How URMIA cleaned up event logistics and stopped version chaos without adding staff

URMIA runs a large, complex annual conference with a very small team. Details change late. Budgets stay tight. Venues expect clean specs. Jack Voorhees needed a way to keep everything accurate without rebuilding documents every time something moved.

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Attendees (in-person/virtual)

Hybrid annual conference with live and virtual audiences

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Event Planner

Flagship event managed without adding headcount

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Venue Follow-Ups

Clean BEO reviews with no clarification required

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Time Saved in Planning Cycle

Reduced spec creation, revision, and finalization

“For 25 years I was stuck translating spreadsheets and mail merges into something venues could understand.

Pholeo changed that.”

Jack Voorhees
Senior Director of Events
URMIA

  • The Organization

    • One (1) Lead Planner - Jack Voorhees

    • Eight (8) person staff to support thousands of members and a flagship conference with:

    • ~850 in-person attendees

    • ~300 virtual attendees

    • Hybrid sessions with up to 8 concurrent tracks

    • Multiple receptions & special events

    • High food and beverage spend

    • Higher education funding uncertainty making planning cycles unpredictable.

  • The Problem URMIA Faced

    URMIA planned its annual conference the way many associations still do:

    • Spreadsheets for specs.
    • Word docs for orders.
    • Email for changes.

    Every update meant touching the same information in multiple places. If one file went out too early, the venue worked from the wrong version.

    Fixing that took hours.

    Formatting was another drain. Jack spent time making documents readable for venues instead of planning the event itself.

    The result was friction.
    Follow-up questions.
    Rework.
    Risk.

  • The Solution Needed

    Jack needed one single-source-of-truth to work from.

    The solution had to:

    • Keep specs and budgets together

    • Calculate service charges and taxes automatically

    • Produce event orders venues could use immediately

    • Update instantly when something changed

    • Preserve history year over year for budget comparisons

    Most important, it had to save time without adding headcount.

How Pholeo fit into URMIA’s Workflow

Pholeo replaced Jack’s spreadsheet and mail-merge system with a single working file for each event. He now builds his event specs directly in the platform and shares Pholeo’s BEO-style prints with vendor teams to communicate food and beverage orders, and room set specifications.

Building specs once, save hours on revisions.

Jack enters details as they become available in Pholeo until all orders are final. If changes are needed, instead of updating in multiple spreadsheets, he jumps into Pholeo and revises, triggering updates in his:

  • Production Schedules

  • Function Sheets

  • Budgets

No need to copy and paste details, and risk an error in transposition, updates are automated between interfaces.

Budget clarity in real time

Pholeo automatically rolls up service charges and taxes allowing Jack to test menu options on the fly and stay within budget targets.

He can also compare spend across the same event year to year, in consistent, easy to decipher formats. No more trying to remember last year’s final notes and margin comments, in Pholeo every event is structured the same.

Venue collaboration without confusion

Jack’s “pro-tip” is that he shares a second URMIA managed Pholeo license with the venue event manager. This layer of transparency allows his conference services team and food and beverage team to follow progress directly.

This reduces errors in both meeting room sets and food and beverage, because the team producing the final paperwork is working from clearly formatted specs that feel familiar.

The results after switching

URMIA reduced rework and eliminated version confusion.

  • Venue communication tightened, with BEOs requiring zero revisions.

  • Meeting spec planning time dropped by over 50%

  • Jack no longer spends time transferring information from one format to another

For small teams, that difference matters.

Industry research from 2024 shows most associations still plan events with teams of three people or fewer, while conference complexity continues to rise. Tools that reduce duplicate work now directly protect staff capacity.

Ready To Save Up To 50% of The Time
It Takes To Plan a Conference?

Discover how Pholeo can transform your event planning process
with a 15 minute ‘Spec Sync’.

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