Event advertising

[SeanC]

Clive - don't mean to sound nitpicking but I think you are reading too much into Caroline's email. I think she just found/was sent details of a promotion and sent it round the clubs, including the promotion instructions.

Not sure if anyone's ever invisaged the BOF fixture list being a replacement for club website details.

Scanning down a few events I see quite a lot of fields filled in most of the time, some some of the time and some clearly not much use (including "The Matrix"). There's lots of ways round the problems described in a version 2. Blank fields could default to blank, or "see club website" or just not be displayed for example.

Overall I think this fixture list is a good thing. Depends where you are, but there could be many different clubs within a newcomer or experienced orienteers travel area (at least down my way, maybe not in ECKOland). The BOF website and fixture list can be optimised to appear in google searches in a way club websites are unlikely to. It helps those of us who travel a bit to find local events (I've been searching the list for best weekends to visit relatives for example) and it gives the impression of a thriving and active sport (funny how many newcomers can't believe we actually compete, have championships etc ).

Just needs version 2, I think someone said that major development was waiting for the competition review (sorry cant remember exact title).

[Clive Coles]

I am sure you are right Sean.

Do you, or does anyone have any idea what, or if , we are getting a new release of the fixtures software ?

Having been involved ( in a small but vocal way !) with the early consultations and development of the new Fixtures system it is frustrating to find I am now out of the loop as to what is coming next.

I didn't get many of the things I was asking for ~ I have a list of changes and additions I believe would make the system easier to maintain.

But I also believe, for all the imperfections, the new Fixture systems is a valuable asset. No going back to the ER1 days.

Clubs now have the tools to set up and maintain event data themselves. But.... as they say:

" you can lead a Horse to water but you cannot force it to drink".

Data quality and maintenance is the achilles heal. I am disappointed how slowly we have progressed during the last 12 months when clubs were first given the update facilities. I have just had a look at the SEAO Fixture list for the next 2 months. Try following the link below

http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/fixtures_report.php?bAdvanced=&evt_assoc=7&perpage=200&bSearch=Search



You should be able to apply regional filters to look at other regional lists. It's not good publicity.

There is a lot we could do to make our Fixture lists informative. This is our shop window for members of the public who are looking for activities to try on a Sunday morning.

Yes ~ a version 2 of the software is overdue. As IanD said in an earlier thread Mike Hamilton seems to be reviewing matters now. So.... clubs do need to let BOF know what they want.

[madmike]

" you can lead a Horse to water but you cannot force it to drink".

Clive,
would amend your metaphor to read:

"you can lead a horse to water but it's difficult to drown the beggar once you've got him there!"

[DM]

Wouldn't something like this be nice, with suitable changes to fit our types of races and regions?

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/defaultevents.asp?sp=&v=2

Entry of events into the system by organisers is also easy.

The wheel is still round so why reinvent it?

[graeme]

So, I used that site to check for events in central Scotland in February...

"Sorry, no events found that match your criteria. Try redefining your search."

Which is odd, since I'm sure the National XC and Carnethy (biggest hill race in Scotland)
are coming up.

[DM]

So, I used that site to check for events in central Scotland in February...

"Sorry, no events found that match your criteria. Try redefining your search."

Which is odd, since I'm sure the National XC and Carnethy (biggest hill race in Scotland)
are coming up.

Not odd if nobody has bothered to enter the details and publicise their race. Maybe for National XC they feel they don't need to.

[Arnold]

Definitely agree the JK could be better marketed - maybe as simple as adding a map sample or old map.

On the flipside though sometimes O marketing tends to promise a bit more than it can deliver. Typically you need to interpret the marketing speak and take it with a large pinch of salt. Here are some examples

"Mixed woodland with a good path network" = Pretty boring forest but OK if you want an easy Sunday outing

"Area not used for orienteering before" = Chances are it's pretty horrible but we couldn't face holding an event on the same old area for the 20th year in a row

"Some recent forestry operations" = Off path areas likely disgusting.

"Areas of intricate contour detail" = One very small area thereof.

"Area of historical importance having once belonged to the Earl of blabla" = We're trying hard to avoid talking about the actual orienteering bit

So credit to GO who for their regional event next week have adopted the "might as well be honest" approach, saying something like "the whole map was covered in brashing screen but we've now taken it off so you can actually see what's underneath". At least people should be positively surprised when there's runnable bits, rather than annoyed when there aren't many

[ba-ba]

remember seeing a map extract in the adverts for the instanbul5 which was completely covered in vertical green hashing - not the greatest advert!

[seabird]

I find setting an event up on the BOF Fixtures list is quite a pfaff. Many of the details in a series of events are the same from one event to the next. Usually only the date, venue, officials and parking change. But every detail has to be entered anew for each event.

It would be very helpful if we could copy across from one similar event to another. If that facility exists and I have missed it - please let me know. Setting up 40+ events per year; the less work the better.

[SeanC]

If an event could belong to a competition/brand, then the competition could hold the data that doesn't change in the competition description, and this could be used to populate the fields for each event.

eg: competition = Kent Orienteering League

Competition fields (stuff that is the same for each event)

competition description = "easy going events for newcomers and local orienteers"
times = 11-12.30
event type = cross country
courses = yellow/light green/blue
website="http://kol.saxons-oc.org/" (league homepage that has all the league standings and more marketing stuff)
punch type = SI
hire fee = £1

(for AIRE you would have the fees in the competition description I assume, but DFOK and SAXONS have slightly different fees)

When you add a new event, you first (optionally) select the competition it belongs to, then any fields that are inherited from the competition get populated, leaving you to fill in the things that change for each event such as location etc.

This has the advantage of helping us to define clear descriptions for our competitions/brands (so we don't have to worry about levels) and would save Seabird some time.

[NeilC]

That's what I do when registering our weekly club-night activities. Just append a new session onto an exisiting series - all the costs, directions etc stay the same just need to add new date, coach and time/activity. Individual entries within the series can still be found on the website activity search page.

[SeanC]

Is that on the Southdowns website or the BOF fixtures list?

[NeilC]

BOF page
http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/event/findactivity.php

I think that club fixtures secretaries have access to the activities entering page

[SeanC]

That's good, then it shouldn't be so difficult to move the series concept into the main fixture list, and display the series/competition/brand data to help us understand what a KNC/Olite/Frolic etc is.

[Clive Coles]

Lot's of good ideas I agree with the need to streamline the input of a series of events. The comment

then it shouldn't be so difficult to move the series concept into the main fixture list,

may be more difficult to achieve given the way the two facilities have evolved. But... it's well worth asking BOF for these ideas to be considered.

One of the suggestions I had rejected was there should be one facility, the diary, where both events and activities were listed together.

People would then get used to looking in one place to see what is being staged in their area. I gathered this suggestion would be costly for "technical reasons" !