Continuing education credits are an essential part of many events, especially those organized in industries like healthcare, education and even interior design. To maintain their licenses and certifications, professionals need to further their education in their chosen field, and an annual association event is often where they look for continuing education, or CE, credits.
While offering these types of classes is a practical way for event planners to pull in more traffic, both professional attendees and sponsors, to an event, it doesn’t come without some pitfalls. Typically, it means a lot more work for the administration team. CE credits are not just a bonus offered during an event. The classes must fulfill the requirements in order for the attendee to officially benefit from the course. What goes into offering CE credits at an event?
Why Provide Continuing Education?
For industry associations, CE credits are part of the resources they promise members. They also give exhibitors a chance to network with potential buyers during the class. Offering CE credits is a powerful talking point for event marketing campaigns, too. Nurses, teachers, physicians, paramedics — these are all professional people who are required to earn a certain number of CE credits each year to continue working at their jobs. They rely on their professional organizations to give them opportunities to earn those credits. It is something they will look for on each event prospectus.
What Is Involved in Continuing Education Classes?
By providing CE credit workshops and classes, the event organizer is doing more than creating the learning environment. They are offering to handle the paperwork, as well, and that’s what can easily trip up even an experienced event planner.
It starts with class registrations and ends with providing each attendee a certificate to prove they completed the course and earned the credit. In between, you must scan the attendees in and out of each session. It’s a process that is often done manually, but that’s not the most time-efficient strategy.
Taking Continuing Education to the Next Level
Expo offers event planners a better option than signup lists and data spreadsheets. Organizers can use the Expo system to print out badges with QR codes for each person who signs up for an event. This way, all you need to do is scan the badge as they enter and exit the room to record their attendance. The system will automatically log the data for you.
After completing the session, the attendees will look for their certificates. As the course planner, you are responsible for ensuring each one fulfilled the full CE requirement and for providing them with proof of the credit. The Expo system will collect and collate all the necessary information for you including contact details for distribution of the certificates. It is even possible to provide a mobile copy of the certification via the event app immediately after completing the course.
Expo provides all the necessities for event organizers looking to offer continuing education at their next event. All you need to do is input the session and certification criteria and then scan attendees as they come and go. Expo’s system does the rest.
