As we approach the 2022 summer season, our Youth at UW community looks forward to working closely with the Conference Services department to help plan on-campus housing arrangements for youth programs. Conference Services offers planning expertise and support to organizers of professional conferences, workshops, and meetings. The UW hosts conferences of all shapes and sizes, from academic conferences to both UW- and Third Party-led youth camps to large scale poster sessions. Conference Services have decades of experience coordinating conferences, and they work with their clients every step of the way to ensure their conference is an unforgettable success!
The OYPC team interviewed Jason Sharp, the Conference Coordinator for Conference Services. Jason has been a great partner to the Youth at UW community, helping to provide housing and dining options and support logistics for our network.
Getting Started & Working with OYPC
Jason joined the Conference Services team in May 2019 and although Jason has been on board for about 3 years now, the department has been at the UW for over 50 years! Jason’s busiest season comes in June – September when the bulk of residence halls empty out for the summer. As a conference coordinator, Jason works closely with internal and external affiliated programs to provide services and housing. Since COVID, the Conference Services team has changed significantly. The current team consists of 2 conference coordinators, 1 operations manager and housing occupancy manager, 1 assistant director and 2 student employees – a total of 6 employees compared to the previous team of 15 full time staff and about 25 resident conference assistants in the summer.
Some of the Conference Services include providing intern housing on the UW campus, offering academic guest housing for prospective students, families, and lecturers, as well as working with EH&S to provide isolation housing during COVID-19. Jason shares with us that while their “bread and butter” is conferences, as a department they also offer other programs, such as registration services, where they take care of the payment and processes for attendees on behalf of the conferences.
Conference Services has worked closely with UW and third party led youth programs to house their participants in on-campus facilities. From football camps to FIUTS Youth Ambassadors (https://www.fiuts.org/visiting-programs), many youth have called UW home for a short time, thanks to Conference Services. Additionally, Jason expressed his gratitude for the Youth at UW network, saying,
“We are so appreciative of all these programs and to even be on the radar with UW youth programs feels wonderful. We are always looking to connect with new and old clients and I’m happy to offer consultations with as much information I have on hand.”
Overcoming Challenges & Raising New Questions
Like for so many departments, COVID has also drastically changed how Conference Services communicates with their clients and operates their services. Jason shares with us how his team was able to adapt to the pandemic and the different types of challenges they encountered and were able to overcome.
One big challenge was communication – Jason and his team needed to make sure they were able to still communicate all vital information to not only their clients, but their guests.
“One thing I found that was a shift in operations during the pandemic was that, now, we communicate so much more frequently and more directly with our guests whereas in years past, more of our communication was filtered to our conference organizers who would then filter that communication to their guests, so we stepped in and became more direct to the guests because the nature of keeping people up to date during COVID”
Another challenge, which Jason expressed is “universal right now,” is limited staffing. Conference Services had to find alternative ways to continue providing excellent customer service despite their staffing shortage. Prior to COVID, conference services operated 24/7 conference desk hubs in Willow Hall and Lander Hall to accommodate all guests who check-in or had needs after hours. The 24-hour conference desk was a way for Conference Services to ensure all guests have a positive check in and check out experience. As a result of no longer having a conference assistant onsite at all times, for the last 2 summers, guests who come in after hours are routed to an on-call Resident Assistant to help guests check in.
The last challenge Jason shared is the “level of uncertainty as an ingredient in planning.” Jason shares with us the complexities of maintaining relationships with clients, but not having all the answers to their questions. For example, Jason and his team ask themselves,
“What are our housing and dining rates going to be? Are we able to provide legacy housing (housing with community bathrooms) or stick to new residence construction with private bathrooms? What rate do you steer clients towards when you know you may not have all the buildings in your inventory?”
Jason and his team recognize the importance of providing programs with the most affordable option possible, especially for youth programs. The team strives to make their services both affordable and convenient, even given the ever-changing nature of the pandemic.
Looking Forward
As we march on into unprecedented new times, Jason and his team have found new permanent solutions to problems raised during the pandemic. Prior to being housed on campus, all guests must attend a 15-minute safety orientation within 24 hours of checking in. This was a particular concern to youth groups where safety is an especially high priority. With limited staffing, what do you do when you don’t have a lot of onsite conference services assistants that can deliver a safety orientation to the guests? And how do you still get this information to the guests without that staff available?
The team answered their own questions by creating a video orientation alongside the internal Marketing and Communications department to create and finetune a script. Guests are now able to watch and review the safety orientation video prior to checking in, a great example of maintaining effective communication and adaptability to adopting digital platforms to share information. Anecdotally, Jason noticed fewer questions and concerns coming from guests because of the accessibility and convenience of the video.
Jason describes the pandemic as “painful” for this department, but as a silver lining because it afforded his team opportunities to improve their operations to meet a new demographic of guests who prefer service in a more visual and digitized format.
“A lot of paper processes have become digitized, which is major. I think my department has been wanting to shift towards that for a while but haven’t been able to make grand steps towards that. The pandemic has forced us to move forward more digitally, we found a reason to evolve, a lot of our billings and processes are digital that were not before, we’re saving trees which feels good!”
You can find Jason and the Conference Services department on the UW Seattle campus at Terry Hall. A BIG THANK YOU to Jason for taking the time out of his busy life to share his stories with all of us as a part of Youth at UW!
To learn more about and to contact Conference Services and to initiate a quote, visit https://hfs.uw.edu/Summer-Conference-Center
Check out a video for Conference Services here: UW HFS | Conference Services