[Deptheads] Special Events Box and Marketing Workflow

Wed Aug 14 02:28:09 PDT 2019

I went back through and rechecked the special box on all my special events, and they seem to now be staying that way. Excellent--thanks for fixing it. The last time we checked, the box wasn’t staying checked, but now I see the word “special” on the schedule. It wasn’t appearing on the info receipt after I submitted edits nor is it in the list.

I hope we can add Special back to the search function. Another important search function/source of info is for events featuring or run by special guests—that way people can easily find games and seminars featuring neat folks they come here to see.

I have a lot of website-related market suggestions, though I thought that Eric D. was in charge of that. I do think using the submissions for information regarding special events would be excellent. If the only holdup is pictures, we should consider getting rid of them or having a better workflow for them. My games most often do not have a picture or a graphic associated with them that I could send you. If that’s keeping my four special events off the front page, that would be disappointing. Using the rotating picture banner to inform folks about special events, tournaments, sponsored games, new games, and special guests might be useful, since it’s eye-catching and the most obvious thing people see when they come to the site. Those banners are pretty simple; what we can do is use a current in-action picture of stuff going on at con, have it steadily shade on one side, and use sans-serif bold white font over the shadow to give quick, punchy promotional information about an upcoming event, along with a link which takes them to the event on the schedule (to encourage them to start getting registered). The front page should also feature links to our various social media pages so people can get connected as quickly as possible.

The departments and their information should be easier to find; placing them in tabs below the main tabs might make them easier to find for attendees, and might give people a better sense of what we feature prominently at the convention. Party Games, Pathfinder, War Games, and Artemis all need sections. Kids-only gaming could also use a department-like section here. I need to add more info to my section, especially for GMs; moreover, if I could add some info to the top of the page that people see above the submission form, that would be swell.

That’s probably enough to be getting on with, as I don’t want to overwhelm you with stuff.

Best,

Tara

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Strategicon Department Heads
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2019 9:42 PM
To: deptheads at strategicon.net
Subject: Re: [Deptheads] Special Events Box and Marketing Workflow

This is very important. Is anyone else having a problem making events ‘special’?

1. I thought I fixed it. The special event check box works when I use it, and it remains checked when I edit the event again. And it is listed as Special on the schedule. So, I’m at a loss and a little concerned as to why it isn’t setting for you.

The word special is not appearing on the list on the Approved Events page. I will try to fix that.

2. I thought there was something I forgot. I took the “Special” and “Sponsored” search options off the page because they weren’t working and having something that doesn’t work is worse in my view, than not listing it.

I will work on 1 and 2 tomorrow, when I’m finally kid free in the mornings.

3. Oh, if it were only that simple, but I’m hoping it will get more like that. One thing you do have to realize, anything posted on the website (not including the twitter feed) is by me or Eric A. I’m more than happy to listen to and possibly even implement any website related marketing suggestions.

Eric D. has no access to the website files at this time. We tried offering easier access with WordPress, but it requires someone other than me to manage the Content Management System chosen and be able to handle the formatting of content too (i.e. CSS). I’d be more than happy to focus primarily on the back end code.

So, it’s Eric D. for marketing and me for website, which usually means tell us both. Also, the special events require an image to display on the home page, and I often don’t have the time, and in some cases can’t figure out the appropriate image to display, so it’s back to the department.

4. That is up to Eric A., but Special Events does get it’s own space (more or less) in the con book. I think it’s that we need more such events to get a dedicated page. I’m hoping separating the Tournament part from the Special part will help with this. Time will tell.

We keep working on it.

Tanya

On Aug 13, 2019, at 7:49 PM, Strategicon Department Heads <deptheads at strategicon.net> wrote:

Message From: Tara Leederman  taleederman at gmail.com
Hi guys!

I don’t know if you saw this, Tanya, so I am resending:

The box one can check to make something a special event is not remaining checked when I edit the events. It is also not a searchable field in the schedule, so people cannot pull up special events.

Some thoughts:

1. We need to fix the bug. 
2. Checking the box has to mean something. Special Events should be a searchable field/category of event so folks can look at them and see them as a tab. 
3. Anything checked as a special event should then be part of our marketing workflow. Those events should go from the website to Eric Downing immediately so they can go on the front page of the website and into the marketing emails, as well as other promotional materials. If they don’t go to him immediately, making them searchable means he could at least harvest the information from the site easily. 
4. Special events can then get a special page in the conbook that is easy for Eric A. to harvest from the website as well. 

I’d like to make the workflow for our marketing as easy as possible, so congoers can hear about the cool stuff we’re running and about what special guests are doing during the time when they are buying badges and signing up for games. This feature could make it easier for Eric Downing to get at that information as soon as it becomes available for promotional purposes.

Best,

Tara

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