How the CHUM's Research Center Elevates Its Students Congress
The CRCHUM Research Center hosts a prestigious Student Congress every year. Since 2016, thanks of Fourwaves, the event was managed succesfully with minimal human and financial resources.
2016
Congress of Student Researchers
In-person and virtual
Planning a large-scale academic event is challenging, especially when the processes are handled manually. For years, Joanne Auclair at the CRCHUM relied on outdated, paper-based processes that made registration, scheduling, and abstract management a logistical nightmare.
As the size of its annual Student Congress grew, so did the complexity, until the team began leaning on Fourwaves to provide a smarter, more efficient solution.
Challenges Before Fourwaves
The CRCHUM Student Congress: A Premier Research Event
For 25 years, the CRCHUM Research Center has hosted its prestigious CRCHUM Student Congress, bringing together top researchers, students, and industry leaders. The event serves as an important platform for research collaboration, networking, and professional development. However, behind the scenes, organizing the congress was an overwhelming task – especially for Joanne Auclair, who managed the process almost single-handedly.
The Organizational Burden
Before adopting Fourwaves, Joanne handled everything manually. This caused a number of problems, including:
- Paper-based registrations that led to errors, forgotten participants, and last-minute panic.
- Manual abstract submissions and evaluations required endless hours of sorting through documents.
- Scheduling presentations, panels, and workshops was chaotic, requiring constant adjustments.
- Event growth made the process unmanageable, with attendance numbers increasing year after year.
It was exhausting. If I forgot someone, it was entirely my mistake. I often spent sleepless weekends trying to keep everything organized.
Event coordinator, CHUM Research Center
Why Fourwaves?
A Game-Changer
When the CRCHUM communications department recommended Fourwaves, Joanne immediately saw its potential. Unlike other event management platforms, Fourwaves offered a tailored solution for academic conferences, streamlining everything from abstract submissions to registrations.
Here are the key reasons Joanne and the CRCHUM Research Center chose Fourwaves:
- The elimination of manual errors meant no more misplaced registrations or forgotten participants.
- Seamless abstract management allowed her to handle 144 poster presentations and 18 oral presentations effortlessly.
- Automated processes like generating name tags or an abstract booklet saved 90% of the manual work.
- Exceptional customer support.
Live chat support and almost instantaneous email response from the team is a big WOW for me.
Event coordinator, CHUM Research Center
How CRCHUM Research Center Leveraged Fourwaves
An all-in-one solution that can be set up in minutes
Joanne and the CRCHUM Research Center used the full range of Fourwaves features, streamlining their registration, abstract submission, peer review management, program building, and virtual poster sessions.
Fourwaves allowed them to set up an event website in minutes, centralizing all event information. Registrations and abstract submissions were managed entirely online, eliminating lost papers and manual data entry.
Virtual Poster Sessions to Evaluate Students
In addition to the in-person event, the team also organized a virtual poster session before the main event to help evaluate 138 students presentations. They easily coordinated 18 evaluation groups made of 36 reviewers who went online to speak to presenters through video conversations directly on Fourwaves at specific times. The presenters were able to easily present their poster and get feedback from judges.
A Clean Way to Showcase their Program
They also leveraged Fourwaves’ scheduling tools to organize multiple workshops, a high-profile panel on entrepreneurship, and a keynote session with Matthieu Dugal, host of Science en Lumière on Radio-Canada.
The platform has greatly simplified my tasks, especially for registrations, there’s no way to forget anyone now, which is fantastic.
Event coordinator, CHUM Research Center
Measurable Results and Real Impact
Using Fourwaves led to a 90% reduction in manual workload, allowing the team to focus on event content instead of administrative tasks. The 25th edition of the congress saw record-breaking engagement with 350 participants, 144 posters, and 18 oral presentations — the highest numbers ever recorded.
Participant satisfaction improved significantly, with students and researchers praising the seamless experience. Despite the increased numbers, using Fourwaves simplified the event execution.
What If Fourwaves Didn’t Exist?
For me, Fourwaves is a condition for organizing the Student Congress, otherwise, I wouldn’t do it anymore. It would be disastrous without Fourwaves.
Event coordinator, CHUM Research Center
A Partnership Since 2016 that will Continue for a long time
With the success of the last editions, it is clear that Fourwaves is an essential tool for future CRCHUM Research Center events. Joanne and her team plan to expand its use for upcoming research events.
The student organizing committee found the platform intuitive and will continue leveraging it. When alternative platforms were suggested by the communications department, they were immediately rejected, Fourwaves remains the trusted choice.
About CRCHUM Research Center
The CRCHUM improves the health of adults through a high-quality academic research continuum which, by furthering our understanding of etiological and pathogenic mechanisms, fosters the development, implementation, and assessment of new preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.