Challenge
Get2KnowNoke is the Roanoke Regional Partnership’s talent program, and its Talent Ambassadors are local residents who represent the region and host events for people getting to know it.
The program ran on a JotForm. Applications arrived as form submissions, ambassador bios were retyped onto the website by hand, and events were added one at a time. A staff change was coming just before the next application window opened on October 1.
Approach
The site’s design belongs to another agency, so the first rule was not to touch it. Everything was built as a plugin, which made going live a matter of switching it on rather than redeploying the site.
The new application form was designed from the program’s real history: 56 past submissions. Two questions that had never been answered once were left out, and every field that remained earned its place.
Delivery
Applicants create an account, save a draft, and come back to finish. Staff review each application on a dedicated screen, correct details before approving, and can approve or decline straight from the notification email. One click turns an approved applicant into a published ambassador with a profile they keep up themselves.
Ambassadors submit their own events, which staff publish without opening the WordPress editor. A private planning board lets them see each other’s ideas before anything goes public and offer to help, alongside a contact directory for the current cohort.
Testing caught a problem that would have sunk the launch: the server’s 2MB upload limit meant a phone video would crash the whole application, so applicants now share a link instead. The public ambassador and events pages are built to fill themselves from the active cohort, in the site’s own design, and switch over with the January 2027 cohort.
Outcome
All four phases shipped before applications opened to the public on October 1, 2026, as promised in writing, and the first real application arrived the day before.
Applications now land in one place with everything staff need to review them, and approving, publishing, and updating ambassadors no longer means retyping anything.
We’re excited to have this tool in place that will make the ambassador experience even better and save Michelle TONS of time in management.