Online Events Diary

[mrbelfry]

Hi Gang

I've just finally got around to beginning work on my super duper online church events calendar/organiser thing that I've been meaning to start for 100 years. I'm hoping to develop the application to a level of maturity where it will be a useful tool for other churches also. It is a long way from complete but I figure now is a good time to ask some questions. Here goes...

What information would you like to be displayed with every event?
So far I have:

Event Title
Event Description
Date the event starts and ends
Time it starts and ends
Time needed to set up and clear up (so that more time can be blocked off and not just the event time...we have people running events at 6.00pm who come in at 11am to set up...so all that time needs blocking out)
Location
Registration details if required
Pricing information
Who to contact
Is child care available


That's all I can think off. Anything obvious I've missed....we kind of do things on an ad hoc basis here so I'm hoping someone with a more organised brain can point out anything I missed. More questions will follow

Thanks (especially to Carol who will probably answer first!)

mrbelfry

[chrisb_ebc]

Sorry Carol,
Something I can think of is subscribe to a Event Category and/or the option to sign up for a specific event. That those in charge would receive it. Just a thought.

-Chris

[flutem3]

Hi,

This is Carol. :D Mr. Belfry, the one thing that I can think of regarding your list is whether food is involved. People seem to be confused by it at times, don't know whether they should or shouldn't bring something, bring silverware, etc. When we have that kind of activity, the church office gets zillions of calls despite the information's having been in the bulletin, newsletters, and website. I have decided that some people never read!!

I cannot remember from the page I read to right this minute whether you mentioned the availability of child care. If you didn't, it needs to be mentioned, If you did, disregard the above. :-)

Carol

[JackWolfgang]

I would make the setup/tear-down time private. The Administrator can see it, people can see it as they sign up for space, but not visible to the public.

Another non-public field/information set you might want is what kind of technical assistance (e.g. sound tech, lighting tech, computer tech, etc.) is required for the event.

[mrbelfry]

Hi peeps

Thanks for the replies so far. I was already planning on doing subscriptions and email reminders on the events.

Jack anticipated my second question. I was planning on doing a little organiser thing that is viewable to the public with suggestions of what things to do and when you should do. i.e. Contact church office for flyers. or contact video team for advert etc. Here are my thoughts on this:

Techs required? (as per Jacks reply)
Transport needed? (we have some minibuses that are available)
Contact church office for posters/flyers
Contact video team for advert

err. and that's it - I'm sure I've got a more comprehensive list at work. i really appreciate our time on this. I'd love this to be a tool that is useful to the wider church communituy so I am relying on our experiences to help me make it as useful as possible

Thankk, mrbelfry

[StubbyD]

I'm presumming this is meant to be a publically viewable web based calendar, yes?

If so, it may be worth thinking of doing a private 'in-house' one just for staff. I know it is something my church would utilise and if you could then export an event(s) direct to the public one then even better.

[mrbelfry]

I'm presumming this is meant to be a publically viewable web based calendar, yes?

Yep. What I was thinking actually is that calendars can be private or public. A private calendar would require a login to view but a public calendar would be viewable to anyone using some url scheme like www.blah.com/calendars/mychurchcalendar or something (like flickr). Within the calendars (public and private) some events will be invite only so they would only appear if you were invited to it by the event owner. lol I hope this makes sense.

I also would like eventually to have some kind of api where people can access the data and display it on their own church sites etc. I'm very much over reaching myself so it's a challenge pulling all this together.

I need a little help though from the design xperts. Please can you check out www.mrbelfry.co.uk/test/ and tell me what you think of this incomplete mock up - i'm particularly interested in the colours that i've designated to differentiate the different events. I think they look rubbish so if someone could suggest some colours i'd be eternally grateful

Thanks

[JackWolfgang]

[QUOTE=StubbyD;3289]I need a little help though from the design xperts. Please can you check out www.mrbelfry.co.uk/test/ and tell me what you think of this incomplete mock up - i'm particularly interested in the colours that i've designated to differentiate the different events. I think they look rubbish so if someone could suggest some colours i'd be eternally grateful

How about some vertical gridlines separating the days?

[Faithhb_lutheran]

The colors look a little jarring, but I can't think of anyway to fix that other than pick a single color, like blue and use all shades of that color. How are you doing the color coding. I think that if people can find the events they are looking for by the color, they won't care that much which color it is.

[StubbyD]

Colours look fine to me, but then I'd expect these to be customisable yes?

[flutem3]

I'm presumming this is meant to be a publically viewable web based calendar, yes?

I also would like eventually to have some kind of api where people can access the data and display it on their own church sites etc. I'm very much over reaching myself so it's a challenge pulling all this together.

I need a little help though from the design xperts. Please can you check out www.mrbelfry.co.uk/test/ (http://www.mrbelfry.co.uk/test/) and tell me what you think of this incomplete mock up - i'm particularly interested in the colours that i've designated to differentiate the different events. I think they look rubbish so if someone could suggest some colours i'd be eternally grateful

Thanks

Hi, Mr. Belfrey,

For whom are you making the calendar. I notice you have a weekly calendar set up. Unless you have a multitude of event, it will always look more or less empty. That might be what you want.

However, if you want your church to appear more active than a weekly calendar, try a monthly calendar. That is what we use. I don't think the color will matter too much as long as the information on the calendar is always current. In fact, I think it can probably be the ugliest calendar in the world, but if the information is good, people might use it. However, if you also send out paper calendars as we do, people probably will not use it unless you have a culture of technology in your church which we do not. People either use the paper calendar they receive prior to the beginning of each month, use the newsletter, or call the church. They do not think to use the calendar on the web site.

Now, to specifics; I use different colors for different kinds of groups i.e. Boy Scouts are green; music is red; or whatever. If it is some activity which is highlighted, I use a bright color from the colors I use. But it does not seem to matter much. I know of one church calendar which is in black and white. It is as effective as any other.

The key in my thinking is that it is as up to date as you can possibly keep it, and it will be a useful calendar.

How are you doing!!

Carol