Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Day After

As you know -- you melted down the online registration system.

Good job. I have never been SO PROUD...of you -- BECAUSE -- YES -- THOUSANDS OF WOMEN ATTEND THIS SHOW...

AND of the Expo team...they kept at it --with the web company -- and they brought it back, made changes and improvements ALL DAY LONG.

The truth is -- most of you did manage to get in (eventually) -- and register for the classes you wanted. As far as I know -- nothing sold out on the first day. So that's pretty much all good news, right??

In the meantime -- you have been asking some very good questions...and I'm trying to ask the right people and get timely answers....

The Sewing & Stitchery FACEBOOK page has been awesome. Ya'll have been posting your own registration experience -- and helping each other through the process...and that's where Janet and I will post new information, updates, tips, etc.

So -- the official report is that "online registration went great."

Just between you and me -- there were some issues. lol...

LIKE YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW THAT...!!

10 comments:

  1. Sounds like you have a really reliable web team. That's worked out really well for everyone. Thank you again.

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  2. I did register yesterday, but not online. I had my chosen classes all lined up, came straight home from my Tai Chi class so I would be at my computer right around 10AM. I was pleasantly surprised when I got right in and used the class numbers in the "search" box to find my classes. Then when I was done with my list, I went to pay and that's where I found what I consider a BIG problem. I always look for the padlock and/or the letter "s" --for secure-- in the title bar, but they were both absent. To my mind, that meant the site was not a secure place for credit card transactions. Rather than scrap my registration right there, I called the Registration Help phone number and got a message that they could not take my call and to call back later. So I called the next phone number and got a person who said the site was, indeed, secure. I would like to have taken her at her word, but in this day and age,it is not a good move unless there is absolute proof. And I have read numerous security articles that say if you don't see the padlock or the "s"----do not proceed with furnishing credit card info. The lady suggested I fax the order in instead. Which I did and I even received a phonecall from the Expo office saying that they had received my fax'd order. Soooooooo........hopefully next year, the security question will be fully addressed and we can even print out our tickets at home instead of waiting for snail mail to deliver them. I am looking forward to a great show!

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  3. If I remember correctly the secure part ("s") turned up at the stage when my credit card was processed.

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  4. About the security of the online registration. this is the email I received this morning:

    It is secure, but they are coding it now to show up on an https site, which will help our users feel more secure!

    KN

    Kelly Newell
    Director, Conference Management
    Washington State University

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  5. I have been resisting the Facebook craze for some time now but you folks might be the ones to finally drag me into the 21st century :)
    I will talk to my resident social networking consultant and see about it. Huge hugs to the IT Team and your Web Company.

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  6. I'm totally WITH YOU, Myshalla. Facebook was a disappointing time suck for me. BUT with this online registration -- it's been GREAT for the ladies to post their "tips" and help each other, encouraging all the way. If we never use it again -- Facebook ROCKS.

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  7. I am not a facebook user. I was *shocked* when I followed Rita's link to the page. :P I am not planning to open a facebook account either. What I wanted to share was, when you have an open account/page like this for facebook, only those users who have open accounts of their own, will have their comments visible to people like me. In other words, if a comment is made from another facebook user, and their personal account is secure/not open, then I will not be able to read what they are sharing. Make sense? Rita will have to pull out all the important details being shared in the comments section and highlight them for those of us who do not have facebook accounts to read.

    Also, there are many places of business that will not allow social networking places to be accessed from their server.

    Just some thoughts.....

    Carol

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  8. Why were you shocked, Carol? We had over 1700 hits on some of the Facebook comment threads as the first day of online registration played out. but most of it is moot now...

    I cover the important details here in the blog. Happily -- things have SETTLED DOWN bigtime...but Facebook was a godsend yesterday!

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  9. Rita, I was shocked because I didn't know the page existed! :) There are many members and pictures up that I was shocked....in a felt dumb kind of way. :P Kind of like a party going on and some how you forgot to your check your mail to find your invitation. I vaguely remember you stating on your blog or on this one about setting up facebook, but because I don't use it, I just ignored it. So often I can't see all the information that's on the facebook pages anyway because I do not have an account. It was fun to view the pictures you have up there. :)

    I just did a quick search on the facebook page and all of yesterday's comments are visible. However, not all the 'fans' are open, so if they comment, their comments will not be seen by people like me who don't have accounts. :)

    Carol
    ps Sorry if my 'shocked' sounded rude, it was not meant to be, I felt, well, rather stupid! :)

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  10. hey, Carol -- BIG L.O.L. comin' at ya! At first, when you were "shocked" -- I was worried that you found some hidden porn on our Facebook page. don't worry about "joining"...after the show, I intend to blow up my Facebook connection...

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