Executive Summary 

DEKRA North America is a global leader in safety and risk management, offering services in workplace safety, process safety, medical device testing, and AI-related automotive testing. DEKRA used Whova for their annual conference, boosting engagement, improving agenda set up, and highlighting their sponsors like never before.

About the Safety in Action Conference

The 38th Annual Safety in Action Conference brought together a global community of safety leaders, supervisors, managers, and teams from across industries to advance workplace safety. 

Through hands-on workshops, engaging exhibits, and meaningful networking, attendees shared best practices and explored innovative strategies for building safer, smarter work environments. As DEKRA’s flagship event, the conference continues to be a cornerstone for those committed to shaping the world’s safest companies.

Challenges 

Untrustworthy Agenda

DEKRA organizers faced issues with the app they used previously, as session and speaker details would occasionally disappear from the agenda. They needed a reliable solution that could present all materials clearly and in one centralized, easy-to-navigate location.

Lack of Sponsor Showcase

Due to a lack of trust in their previous app, the organizers struggled to properly showcase sponsors and were unable to provide them with adequate digital visibility, therefore needing to eliminate sponsors altogether.

Limited Attendee Interaction

DEKRA’s previous app didn’t support attendee interaction, limiting networking opportunities. The organizers were seeking a solution that would enable attendees to connect with each other and engage meaningfully with the app.

Solutions 

Effortlessly Display Sessions and Eliminate Conflict

Streamlined Agenda Set Up

Whova’s Agenda Center offered DEKRA a seamless and intuitive interface for setting up their event schedule. Organizers could easily create a clear, organized view of all their 70 sessions, grouping by day and including concurrent sessions or subsessions. The system also supported role-based access, allowing their team members to be assigned specific responsibilities and manage different parts of the agenda independently.

Agenda setup was made easy with Whova’s session manager.

Reliable and Consistent Source of Information

Once the organizer added and saved a session or speaker details in the Agenda Center, the information remained stable and secure. All the details stayed intact throughout the event, eliminating the risk of disappearing content, reducing the need for constant double-checking, and removing unnecessary stress.

Quick and Effortless Updates

When organizers needed to make a last-minute room change, the updates were conducted seamlessly. The Session Manager allowed them to edit the session’s details on the fly, with changes reflected instantly across the platform — keeping everything up to date without the hassle and ensuring attendees have the latest details at their fingertips.

Conflict Check

The Whova built-in Conflict Checker made it easy for DEKRA to identify scheduling issues — whether it was overlapping time slots, double-booked speakers, or unavailable meeting rooms. With a simple click of the “Check for Conflicts” button, they were able to instantly identify any scheduling issues, making it easy to resolve conflicts and streamline the planning process.

Check for double-booked speakers or room overlaps with just one click.

Highlight Sponsors Throughout the Event

For the first time ever, DEKRA was able to showcase sponsors throughout the conference utilizing Whova’s robust sponsor management tools.

Sponsor Webpage

The organizers added the sponsor webpage, creating a dedicated space to highlight each sponsor with logos, links, and tiered visibility. Attendees could simply click on a sponsor’s logo to visit their website, offering easy access to more information and increasing sponsor visibility. 

Clickable sponsor logos gave attendees easy access to learn more.

Social Wall

While showcasing attendee engagement, organizers also used the Social Wall to further highlight their sponsors. In addition to conference updates and community board discussions, rotating sponsor banners were prominently featured—ensuring sponsors maintained a strong visual presence.

Rotating sponsor banners kept brands visible throughout the event.

Boost Attendee Engagement and Interaction with Event’s Content

Attendees connected through real-time discussions on the Community Board.

Personalized Agenda for Each Attendee

Attendees could select sessions and build personalized agenda, helping them know what to expect and enabling them to easily refer back to their schedule. Organizers valued the insight into session interest, which will also be helpful for planning the conference next year.

Seamless Session Q&A and Feedback Collection

DEKRA organizers easily set up Q&A for all their sessions, ensuring questions were correctly linked without hassle. Adding links in the Whova app made it simple for attendees to submit evaluations and overall conference feedback. The process was clear, quick, and easy to implement.

Testimonial