A happy day for animals and people

Every year in April, more than 100,000 guests flock to Økodag to see happy cows coming out to pasture after a long winter. 35-40 organic farms around the country host the day, and it obviously requires overview and planning to suddenly have several thousand guests on a farm. To ensure a good experience for organisers, farmers and guests, Økodag has developed a new booking system to handle bookings and communication.

Automation makes work easier

"I've been working with Økodag for five years and had long wished for more automated processes," says Malene Jensen, senior marketing manager and project manager for Økodag, which is part of the Danish Dairy Board.

The wish came true when the Danish Dairy Board joined forces with the Danish Agriculture & Food Council to invest in a new booking platform. Every year, the Danish Agriculture & Food Council organises the Åbent Landbrug event, which - just like Økodag - invites you to visit farms. Therefore, it was obvious to create a platform that could handle both events.

With the new booking system, we have automated many workflows, making it easier to manage and communicate the day’s operations. At the same time, both guests and farmers benefit from a better experience.

Malene Jensen, Senior Marketing Manager and Project Manager, Økodag/Danish Dairy Board

Easier communication and planning

The automation at Økodag means, among other things, that the system closes for bookings when a farm is fully booked. Similarly, if guests cancel their bookings and there is room on a farm again, registrations are automatically reopened. The event as a whole is automatically unpublished when the registration deadline has passed - just as it is automatically published when Økodag opens for registrations a month before the event. In addition, Økodag has automated and simplified central communication flows. Malene Jensen elaborates:

"When guests book a place to visit a specific farm, they enter the number of children and adults and immediately receive a confirmation email. Before Økodag starts, they receive two more emails with reminders and practical information. They can edit their registration themselves if they want to cancel or change the number of guests, for example, and the whole system is automatically updated."

"It means a lot to the farms and dairies we work with because they plan everything from the number of helpers and toilet carriages to the amount of cheese snacks and bread rolls, depending on how many children and adults are coming. And for us as the main organiser, there are fewer things we have to keep track of and communicate because the updates are automatic."

Intuitive solution for everyone

"For example, we're really pleased that farmers can check the status of their farm themselves throughout the enrolment period. Each farm gets a unique link they can use to check the status of their own farm. They don't have to remember a login or password, which makes it very easy for them to keep track. Several of them have told us that the new system looks really good and is easy to use."

"Overall, the system is intuitive and easy to work in," Malene Jensen continues, explaining that the website, ticket system, map function, farm status and all other functionality are gathered in the same Umbraco CMS solution. A lot of thought has been put into making the work easy for the editors, and they only spent eight hours putting all the content into the CMS. What's more, they can easily change and edit along the way whenever they need to.

Focus on user-friendliness

Of course, the booking system is not only designed to make it easier for editors and farmers, but also for the many guests.

When you want to book a place on a farm, you can easily see on a map which farms are nearby and whether there are places available. It's very clear to users how to choose a farm and book a visit. For each farm, you can see a short description of what's happening at the farm on Økodag, so you can choose the visit that suits you best.

Great collaboration on development and launch

Økodag's new booking system is customised and therefore based on their specific needs, work processes and communication flows. According to Malene Jensen, the system development process has been great:

"Illumi was very responsive to our input and made good suggestions themselves. They were with us all the way, and we could tell that it was important to them that we reached our goals. Of course, we tested a lot before going live, but we were still pleasantly surprised that there were no other issues. It was really only small things that needed to be adjusted, and if a user approached us with a small start-up challenge, Illumi’s support resolved them quickly."

Reusing content makes work easier

Going forward, the Danish Dairy Board will also benefit from being able to easily reuse content from year to year. Much of the information about individual farms is the same every year, so once it has been published once, editors can make minor corrections.

"A lot of our work has become easier and it has been easy to get to know the system. This year we have chosen to utilise only some of the functionality Illumi has developed, but next year we will probably use it all," concludes Malene Jensen.