Crowd Connected elevates Convening Leaders 2025 with seamless attendee tracking

The PCMA’s flagship Convening Leaders annual convention sets the tone for the year ahead in the events industry.

True to form, the carefully curated 2025 edition – held in Houston, Texas – deftly blended education, networking and innovation. Complementing the high production values was an A-list speaker line-up that included Scott Galloway and Amal Clooney.

For 2025, the show’s clever “Beyond Your Orbit” tagline provided a theme that underpinned every aspect of the experience for over 3,800 in-person attendees.

Crucially, this extended to the technology deployed – notably tracking who attended which sessions, and for how long. Like many conventions, attendance data is required across all the sessions at Convening Leaders – whether for awarding continuing education credits, for sponsor reporting, or for programming assessment.

The Challenge

At previous editions, the PCMA event team had defaulted to traditional badge scanning or RFID badges to record session attendance.

But the friction for participants – with long entry lines commonplace – was not compatible with the desired optimum attendee experience.

Data reliability was another problem that the PCMA leadership was seeking to address. Event organizers often struggle when managing staff for entry-exit scanning at conventions of the scale of Convening Leaders. The sheer number of sessions spread across different large spaces, many of which have multiple entry/exit points, makes scanning accuracy a significant logistical and practical challenge.

A more elegant solution was required – one which could be showcased to the PCMA community. PCMA wanted to lead by example, while being true to its “Beyond Your Orbit” tagline.

The Solution

PCMA chose to pioneer Crowd Connected’s smart tags.

The groundbreaking solution uses a small tag attached to each participant’s lanyard. The tag is paired with the badge, and a low density mesh network of beacons on the walls around the venue enables every session to be tracked. From the Convening Leaders main stage – with seating for over 3,000 – to the smallest space, this delivered attendance reporting within a few minutes of a session ending.

No scanning, no tapping, no cameras, no manual intervention.

The Results

By the end of the event, PCMA had effortlessly collected attendance data for almost 100 sessions spread across 27 rooms, with significant benefits to all stakeholders.

No more lines: Participants moved freely between sessions, with no need to show their badge or waiting endlessly to be scanned.

Session attendance at the event team’s fingertips: Data reliably collected and processed in real time, enabling reporting output to be delivered on an “as-required” basis. Whether during the event or months later.

Ease of deployment: Uniquely, the Crowd Connected solution uses mesh technology enabling efficient coverage of a large event space, keeping costs down.

Client Feedback

“At PCMA, we’re always looking for ways to enhance the participant experience while deepening our understanding of engagement. Crowd Connected’s solution has been a game-changer in how we track and analyze session attendance – seamlessly delivering the data we need without disrupting the event experience.

The insights we’re gaining go far beyond attendance numbers. By combining Crowd Connected’s reporting with our post-event surveys, we can better understand which topics and formats resonate most with our audience. That level of insight is invaluable as we continue to refine our content strategy and design experiences that drive meaningful connections across our community.”

Meredith Rollins, Chief Community Officer, PCMA