Executive Summary

In October of 2021, Whova supported Trinity Partners in hosting the company’s annual fall trip. Trinity Partners staff and clients were invited to travel to Pinehurst North Carolina for the retreat, where they followed a schedule of relaxing activities, connected and messaged through the app, and shared photos to document their experiences.

About Trinity Partners Fall Trip

Trinity Partners is a commercial real estate firm that leases and manages more than 25 million square feet of office, industrial, and retail space across North and South Carolina. Trinity Partners takes pride in its core cultural values: “Have Fun. Family First. Balance Work and Home. Compete to Win.” 

What could be a better way to celebrate those values than a client retreat? 

The 2021 Trinity Partners Fall Trip was hosted at The Manor at The Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst North Carolina, where guests could get to know Trinity Staff and each other better over the course of three days and engage in some friendly competition on the golf course.

Challenges

After unfortunately having to cancel the annual trip in 2020, the organizers wanted to make sure this year’s event would be better than ever. To organize an amazing retreat, they prepared for the following challenges: 

• Efficiently communicating with guests about the event 

The Trinity Partners fall trip coordinators wanted to find the best way to reach their guests to make sure they could all be up-to-date and informed about the event. Relying on email wasn’t going to be the most practical way to share information and updates about the retreat, so they were in search of a way to centralize communication.

• Offering an easily accessible digital agenda 

The organizers needed to provide a clearly outlined agenda that would be easy for attendees to view on the go, rather than having to scroll through an old email chain for a PDF or unfold a printed flyer every time they needed to view the trip’s schedule. Planning for a variety of activities and receptions meant they needed to provide the guests with a hassle-free way to see the agenda. 

• Getting attendees connected through a central platform 

The organizers wanted to have a central online platform for attendees to connect during the event and share their experiences. A great benefit of the annual retreat is the opportunity for attendees to create connections and strengthen company ties. Having a digital forum for attendees to interact with would help create a more engaging and collective experience at the retreat.

Solutions

• Using Whova to communicate with attendees 

Deciding to use Whova to manage Trinity Partners Fall Trip made it easy to coordinate with attendees before and during the event. The organizers were able to send both emails and in-app notifications through Whova’s Announcements feature to stay in touch with the guests and send any reminders or updates. 

Guests could also post questions or concerns in the “Ask Organizers Anything” section of Whova’s Community Board. This allowed them to avoid any miscommunication by getting quick responses to any last minute logistical questions. 

• Creating the trip schedule through Whova’s event management platform 

Setting up the schedule for the trip was quick and easy using Whova’s Agenda function. They used the Session Manager feature to give each session a time, description, and location, to create a clear and chronologically organized agenda accessible in the mobile app for attendees. A visually appealing version of the schedule was automatically generated through Whova as an agenda webpage attached to the main event website, so the organizers could easily share it with attendees leading up to the event. 

The attendees found it especially convenient to access the agenda in the mobile app. This way, they could add activities to their personalized agenda on the drive to Pinehurst, double-check when lunch started while they were out on the golf course, or view the location of the next activity with just a click.

• Uploading venue maps to the app 

By providing instant access to the venue map directly on the Whova mobile app, the organizers didn’t have to worry about guests finding their way around the event site. The organizers uploaded a layout of The Pinehurst Resort, as well as a marked map of event venues as well as off-site lodging locations for staff. Having the venue map in one place, along with the rest of the event information was really helpful for keeping everything organized. 

• Providing a platform for messaging and photo sharing 

The Whova app was a great way for attendees to connect with each other during the event. They were able to check out other attendee profiles and message each other directly from the app to coordinate plans and meet-up on site. They also  introduced themselves by answering fun questions through Whova’s Icebreaker feature, which was an engaging way for all the guests to get to know each other better and link up with people they may not have met before.

The Trinity Partners retreat was a great opportunity for guests to take pictures and capture moments, and Whova’s mobile app made it easy to share them with everyone. Attendees and organizers uploaded over 70 photos taken from the golf course, from inside the reception room, and of the beautiful scenery at the resort. All of the photos shared were accessible to attendees in the app, where they could download them directly or come back after the event to look at them again. 

Attendees browsed the attendee list to connect and meet-up with other guests during the retreat.