Festival Websites… Keep Them Simple But Factual…

When Judi and I choose the events we want to visit it’s normally as a result of the events website. I believe a lot of potential event visitors do the same thing. It is an easy and fast way to see what an event is all about and when it is going to take place. So, it amazes me when a festival either doesn’t have a website or has one that is so vague that it is useless as an information tool. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, being too cute or over exaggerating, can be just as bad. The old KISS principle – “Keep it simple, stupid” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle ) should be applied here. Having a simple but factual festival website, in my opinion, is best! The following is my list of “What festival websites should include”:
€ Accurate description of your event
€ Event dates
€ Event times
€ Event location
€ Event costs (all of them)
€ Parking information, including costs if any
€ Directions to the event including a map for out of town visitors
€ Disabled information
€ Event program and guide, including activities, activity locations and activity times (A site map is always helpful)
€ Contact list, who and how (I always like to see a way of e-mail contacting)
€ Sponsors list

You or your web designer may have other ideas, and that’s okay, but these basics should always be included.

Other good things to include, but not as important as the above are:
€ Event history
€ Volunteer acknowledgement
€ Special links (local restaurants, hotels, attractions and businesses)

Also, make your site printer friendly. I like to print out festival information and take it with me. I get more out of the festival that way.And finally, one final thought for festival/event organizers. The website is your voice. Make sure that your web designer understands this and adheres to your instructions!

When Disaster Strikes…

Last weekend we had the opportunity to attend a major concert in Toronto. We had been anticipating the event all year long. My friend had gone on line the minute the tickets went on sale. As a result we were able to purchase very good seats. When we left Cobourg the weather was clear. The weatherman was forecasting a major snow storm, but we thought that the storm wouldn’t arrive until after we had returned home. Boy, were we wrong! As soon as we reached Toronto disaster struck! Snow had already started to fall and Toronto was at a near standstill. We fought our way through the slow traffic and slippery streets. The traveling through Toronto was bad enough, but when we finally arrived at the Rogers Centre and started to look for a parking spot, all hell broke loose! Everyone was looking for a spot to park! We drove around the Centre and finally found an open parking garage. We followed others into the building. It was one of those parking garages that go round and round. It was suppose to allow two way traffic, but everyone was driving in the middle. I should have realized there was a problem because the line of cars was moving so slowly. We finally got to the bottom of the garage only to find out that it was full! It was a dead-end! There was no place to go! To make matters worse, inconsiderate drivers parked in no parking zones making it almost impossible to turn around. Frankly I thought we were going to be stuck there for hours. Somehow we got turned around and started the long trek back up to the entrance. When we finally reached the entrance we were amazed to see drivers entering the parking garage. Who knows what happened to them! We were just glad to be back out into the fresh air. It was beyond belief that there were no parking attendances monitoring this garage! It was now about 8:10 pm, the concert had started at 8:00. Our friend is disabled and needed to be close to the Centre. I stopped the car just across from one of the Centre’s main doors and let our friend and Judi out of the car. They would make their way to our seats while my daughter and I would look for a parking spot. After driving around, we found another parking garage some distance away. It was part of one of the downtown hotels. We parked the car and then hailed a taxi to take us to the Centre. We finally arrived at the concert 45 minutes later. We took our seats and started to enjoy the concert. It was spectacular, well worth the year’s anticipation! Once the concert was over, disaster struck again, this time in the form of utter confusion on the part of Rogers staff. They were totally unprepared for the number of seniors and disabled persons who needed assistance. There was not enough staff on hand. There weren’t enough wheelchairs available. Seniors and the disabled stood waiting for help. The clean up staff was on the floor before all had left and grabbing chairs that should have been available for those who needed to sit. Some of the Rogers staff tried to help by bring chairs, but it was a losing battle. I don’t blame the staff; they were just overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. We waited by one of the doors waiting for help. When we were acknowledged, we were told we had to wait for our turn, that there a lot more people in front of us. Finally, after an hour’s wait, we made our way to the set of elevators that were being used to transport seniors and the disabled. There was a long line up for the elevators. The problem was, one of the elevators was not working! According to one the staff members it had broken down that morning and hadn’t been fixed. The one elevator was being used not only to transport seniors and disabled, if was bring people from all levels down to the underground parking area. It seemed to take forever between stops, even though there was a Rogers Centre employee operating the elevator. Once upstairs, the disaster continued! We were directed to the gate were there would be lots of taxis waiting. When we got there, there were none, only limousines and buses. When a taxi finally did arrive it turned us down because we weren’t going far enough!
I know that the Rogers Centre can’t control the weather. I know they can’t really control the taxis. However, this was a major event that had been in the works for well over a year. Experience with this type of event would have told them that there would be a lot of seniors in attendance and that they would need assistance. They must have known that there would be a lot of vehicles wanting to find parking spaces. So here are my concerns and questions. Why didn’t the Rogers Centre management prepare a better plan? Why didn’t they hire more (if they hired any at all) Metro Police to control traffic? Why didn’t they work with surrounding parking garages to ensure that there would be garage staff on hand? And finally, why didn’t they have enough service staff, wheelchairs and elevators available to help those who needed help? Surely they made enough money on this event to spend a few dollars more for proper staffing. Surely they could have hired an elevator repair person to be on hand in case of an emergency. And surely, they could have had a better plan in place to handle this size and type of crowd. If the Rogers Centre is going to hold this type of event and charge as much as $125.00 per ticket, they must become better organized! What if an emergency had occurred? What was their contingency plan for seniors and the disabled? Would they have reacted diffenently? If they would have, why couldn't they control a normal situation? Shame on you Rogers Centre management for dropping the ball so badly. You made yourselves and Toronto look like a bunch of amateurs. This article is dedicated to those who had to endure this disaster.

Over Zealous Websites

Sometimes web designers and festival organizers create websites that overstate what is actually being offered. All festival and event organizers want people to come to their event. Your website, of course, needs to be interesting and exciting enough to attract people to first read it and then to motivate them to come to your event. I believe, however, that overstating what you are offering will ultimately become a negative. Here’s an example of what I mean. One particular weekend we were looking for a festival to visit, so I went onto the Internet to do some research. I looked at a number of sites and finally found one that looked interesting. It sounded like a great festival with lots of really interesting activities scheduled. The website was very detailed as to what was being offered. We decided to go to it. The problem was that when we got there the reality didn’t match what was advertised on the website. You might say, “What does that matter, it got you to come to the festival”. That may be true, but don’t you want your visitors to come back year after year? Don’t you want them to tell their friends and family about how great your festival was and that they should attend? It’s not that we wouldn’t have visited this festival, we likely would have, but the sour taste that was left from our disappointment meant that we wouldn’t recommend the festival to our friends and we certainly wouldn’t go back to it. If we felt like this, wouldn’t others? Yes, as I said before, it is very important to an interesting attention grabbing website, but it must be factual and not overstated. You definitely want to draw people to your event, but not under false pretenses. If you have special plans for your festival, great and by all means state them on your website. But, and this is a big but, make sure your special plans happen! If you find, as you get closer to your event that you can’t meet your plans, revise your website the match what is actually going to happen. Remember the old sales adages, “It’s easier to keep a satisfied customer than it is to find a new one” and, “Every dissatisfied customer will tell at least 10 of their friends”. Be wise, deliver what you promise!

Troubled Websites...

A few weeks ago I was thinking about an event I wanted to visit. I decided to go to their website to get more information. The opening page was fine and I was able to get to the menu page easily. From there on in it was an ordeal! The menu page needed to be activated to use the controls just to get into the sub-pages. The menu icons moved. So, even with the controls activated, you had to time your cursor perfectly to catch the selected icon just right before the page would open. If you happened to miss (which I did frequently) you had to start all over again. Once a sub-page was open, it had some kind gimmick to get to the information and, to make matters worse, they were all different. One of the pages had floating bubble that had to be captured with the cursor before the information could be accessed. The bubbles moved quickly so they were difficult to get to and click on. I am sure the web designers had a lot of fun designing this site. It was an expensive site and I am sure it had all the latest bells and whistles, but from my point of view it was just down right frustrating and annoying. I spoke to a computer savvy friend of mine about it and he suggested that the site had been design for kids because it seems to have incorporated some of the challenges that can now be found computer games. That may be well and good and perhaps the kids who visited the site loved it, but it’s not the kids who drive to these events and it’s not the kids who make the make the final decision on where to go and what to see. It’s the parents, and they don’t usually play these computer games. Yes, to be sure, some of them do, but the majority doesn’t. Most parents just want to get the information they need easily, with a minimum of hassles, so that they can make an informed decision. Interesting websites are important because you want to catch the readers’ attention. Being too cute is definitely a negative! My suggestion to festival organizers is to make your website interesting but simple and user (adult) friendly. And, as an added thought, make sure your site has a way for readers to contact you. There is nothing more frustrating then to have a question or comment about a festivals or an event an not be able to reach someone. Include a contact page that has telephone numbers and e-mail address. The whole idea for having a website is to inform those who want to attend your festival or event. If you make it difficult they just won’t bother.