— Cosmodome

The Cosmodome is the only museum in Canada dedicated to space science.

It promotes science education and helps children understand the difficulties astronauts face. The Cosmodome handled an increasing demand while having to deal with an outdated registration method for camps and events. By joining the Amilia community, it achieved considerable savings in both time and money. Parents and participants are now enjoying an easy-to-use solution that gives them more control over their information.

The Story

The Cosmodome offers visitors a unique experience: virtual space missions and interactive courses. In addition to offering space camps for youth ages 9 to 15, the Cosmodome organizes school visits, introductory days and corporate events. Annually, almost 135,000 people visit the organization's facilities.

During their busy season, almost 60 employees work at the Cosmodome; this includes executives, administrative staff, day camp leaders and specialists. To increase the accessibility of their activities, the Cosmodome established its own foundation with a mission to provide young people from underprivileged backgrounds the chance to learn about the science of space.

The Challenge

In the past, the Cosmodome manually processed the registration of its participants. Camper parents had to download a PDF form from the website, fill it out and return it by mail, email or fax. The administrative team would then compile the invoices. This tedious process created many problems. Staff had difficulty reading the handwriting on the forms and needed to contact parents by phone to clarify their responses. A significant amount of time was also spent managing incomplete forms and entering data.

The manual work did not end there; administrative staff would then create attendance lists with Excel, adding relevant medical information such as allergies, diseases and emergency contacts. Once registration was completed, administrators had to mail a copy of the contract to parents to confirm their registration. The time spent on manual tasks increased consistently since the Cosmodome activities were experiencing significant growth year after year. It was time for a change!

The Solution

Julie— the Cosmodome’s entertainment and cultural activities manager — and her team considered online registration to reduce nonvalue added tasks and streamline administrative work. A member of the Cosmodome then suggested they look at Amilia, a solution that he was already using to register his children for hockey. After some initial research, the Cosmodome team discovered the popularity of this solution in Canada. Following a meeting with an Amilia representative, Julie found that the platform had the features necessary to simplify the Cosmodome's day-to-day: online registration, detailed reporting, customizable online forms and attendance lists and storing of medical records and emergency contacts.

The Results

Choosing Amilia allowed the Cosmodome to achieve major savings in time and money, particularly in the sending of documents and the creation of attendance lists. By eliminating the data entry in Excel, employees now have more time to devote to customer satisfaction.

Parents and participants also appreciate Amilia's user-friendly solution. The registration process has been simplified and parents appreciate receiving a confirmation email immediately after the transaction is complete.

Through the training the Cosmodome staff received, employees are able to provide support to the participants with the use of the platform when they need extra help. The Cosmodome team appreciates the versatility of the Amilia software; it allows them to conduct online fundraisers for their foundation and even sell branded merchandise

If you are interested to learn how SmartRec could help you and your organization succeed like it helped Cosmodome, just reach out to our team. We would be happy to discuss it with you!