, but many of them are sitting empty.” This was a consistent message coming from Verizon’s largest facility, and with EMS utilization reports backing up this story, the company’s Real Estate team determined action was needed. In this session, Cynthia Hedlind, Global System Administrator of EMS at Verizon, will share how a collaborative team changed the user experience surrounding the reservation of meeting rooms. Learn how the team leveraged EMS APIs to integrate with occupancy sensors and increased the availability of rooms, as well as made it easier to find an available room.

Choice Seating allows employees to choose where and how they work at the office based on what they need to accomplish on a particular day and who they need to work with. Join David Kornfeld, Vice President at JPMorgan Chase, as he discusses the many daily issues that arise within the workplace, and why and how JPMC implemented a workplace strategy that considers not just scheduling work space, but many other factors, such as lockers, hygiene, technology support, etiquette, training, and more. David will also share results of JPMC’s High Performance Workplace initiative as well as some future goals.

Space. Is it mine, yours or our employers? How can we all benefit? In 2014, Yale University had a total of nine departments using EMS spread out over five different licenses. The university undertook a project to consolidate the disparate EMS instances with a goal of getting to one. Attend this session as Jeffery Campbell, Associate Director of Shared Application Services, shares Yale’s approach to get to one instance. He will also discuss benefits as well as challenges for expert and everyday users working within a shared instance.

There are many moving pieces and parts with EMS. This makes monthly maintenance updates and annual/biannual updates challenging. We will outline best practice strategies for tackling the maintenance process; discuss desktop client and Outlook add-in deployment strategies; and how all of this applies to a load-balanced environment.

It can be difficult to find the balance between customizing your Web App site and keeping it easy-to-use for your end users. Take a tour of sites that are in-use by several organizations that have used style sheet changes, smart web text and/or a simplified approach to everyday user templates to keep the end users happy, but also incorporate organization colors and meet operational needs.

In this session, we will explore how EMS Mobile App allows everyday users to book meetings and reserve spaces while "on the go" followed by live demo. We will show you how you can use this app to enable self-serve video conferencing in your organization. We will also present the major UX redesign planned for upcoming releases and the product roadmap.

Are your users asking for ways to quickly search for and book an available workspace? If self-service spaces and hoteling are a part of your organizational strategy, then the EMS Kiosk App is just the ticket. Join us in this product session where we discuss the recently redesigned Kiosk App and how kiosks play a role in workplace productivity and brand differentiation. We’ll highlight the user experience improvements made in September and preview the major enhancements on the Kiosk App product roadmap.

Does your organization currently schedule video conference rooms or resources using EMS? 

Learn the features that support the unique needs of scheduling video conference meetings for both everyday users making requests from the web and for expert users from the client. Come prepared to share some of your video conference scheduling ideas.

Let's review best practices in executing your service operation workflow. 

Ensure that deliveries are made on time and items are picked up and returned to inventory. Facilitate quick and easy cross-communications with customers and give them the ability to make requests. The use of EMS Web App, service-level notifications, and managed services will be reviewed as critical points in the service-provider workflow.

There are over a dozen tools in the EMS Reservation Navigator to help with the day-to-day maintenance of your events and meetings.

Whether you need to copy an entire event, move a set of bookings, rapidly edit attendance counts, or apply a discount to an entire reservation, this session will review the common utilities that can save you a great deal of time. 

Are you currently drowning in a sea of spreadsheets or emails with course changes? Streamline the process by incorporating the use of Define and Edit modes into your planning cycle.

Review the collection and reporting options that can make these updates more manageable and help you keep your sanity during the course scheduling process.

Non-academic events are an important part of a healthy campus ecosystem. Managing these events requires a separate set of requirements. Attend this session and learn from Sue Burket, Assistant Director of Event Management at James Madison University, about how JMU implemented EMS and used templates to enable customers to request non-academic events online based on category and priority. Attendees will learn how the university customized templates allowing faculty, employees, and students to make a variety of requests for classrooms, events, info tables, banners, etc. This session will also show how JMU leverages UDFs to ask event-specific questions which has drastically reduced the need for additional paperwork and approvals.

With the implementation of EMS, the Project Team at McKool Smith thought that if they trained the schedulers on EMS, then the rest of the support personnel would just adapt. They quickly realized, however, that all support personnel needed to be trained and that they also needed to re-evaluate the workflow of the entire scheduling process. Attend this session presented by LeAnn Davidson, Software Trainer at McKool Smith, as she shares the firm’s process of implementing EMS in a multi-office legal environment. This session will include how the organization customized EMS to meet the needs for each office and each support group. LeAnn will also share how the McKool Smith is deploying the web application to the rest of the firm.

At EMS Live! 2016, we announced our new Cloud Services for EMS. In the intervening year, a growing number of EMS customers have deployed to the EMS cloud and enjoys the benefits of managed services from EMS. Join the EMS product team for a session that digs deep into the details of our Cloud Services for EMS, including what factors you should consider when moving to a managed cloud solution and how EMS has continued to improve the overall Cloud Services experience. Come prepared for a lively, informative discussion.

In this session, we will explore the year in review for the EMS Web App (formerly called Virtual EMS). You'll see how we've simplified the steps for everyday users to book a meeting or reserve space to work, study, or practice. We'll review important considerations for upgrading from older versions. We’ll take a look into the near future to glimpse into the future of Web App.

Microsoft Outlook is a great tool for email and personal scheduling, but what if it could also be used in conjunction with room scheduling?

The EMS for Outlook add-in and Exchange integration enhances Outlook’s already familiar interface with powerful room scheduling capabilities. See if EMS for Outlook is a fit for your organization especially after its recent facelift!

The key to making the end user experience satisfactory for reserving a simple meeting or conference room, desk space, study room or other self-serve space is that it needs to be quick, easy, and accessible from multiple end-points.

Review best practices for reducing reservation request complexity to provide a better user experience. In addition, review the workflow for the same reservation across multiple end-points, such as web, mobile, digital signage and Outlook. Ensure that the experience is consistent with these simple checks.

Are you wondering if you're missing a search trick that everyone else is using?

Ensure that you are getting the most out of the Browser and Query Builder by reviewing the most popular uses of the saved search and query functions.

There are many elements to performance: the software, the hardware, the network. EMS developers have the software piece covered, so we will discuss the infrastructure recommendations and ongoing database practices that will enhance the performance of the software. This will include database optimization, hardware configurations, application configurations and parameters, and load balancing settings.

Review the most critical reports and saved searches that are used to manage and analyze your service operation. From ensuring that deliveries are made on time to analyzing the frequency with which a particular piece of equipment is used in order to determine replacement timeline, take this opportunity to hear about successful strategies and best practices for your service teams.

The math instructors require chalkboards; all history courses must be in one building, and the business instructors prefer the third floor. How can you manage this easily?

Collecting, storing and reporting on preferences and requirements is an important part of the scheduling process, especially if planning to use optimization. Review best practices and design tips to make this process efficient and easy.

In 2013, the University of Nebraska Lincoln designed their new Learning Commons Project that converted library space into a collaborative learning space for students. As part of that initiative, they were looking for a solution allowing students to easily reserve study spaces without needing to directly contact scheduling personnel. Join Corrie Svehla, Manager, Special Events and Projects at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as he details how UNL launched the EMS Web App and EMS Room Sign App to enable students to schedule study spaces in their new learning commons building and the results of the launch, such as how now the university rarely see conflicts in the student spaces. Corrie will also present how the university combines EMS with other solutions like Visix to create a digital campus experience, as well as their future plans for EMS.

Over the course of three years, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center meetings doubled and conference rooms were being used to capacity during peak business hours. Additionally, upcoming construction projects anticipated a scarcity of rooms. Attend this session hosted by Kate Scott, Team Lead of Conference Services, and learn how she and her team earned a seat at leadership’s table by presenting EMS hourly room utilization reports that illustrated current and upcoming real estate challenges. Kate will also share how the value that her team demonstrated led to increased collaboration from other departments, and helped to drive change within the organization, specifically in terms of executive leadership decisions regarding project timelines and new space.

In this session, we will look at the upcoming product roadmap for the EMS Academic Planning tools.  Highlights include a new Campus Planning Interface, enhanced academic reports, and more sophisticated integrations with Banner and PeopleSoft Campus Solutions.

Once you are convinced that Outlook and Exchange integration are right for your organization, ensure you are implementing them with care. 

Because Outlook is a familiar interface, people often overlook tips and tricks they should be sharing with their users at-large to ensure a smooth user experience. Join our implementation expert in reviewing the best practices that our most successful organizations have used in their implementations.

Combining built-in EMS reports with query builder data provides dynamic and valuable insight into space utilization.

EMS offers many built-in statistical reports that show how space is being used. Additionally, the query builder may be used for custom reporting and to export and analyze statistical information. Learn how to combine the built-in reports and query builder to gain the most insight into your space utilization.

Are you considering adding the EMS pricing / billing functionality to your operation?

Walk through the actual steps involved in the EMS billing-cycle process. Topics include: payment entry, billing worksheet, invoicing, adjustments, general ledger distributions, and additional reports designed to organize your financial information. 

Plan on this configuration overview session if you are considering, or have recently started, using EMS to manage your organization’s catering resources.

Topics will include the configuration of categories / resources, utilizing selections and production items within your menu, and considerations for configuring allowing online resource requests.

The user-configurable dashboard is an all-in-one view of your reminders, tentative reservation follow-ups, web requests, waitlist maintenance tasks and other notifications. This session will review how to use the dashboard, demonstrating simple methods for managing all your scheduling tasks, accessing notifications and even generating “on-the-fly” metrics and reporting.

Your users are on the go - give them the capability that they need and deploy EMS Mobile into your organization.  It will allow users to make just-in-time reservations, review their own reservation schedule, and check-in for reserved space. We will provide configuration and authentication tips so that you can be a success with your deployment.

Automatically enabling EMS Web App everyday user accounts, tracking the right information on the accounts, and ensuring they have access to all of the correct permissions can be challenging in a complex environment.  

This session will review common strategies for account creation and maintenance, enabled by the HR Toolkit and/or integrated authentication options.

In 2009, prior to purchasing EMS, an ad hoc committee was tasked with determining what was wrong with scheduling at BYU-Idaho. It was determined there was mutual disrespect between constituents and that communication was significantly lacking. Fast forward eight years to the campus wide implementation of EMS and establishment of a professional scheduling office. Attend this presentation by LaNae Poulter, Scheduling Manager at Brigham Young University-Idaho, as she shares how EMS has been utilized and extremely well-received across departments. For example, those who previously felt most frustrated with the old system are the first to respond, “Just put it in EMS, then we’ll know.” Additionally, those who were once reluctant to include ‘their’ space in the EMS deployment, now enjoy and have come to depend on custom-fit configurations within EMS and its integration with Outlook.

This is not the EMS for Outlook you have always known.  In this session, we will explore the new user experience in the September 2017 release of EMS for Outlook. We'll show you our faster, friendlier way to book and change meetings, and you'll see how we've made it easy for you to create and manage recurring bookings – even if you need two or more different rooms to satisfy all occurrences. For EMS Exchange Room Integration, we will review what exactly this means and why you might want to use it to help enable self-service video conferencing in your organization.

If you want to make it easier for your users to view room availability and schedule rooms on-the-fly, then this session is for you. Join us to learn about the user experience improvements introduced in the EMS Room Sign App, formerly known as Glance. We will discuss how room signs play a role in workplace productivity and brand differentiation in the context of a live demo. We will also preview the major enhancements on the long-term Room Sign App product roadmap.

The key to getting your users to make requests online rather than call or email you is to ensure that it is as simple as possible.

Simplicity can be challenging when you are managing complex space with many business rules. We will review tips on simplifying your request form while honoring the necessary rules. Have you reviewed your request form from the user's point of view lately? It may be more complicated than you think...let's get that changed!

Plan on this configuration overview session if you are considering or have recently started using EMS to manage the pricing / billing of your rooms and resources.

Review how to build and ensure accuracy of your rate schedules and pricing plans, and put a strategy in place to keep them up-to-date.

Join us to learn best practices around using EMS to manage your catering operation!

Learn how your users will utilize the EMS Web App to submit requests, how requests are processed, and how additional details are captured. Get tips and tricks to ensure a smooth workflow and which reports can be used for operational and sales needs. 

Understanding and accurately defining your EMS core data is central to effective software performance. This session will provide an overview of basic event-related configuration in EMS including event types, messages, comment types, reminders, and more. It’s the perfect introductory session for those interested in learning how to start configuration of their EMS system.

No matter what you call it - hotelling, hotdesking, or workspace scheduling - EMS can help! We will walk you through the configuration needed, the most common business rules, the built-in reports, and outline common challenges that EMS will help you overcome. If you are considering launching a workspace initiative, this session will help you plan how EMS will support that.

Automating the assignment of courses into rooms can lead to a more efficient process.

Automation reduces the amount of time needed to schedule and increases seat fill and room utilization. Review best practices to execute this process accurately.

Implementing Outlook and Exchange Integration?  Attend this session presented by Robert Gonzales Jr., Director of Event Management at Stevens Institute of Technology to get a first-hand account on their campus-wide Outlook and Exchange Integration implementation. Robert will also share his implementation story along with the best practices and benefits of the implementation process. This session will be focused on small- and medium-scale deployments in higher education with emphasis on the end user and configuration process.

Reservations are often associated with the process of booking a room or space to host some event. However, reservations can also be used to schedule non-event related spaces, physical properties, and even individuals. Attend this session, presented by James Tucciarone III, Technical Analyst at Yale University, as he explores some of the ways Yale University has leveraged the power of EMS in order to manage non-traditional ‘space’ including possible considerations, pitfalls, and trade-offs that have been encountered. James will also discuss reevaluating the way we think about ‘space’ and the definition of rooms for alternative use cases.

In this session, David Lopez, Facilities Specialist from Great-West Financial/ Empower Retirement, discusses the evolution of how EMS came to Empower Retirement /Great-West Financial. Starting in 2014 the road to solve how three different space management systems could be forged into one began. Hear how the process started, what was done to capture feedback and how the single system operates today.

The statistical reports and query builder on powerful tools. But, how should I be analyzing the data? How are others making decisions using this information? Join us as we do a deep-dive into how the report data can be useful in making planning decisions and how other organizations have used them.

In this session, we will explore the year in review for the EMS Web App (formerly called Virtual EMS). You'll see how we've simplified the steps for everyday users to book a meeting or reserve space to work, study, or practice. We'll review important considerations for upgrading from older versions. We’ll take a look into the near future to glimpse into the future of Web App.

EMS Platform Services is the new middle-tier component that provides a modern, scalable way (RESTful APIs) for partners and customers to integrate with the EMS Platform. In this session, we will explore how you can use this tool to build your own integrations more quickly and with less complexity.

Once a user has made a request, do you have a seamless process mapped out in EMS that ensures proper internal communication and collection of details?  

Are you using notifications, reminders, comments, and user-defined fields to their fullest? If not, come see our tips for ensuring a smooth workflow.

Do your users forget to cancel their reserved space even though they don't plan to use it? Do they need directions to a hard-to-locate venue? Do they need to guarantee their catering count?

Automating reminders to your users by utilizing group notification rules can add an important layer of communication, making their life easier and your operation more efficient.

Looking to draw a crowd to your next event? Trying to keep your employees informed about the next professional development opportunity?  

Spread the news! Let's find ways to share this information by touring those that are already doing it well within their organization or institution.

New users need training to get onboard. Existing users need to stay up-to-date on EMS features and internal policy. Additional departments are interested in joining in the operation. Where do you start?

We've compiled best practices and tips from our most successful customers in order to keep your EMS system use healthy and thriving, to expand the footprint of EMS and increase the return on your investment, and to keep your users humming within the system.

You've published your term....but now the changes come rolling in. Learn how to keep the courses in EMS from your Student Information System (SIS) up-to-date. 

Analyze some of the most efficient ways to keep EMS in sync with your SIS, determine what approach (manual versus automatic) makes sense for you, and see what features are available to keep you informed.

Infrastructures, police, housing, performances, athletic events, and education are all hallmarks of a city. They are also attributes of a college campus. Linda Martellaro, Assistant Registrar at the University of Notre Dame shares her stories of how EMS became an effective partner in managing the vast array of activities, classes taking place on a daily basis.

Gathering course offering information from multiple academic departments can be a daunting task for any academic planner.  A lack of structure and consistency can exacerbate this process. In this session, Jill Herbst, the Academic Curriculum Specialist at Gonzaga University, will highlight how moving from an unstructured practice to the structured processes provided by the Campus Planning Interface (CPI) streamlined and organized the university’s course offering information gathering and editing processes. 

EMS Platform Services is the new middle-tier component that provides a modern, scalable way (RESTful APIs) for partners and customers to integrate with the EMS Platform. In this session, we will explore how you can use this tool to build your own integrations more quickly and with less complexity.

At EMS Live! 2016, we announced new and improved ways of ensuring Quality across our features and our applications. In the intervening year, we have made humongous strides in ensuring just that! Join the head of Quality at EMS for a session that digs deep into the details of how we ensure a Quality product gets released and how you can help us become a better advocate for ensuring that the way you use our product is tested by us at every release. Come prepared for a lively, informative discussion where your voice around product quality can be heard!

Communicating the details of a confirmed reservation is an essential function of a scheduler or site administrator. 

Learn how versatile the Confirmation report can be when used for proposals, event confirmations, to confirm cancellations, and more. When combined with the CRM module for contracts, it can make your operation even more efficient. Take a tour of the many ways that your peers are using the Confirmation function in order to increase communication and decrease administrative workload.

Of the many reports available in EMS, this workshop will identify and review the most applicable reports for operational use.

Receive tips on the best use of options, memorization, and how to analyze the data presented.

Learn configuration and end-user experience tips that will make the workflow less cumbersome and ensure correctly publicized information.

Whether you are using the EMS Master Calendar or have a different tool to publicize your reservations, learn to walk through your event cycle to determine the best ways to collect and flag your reservations so they end up on the correct calendar. 

Improve communication with notifications! In this introductory session, learn how to configure the system so you are notified of new requests from the web, new service orders needing review, cancellations requiring action, and more.  Notification capabilities reviewed in this session are available in Enterprise-level systems; a lightweight version of notifications is also available in EMS Professional.

The user-configurable dashboard is an all-in-one view of your reminders, tentative reservation follow-ups, web requests, waitlist maintenance tasks, and other notifications.  This session will review how to use the dashboard, demonstrating simple methods for managing all your scheduling tasks, accessing notifications, and even generating “on-the-fly” metrics and reporting. 

How are classrooms being utilized?  Which departments are violating prime time agreements? What are the semester-to-semester (or year-to-year) trends in scheduling?

Come see the best practices for running and understanding academic reporting in EMS.

In an average year, the University at Buffalo manages over 1,200 large scale events across three campuses and throughout the community. For the new Incident Management Team on campus, having the right contact and event information during particularly busy times of the year is essential.  Join Steven Rutz, Associate Director of the Office of University Events, and Stephanie Lichtenthal, Project Manager in the Office of University Events, as they take you through the process of what prompted their office to utilize the functionality in EMS to create a standardized information packet called the Event Action Plan. Steven and Stephanie will also discuss how the packet information is shared with key leadership to create a safer campus environment for students and event attendees. 

In this session, Lori Freda, Director of Scheduling & Event Services and Amy Pethick, EMS Functional Administrator at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will share how using EMS to track and bill accurately for staff and services significantly improved productivity and increased revenue. Knowing when and where you need to assign staff, making sure staff know where to go, and billing correctly for staff and services are crucial to successful customer service. Lori and Amy will discuss how they use EMS to know which bookings need staff, assign and track staff for each specific service order, communicate with service providers, and bill correctly for services provided. They will detail why and how they separate regular time and overtime for staff, in order to handle different pricing policies depending on the day and time.

In this session, we will explore how EMS Mobile App allows everyday users to book meetings and reserve spaces while "on the go" followed by live demo. We will show you how you can use this app to enable self-serve video conferencing in your organization. We will also present the major UX redesign planned for upcoming releases and the product roadmap.

This is not the EMS for Outlook you have always known.  In this session, we will explore the new user experience in the September 2017 release of EMS for Outlook. We'll show you our faster, friendlier way to book and change meetings, and you'll see how we've made it easy for you to create and manage recurring bookings – even if you need two or more different rooms to satisfy all occurrences. For EMS Exchange Room Integration, we will review what exactly this means and why you might want to use it to help enable self-service video conferencing in your organization.

There are many facets to security: how the software is written, how the data is protected, how the network is configured, and how software administrators are trained.  While many of those elements are beyond your control, we will outline best practices for those that you can influence: How to secure your EMS database, using SQL or Windows accounts, how to secure EMS Applications via SSL and Integrated Authentication. 

Do your users forget to cancel their reserved space even though they don't plan to use it? Do they need directions to a hard-to-locate venue? Do they need to guarantee their catering count?

Automating reminders to your users by utilizing group notification rules can add an important layer of communication, making their life easier and your operation more efficient.

In June of 2015 (in Version 44.1), EMS introduced the Web App - a new and improved version of Virtual EMS.  If your organization has not yet made the move, but are planning to upgrade - join this session to ensure that your transition  is successful.  We will review the workflow changes that enable the new end-user-focused design and outline configuration recommendations that will make the transition as smooth as possible.  Additional tips on effective use of help text and simplification of your web process templates will ensure that your end users are able to adopt quickly and easily.

Are you wondering if you're missing a search trick that everyone else is using?

Ensure that you are getting the most out of the Browser and Query Builder by reviewing the most popular uses of the saved search and query functions.

There are over a dozen tools in the EMS Reservation Navigator to help with the day-to-day maintenance of your events and meetings.

Whether you need to copy an entire event, move a set of bookings, rapidly edit attendance counts or apply a discount to an entire reservation, this session will review the common utilities that can save you a great deal of time.

Whether your scheduling system has 1 or 100 users, it makes sense to give each individual a specific set of permissions according to use. In this session we’ll review the concept of Template security and the most critical security processes, as well as discuss how to limit rights to specific rooms, areas, and statuses for client users.

At first business processes drove technology: spreadsheets mimicked ledgers, word processing was an improvement on typewriters. Then came the internet and mobile devices. Brick and mortar gave way to cyber. The smartphone changed everything. These technologies changed the way we work and now work space management is catching up to those changes as the desire and ability to measure and manage these new work strategies evolves. Sean McBrien, Senior Vice President at Citigroup, will present an overview of how we got here, what “here” is and share some of the advances Citi is making in the space as well as discussing some key challenges.