GSBA - Winter Conference Setup Recommendation
Friday, September 12, 2025
Challenges and Areas of Improvement
Based on our experience setting up the summer conference, we've identified several key challenges that need to be addressed for the winter conference setup.
Registration Confusion
Registrants managed to register for classes without registering for the main event, creating tracking complications.
Multiple Check Points
Too many places to verify registrations:
  • Event Participants tab
  • Bundle Participants
  • Class Participants
  • Event Participants Export
  • Class Participants Export
Visibility Management
Complex visibility settings across multiple levels: event visibility, class visibility, and bundle visibility.
Root Causes and Solutions
Understanding why these challenges occurred is crucial for implementing effective solutions for the winter conference.
Registrable vs Non-registrable Items Classification
Let's validate our assumptions about which items should be registrable versus non-registrable for the Winter Conference.
Pre-conference Day 1 (Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025)
  • New Board Member Orientation (Day 1) [carries credit] [costs $$]
Pre-conference Day 2 (Wednesday, Dec 3, 2025)
  • New Board Member Orientation (Day 2) [carries credit] [costs $$]
  • IN PERSON Legal Issues Pre-Conference Workshop [carries credit] [costs $$]
  • VIRTUAL Legal Issues Pre-Conference Workshop [carries credit] [costs $$]
  • Build Your Own Day [carries credit] [costs $$]

Items marked with [carries credit] and [costs $$] are considered registrable items that require participant selection during registration.
The Build Your Own Day includes multiple class sessions that participants can choose from:
01
Student Achievement: Monitoring the Progress
02
How to Explore Your Leadership Style
03
How to Develop a Strong Board Culture
04
Better Boards, Stronger Leaders: Self & Superintendent Evaluation Tools
05
Good Boardsmanship: How to Build a Board Calendar
06
Problems that come in the disguise of Opportunity for Greatness
07
Telling your District's Story: Communication, Branding & Marketing
  • Simbli Users Workshop [carries credit] [costs $$]
  • Excellence in Governance Institute [carries credit] [costs $$]
  • Attorneys Only Workshop [carries credit] [costs $$]
Main Conference Days
Conference Day 1 (Wednesday, Dec 4, 2025) and Conference Day 2 (Thursday, Dec 5, 2025)
  • Annual Conference (In-Person) [costs $$]
Our Strategic Recommendation
Based on our analysis of the agenda and registration requirements, here's our comprehensive recommendation for the winter conference setup:
Set up ONLY registrable items as CLASSES
Items that carry credit, cost money, or both should be the only registrable classes.
Build Your Own Day as "Class Sessions"
Set up sub-items as "Class Sessions" which can have their own attendance marking if desired.
Eliminate non-registrable items from registration
Don't set up items that users don't need to pick while registering.
Avoid Event Sessions or Bundles
Ensure all classes are of a type without direct registration workflows.
Centralize registration modifications
All modifications should be done as EVENT REGISTRATION modifications only. This approach removes the confusion of whether to modify class registration or event registration; only event registrations count.
SEPARATE the "IN PERSON" versus "VIRTUAL" Options
Separate them from each other; gives you the flexibility to set them up as items that can be priced differently for different groups of people.
Benefits of Our Recommended Approach
This streamlined setup will deliver significant improvements for both administrators and board secretaries.
For the Admin (You)
Unified Participant View
One place to see all participants without navigating "double nested" setups of Bundles and Classes.
Single Registration Tab
One tab of "all registrations" instead of separate Event and Class registration tabs.
Prevented Registration Conflicts
No scenarios where participants register for classes without registering for the event.
Simplified Modifications
All registration modifications happen at the event level only, making it intuitive to self-manage.
For the Board Secretary
01
Mandatory Event Registration
Cannot register anyone for individual items without registering for The Winter Conference.
02
Three Simple Decisions
For each individual in their group:
  • Register or not for New Board Member Orientation (Day 1)
  • Register or not for one of 7 options on Dec 3
  • Register or not for The Annual Conference
1
Item on Day 1
Single person can only register for one option. Or not.
7
Items on Day 2
Single person can only register for one of seven since times overlap
1
Conference Item
Days 3 and 4 - register or not register, no other options
Show and Tell Demonstration
Let us demonstrate how this streamlined approach works in practice on the platform. Our comprehensive walkthrough will cover all key user experiences.
1
Board Secretary Experience
Watch the Board Secretary register multiple people and make the three key decisions for each individual in their group.
2
Registration Participant Counts
A quick peek at the Registration Participant Counts for all 9 items, plus the event = 10 total items.
3
Administrator Experience
Your experience as an administrator registering one school board with multiple people and making the required decisions.
4
Updated Participant Counts
Another look at the Registration Participant Counts for all 9 items, plus the event = 10 items. Let's see the delta!
5
Behind the Scenes
The admin setup process - how we've configured everything to accomplish the above registration experiences seamlessly.

Let's go watch! This streamlined approach will transform your conference management experience, making it more intuitive for administrators and simpler for board secretaries while maintaining all necessary functionality. We'd absolutely love your feedback.
Thank you, Leigh, Ashley and GSBA Team!