Posts Tagged ‘tickets’

• MoodleMoot tickets – Update

  Date: 2010.03.02 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 4

  Important update on MoodleMoot booking issues

  As I explained in my previous post we experienced a few issues when we released the first batch of MoodleMoot tickets to our pre-registration list on Thursday last week. After some thorough investigation on Friday and Monday we managed to get on top of things and identified two sets of problems.

  A) People tried to complete their booking but the system could not cope with the number of request. This lead to error messages being displayed and incomplete bookings in the system. Most of the people affected called us on Thursday or Friday and you should have heard back from us already.

  We will be in touch again today to complete your booking. So not to worry, you will get your place at MoodleMoot!

  B) For a fair number of people who received their booking confirmation and secured a place at MoodleMoot, the booking system actually did not process the payment. Without going into too much technical detail, this was caused by the online store defaulting to the test system when it could not cope with the number of bookings being processed. Quite literally, a single line of code has caused some big problems.

  We will email all delegates affected by this later this morning. Again, do not worry about losing your place for MoodleMoot. I and my colleague Connor will be in touch today or by tomorrow the latest to process the payment over the phone. In order to do this we have to cancel your original booking and re-book you on the conference, so please do not be alarmed if you receive a cancellation & refund confirmation from us today.

  Please rest assured that everyone affected by either of the above mentioned issues is guaranteed a place for MoodleMoot UK 2010; we won’t let a technical glitch get in the way of that.

  We apologise for any inconvenience caused and look forward welcoming all of you at Senate House in April.

  Best wishes

• Bringing down the house

  Date: 2010.02.26 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 2

  The first batch of 150 MoodleMoot tickets was released to our list of 420 pre-registered delegates, yesterday. We initially planned to release them at 9am, but chose to delay it by 1h. This was due to some technical problems the night before and we wanted to make sure everything works. Better safe than sorry as they say….

  But despite all preparation and testing things still went a bit pear shaped in the end. To sum things up in a nutshell, our booking system struggled to cope with the sheer number of people trying to book and pay for tickets at the same time. We are performing a few back-end checks to identify pending transaction or uncompleted bookings. Once that is done we will get in touch with everyone who’s been affected on Monday or Tuesday, the latest, to make sure you secure your ticket for MoodleMoot over the phone. There are still plenty of tickets left and we don’t want any of the “early birds” to loose out due to a technical glitch.

  For those of you with a few minutes to spare, here’s what went down on the day.

  07.45am:

  In the office early to update the programme page on the MoodleMoot website, sort out final issues with the booking system and double-check everything is in working order. Note to self – never go to work that early again, ever.

  09.10am:

  A few people are getting anxious and our special apology goes to Carol (@caz_h) and her boy who tweeted:

  “just left my boy in the rain in the playground to get to work in time to get #mootuk10 tickets and they not on sale til 10 now!!!”

  I’m happy to say Carol managed to get a ticket in the end, despite our ticket release email turning up 5h late.

  09.30am:

  Final check of the booking system and removing of previous test bookings. Rephrasing of email to delegates and keeping an eye on Tweetdeck to respond to any incoming tweets either to @ulcc or tagged with #mootuk10.

  09.55am:

  Testing email to delegates, double-checking links are working and the online booking system is showing the correct information.

  

  Stats for MoodleMoot tickets email

  10.05am:

  Email has been sent to 417 pre-registered users on our mailing list. Within 10min our opening & click rates are in the double-digits (thanks to Mailchimp for providing great real-time campaign stats) and the first booking confirmations keep flying in.

  10.20am:

  My inbox is lighting up with incoming booking confirmations. A quick check of the online shop shows 50 tickets are already gone. As I shall later find out, these are just bookings being processed (i.e. people filling in forms and entering payment details) and not actual sales.

  10.25am:

  I’m getting the first call from someone being unable to book his ticket as the system timed out. A quick check of the email stats shows opening and click-through rates are approaching 40%, meaning we are having around 100 people on the system at the same time trying to secure their ticket. I’m also picking up a busier than usual atmosphere in our open plan office, with phones ringing off the hook.

  10.35am:

  There’s a queue of colleagues at my desk, dropping of details for people reporting problems with their bookings being timed out or not processed at all. Quick crisis meeting with my boss. We decided to send an email to all staff, explaining the situation and asking them to take callers details and reassure people that tickets are safe.

  11.25am:

  Finally managed to write and send the email to everyone at ULCC. My phone has been ringing of the hook, which makes writing a clear and concise email a bit of challenge. I believe one of the switchboard operators at the University sobbed slightly when she told me she’s drowning in calls. Nothing to worry “put them all through to me darling” I say; and so she does!

  11.55am:

  A stack of notes and call memos is on my desk. In best German fashion I’m typing them all into a nice spreadsheet, for immediate follow up phone calls to reassure people we are working hard to get things back in order. At this point thanks to my colleagues at ULCC who jumped in and helped with the surge in phone calls, great team effort!

  02.45pm:

  All phone calls have been returned, emails have been answered and I just now realised I haven’t had anything to eat since that delicious but slightly overpriced Ham & Cheese croissant at Starbucks on my way to work this morning. A coffee, chocolate bar and a cigarette will have to make do as I’m planning to leave work on time.

  03.45pm:

  Hello dark-roast my old friend; the coffee certainly did the job of seeing my through another hour of MoodleMoot related emails and phone calls. I should really wrap things up now and head home.

  04.30pm:

  Finally calling it a day. Really pleased how everyone pulled together and that we almost sold out the first batch of tickets within a day. Looking forward to a day-off on Friday (well, apart from writing this post) and getting things back on track come Monday next week.

• MoodleMoot UK 2010 – the story so far

  Date: 2010.02.11 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 1

  It was late November last year when we first heard that our proposal to host MoodleMoot UK 2010 had been approved. With our very own customer event – Moodle Wonderland – about to be held and Christmas around the corner, we knew we had our work cut out  getting everything ready in time for April.

  Pre-registration craziness

  With two Future of Technology in Education (FOTE) conferences under our belt, events similar in scope and size, we got down to business, confirming venue and dates to be able to let the community know about the when and where. We decided to offer the chance to pre-register an interest in the conference to help us gauge the general interest in MoodleMoot UK and also have a list to advertise tickets to, once they become available.

  

  We were hoping to reach at least 200-250 sign-up, based on previous MoodleMoots. Since then we have seen the number of pre-registration increase constantly. Now 2-months after opening our mailing list it stands at 400, an amazing achievement that completely took us by surprise. We will close pre-registration at 5pm on Friday, 12 February; so here’s 48h and counting for you to get your name on it. Just enter your email address on our pre-registration form and we will be in touch, simplez as the Meerkat would say.

  Speakers, workshops and presentations

  We also published a call for papers a few weeks and back since then had a good number of proposals send to us. You can send us your proposals until 3pm Friday, 19 February -  the more merrier. We already have the makings of a very interesting Moot. We are also in the process of confirming keynote speakers and hope to have a more detailed outline of the day available within the next two weeks.

  Accommodation & entertainment

  MoodleMoot tickets won’t include accommodation and due to the limited time frame we haven’t been able negotiate discounts. We have however published a map showing hotels local to the area and there’s a chance of College Hall availability, we are waiting to hear back from them and will share information once received.

  We are also considering a few options for evening entertainment on the 13 April and we hope to make a decision sometime next week.

  In the meantime follow us on Twitter for short and snappy updates on MoodleMoot progress and make sure you use the official hashtag #mootuk10 when you tweet.