The American University in Cairo Transforms their Council Meetings with Convene

The American University in Cairo (AUC) is a premier English language institution in higher education, chartered and accredited in the United States and Egypt. The AUC is committed to delivering high-quality education for scholars in a cross-cultural environment, allowing for both excellence and equity. The American University in Cairo has been using Convene since November 2018.

Rachel Awad, Senior Director of Academic Affairs Projects at The American University in Cairo, shares how Convene transforms their council meeting preparation to be simple and efficient.

The Search for One-Stop Meeting Solution

With the shift to remote meetings, the AUC had to adapt to the virtual format to conduct council meetings. Rachel mentioned that they were looking for a platform to help them collate documents conveniently while making them accessible across multiple devices. In their screening process, the shortlisted meeting solutions were Convene, Nasdaq, MeetingSense, and MeetingBooster.

Upon careful discussion of several offices, including the Office of the Provost, IT, and Procurement, the AUC chose Convene over the other solutions for its cost-efficiency. “The decision was based on a combination of functionality and cost. Moreover, Convene was extremely responsive to our request for information, demo, and quotation,” Rachel recounts.

Seamless Meeting Workflows

Previously conducting paper-based meetings, the AUC offices found the transition to Convene to be smooth and easy. Currently, the meeting solution has been used by two offices in the university — the Provost’s Office for bi-weekly Provost Council Meetings and the School of Business for monthly School Council Meetings.

With their experience, Rachel shares how Convene simplifies their meeting preparation. Convene allows the AUC to schedule meetings with just a few clicks, reducing unnecessary tasks and human error. “Once the meeting is published, all participants receive a calendar invite with the agenda attached.”

Additionally, Convene has been extremely helpful during live meetings. Rachel noted that the administrators found the Minute-Taking feature to be useful. It allows them to record live minutes side-by-side with the meeting while automatically syncing action items, notes, and vote items. The council members of the AUC are also pleased with Convene’s Inmeeting Voting as it allows them to discuss and vote during meetings while providing a real-time view of the results and a tally of those members who have already voted.

All-In-One Document Management

As one of the requirements of the AUC in a meeting solution, Convene satisfies the need for smart document management by allowing users to store and access files in a single repository. Rachel said that they no longer have to go through different drives and folders to collate multiple document versions. Using the platform, council members can also collaborate easily on the documents by applying real-time annotations using any device for more efficient communication. Furthermore, with Convene’s Document Library, administrators can set control permissions to allow only authorized users to access the documents — upholding security at all times.

When asked if they will recommend Convene to other higher education institutions and councils, Rachel said that they have all praises for Convene, from the platform itself to the prompt team. “We found Convene to be intuitive, easy to use, and easily configured to suit our needs.”

Experience more efficient council and committee meetings with a one-stop solution. Get your free trial of Convene today!