Coordinating An Event
Recently I've been involved in helping with coordinating an event. Actually I am not involved with the coordination but since I am the techy in the circle, you guessed it, I am tasked with anything and everything related to technology. This could be something as simple as creating a word document. Yes a word document can be considered a technology task to some at least in my circle.
I have found that helping out with these types of tasks usually brings up all kinds of ideas to mind. I always start out very excited because I start thinking that I will create this thing to fill this need. Unfortunately a brief search I discovered that what I need is already available. These ideas pop-up because real people trying to do real things tend to trigger real ideas.
In this effort I realized that one of the critical things necessary for coordinating the event was to create some sort of web presence. At first I decided to create the website as google website. It was cheap and easy, so why not. Later a relative showed me the website she used for her reunion. She used the service found at http://www.reunions.myevent.com/. Their service allows you create the full service. They provide a way for you manage content such as adding your yearbook, create a communication forum and even collect payments.
Since I did not use that website I later realized that a plain old website with a pay pal button was not enough for selling the tickets. OK so now they've payed for their tickets, but what if you want to scan them at the door? This meant that I would have to come up with a way of creating and delivering tickets after the fact. I found that several methods exist for selling tickets to your event. Among them are services that can be found at sites like http://www.tix.com/. With tix.com you can setup your event and leverage many of the options for selling tickets which include selling via the diffferent venues to include online, email, at the door or even by phone. Tix.com is probably the most complete solution if you are professionally promoting events.
Some looking later and reminder of many of the recent events here in Austin like the Los Techies Fiesta, led me to eventbrite.com. EventBrite.com is also a nice venue for selling tickets online. The setup is extremely easy and convenient. Eventbrite has a feature that allows you to easily integrate with PayPal. EventBrite.com does not provide as complete a solution as tix.com or http://www.reunions.myevent.com/ but it was useful for my purposes in the end.
I guess the prices in most cases are quite reasonable
$1.50 per ticket for from http://www.tix.com/
$1.49 per ticket through http://www.eventbrite.com/
I did not bother to setup and account with http://www.reunions.myevent.com/ since it requires a montly charge. Therefore, I don't know the pricing model for that website.
So there you are, several tools at your disposal for setting up your event. So next time a close relative asks you to add some web presence to their event or any other task make sure that you look for available resources before you decide to open visual studio and waist time on something that can be accomplished much easier and faster.
I have found that helping out with these types of tasks usually brings up all kinds of ideas to mind. I always start out very excited because I start thinking that I will create this thing to fill this need. Unfortunately a brief search I discovered that what I need is already available. These ideas pop-up because real people trying to do real things tend to trigger real ideas.
In this effort I realized that one of the critical things necessary for coordinating the event was to create some sort of web presence. At first I decided to create the website as google website. It was cheap and easy, so why not. Later a relative showed me the website she used for her reunion. She used the service found at http://www.reunions.myevent.com/. Their service allows you create the full service. They provide a way for you manage content such as adding your yearbook, create a communication forum and even collect payments.
Since I did not use that website I later realized that a plain old website with a pay pal button was not enough for selling the tickets. OK so now they've payed for their tickets, but what if you want to scan them at the door? This meant that I would have to come up with a way of creating and delivering tickets after the fact. I found that several methods exist for selling tickets to your event. Among them are services that can be found at sites like http://www.tix.com/. With tix.com you can setup your event and leverage many of the options for selling tickets which include selling via the diffferent venues to include online, email, at the door or even by phone. Tix.com is probably the most complete solution if you are professionally promoting events.
Some looking later and reminder of many of the recent events here in Austin like the Los Techies Fiesta, led me to eventbrite.com. EventBrite.com is also a nice venue for selling tickets online. The setup is extremely easy and convenient. Eventbrite has a feature that allows you to easily integrate with PayPal. EventBrite.com does not provide as complete a solution as tix.com or http://www.reunions.myevent.com/ but it was useful for my purposes in the end.
I guess the prices in most cases are quite reasonable
$1.50 per ticket for from http://www.tix.com/
$1.49 per ticket through http://www.eventbrite.com/
I did not bother to setup and account with http://www.reunions.myevent.com/ since it requires a montly charge. Therefore, I don't know the pricing model for that website.
So there you are, several tools at your disposal for setting up your event. So next time a close relative asks you to add some web presence to their event or any other task make sure that you look for available resources before you decide to open visual studio and waist time on something that can be accomplished much easier and faster.
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