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See how Wheel Rail Interaction's modern architecture website helped increase site traffic 12%, conversions 22.5% and conference attendance by a whopping 30%!
Fast.
Track.
See how Wheel Rail Interaction's modern architecture website helped increase site traffic 12%, conversions 22.5% and conference attendance by a whopping 30%!
Wheel Rail Seminars needed a complete website overhaul for their flagship WRI 2024 Conference. The existing site was slow, difficult to navigate, and the registration process was convoluted. With three distinct seminars (Rail Transit, Principles Course, and Heavy Haul) and complex package pricing, attendees struggled to find the right option.
The WRI Conference brings together rail industry professionals worldwide
The team also needed a way to manage 100+ speaker bios and abstracts without developer involvement, plus a registration system that could handle their unique package structures. Additionally, with the conference splitting into two separate events in 2025 (WRI 2025 Heavy Haul and WRI 2025 Rail Transit), the team needed a way to clone the codebase to create future event websites. Moving to modern architecture with multiple repos hosted on GitHub was essential to streamline the creation of annual websites.
Featured speaker Corina Christodoulou presents at the WRI Conference
Built with Next.js and deployed to Netlify's global CDN for sub-second page loads worldwide. Static generation ensured perfect Google Lighthouse scores and eliminated server costs during traffic spikes.
Seamlessly embedded Cvent's powerful event management platform, enabling attendees to easily select from complex package combinations. Dynamic forms adjusted based on selections, creating a streamlined registration experience.
Empowered the WRS team to update speaker bios, abstracts, and session details through an intuitive visual editor—no developer required. Real-time preview ensured accuracy before publishing.
Modern design with Chicago skyline to enhance the branding WRI had developed over 29 years
Excellent Google Lighthouse scores after the redesign
The Wheel Rail Interaction (WRI) Conference website redesign was a huge success. We met our key goals and objectives for the WRI 2024 conference, and the technology is already working to support WRS's longer-term objectives for an event archive and serving as a codebase for future events. After the conference, I received positive feedback about how well the website looks and performs, and we saw above that the website performs technically well with high Google Lighthouse scores and increased traffic compared to the previous year.
| Seminar | 2023 | 2024 | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rail Transit | 161 | 202 | +25% |
| Principles Course | 198 | 252 | +27% |
| Heavy Haul | 163 | 227 | +39% |
| TOTAL | 522 | 681 | +30% |
There you have it. The newly redesigned WRI website helped to increase attendance to the event by 30%! We're extremely pleased with this result and look forward to growing attendance even more with future additions and improvements to the site. If you want to see the detailed case study of the project for a deep dive into the project, visit the complete case study.
"The work Steve and the WRS team accomplished in designing and building our new WRI 2024 website was instrumental in making this year's conference a success. We broke multiple attendance records, setting the stage for success as we split the conference into two events starting in 2025."
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