New Events 2.0

[NikkiB60508]

Hi. First, let me say YUCK! Not loving this 2.0 version of Constant Contact events. It's like Eventbrite and a whole lot less friendly to nonprofits using CC as a tool to register volunteers for specific events and NOT sell anything.

First question I have, is why are you dropping the legacy pages?? CC was a great tool to use for event registrations with simple email sequences for communication, invites and follow-ups. 

Second question, why does the site HAVE to be so focused on selling tickets? I'd like to stay with an option where you can you just invite your clients to attend an event where no cost is involved?? 

Third question, why must every radial dial require two question options instead of only 1. If you need your guests acknowledge something, they just need to click on a single button that says "yes" or "I understand." Your system is requiring at least two options when sometimes their is only one answer.

Not impressed with the changes. This new beta may be more streamlined for customers but certainly doesn't improve things on the backend for management. Bummed about this conversion direction. I was hoping for just more options within the legacy platform and not an entire identity change. 

[PreschoolMomClub]

Yes. As a non-profit that doesn't sell traditional "tickets", and uses CC mostly for registrations...we are in the exact same boat. It is SUCH a bummer and a ton of extra work to recreate everything from Legacy over to the new events feature -- and that new feature has way less capability. 

[William_A]

Since you have several suggestions in this thread, I'll leave this as its own separate feedback post, but I do want to address some of the points.

1. Our legacy events tool has been around since 2014, pre-dating us focusing on a mobile-friendly experience. Multiple other areas of the product have been updated since then, and the tool needed to be updated as well. We decided to redesign the Event tool with an improved editing experience which is more aligned with our current editing flow that is seen in other features, like surveys and landing pages.
2. Our devs have heard prior feedback regarding the "tickets" wording for reporting and registrant management, and have plans to update this with incoming updates to the beta (along with several other QoL improvements). When creating an event, tickets can be set to $0.00 / marked as free, and registrants would not need to pay to attend an event. The registration process first collects the headcount of who is attending (meaning a ticket in this case) and the registrant is then sent to the page where contact information is collected. Are you imagining this to have more of an RSVP functionality?
3. Are you able to have what you need your registrants to agree to listed as part of the informational section you can insert? Otherwise, if you need those agreements as separately agreed-to sections, would it make sense to include "I agree" and "I do not agree" options, if you're asking for individual agreements to specific things anyways?

[NikkiB60508]

Hi William-

We are a nonprofit and have been using CC since 2009. The Beta Events Platform has us VERY concerned that this new 2.0 version will no longer meet our business needs. We host 25 to 27 events per school year, all using CC for management. There are no fees associated with the 25 to 27 school events. CC is used to recruit weekly help for our programming events and regularly communicate with all our contacts.

We use CC Events to announce our weekly events, recruit volunteers for them and manage the associated RSVP registration process. We currently use CC Events to relay each week’s event information 1) to new volunteer groups via the link provided (these folks are not in our system yet) and 2) to our database volunteers. The event information shared, and the location change weekly but the formatting of each week’s info and registration process typically remain the same.  A critical element of our registration process is collecting important volunteer registration information from those who sign up for each event and managing the volunteer numbers for each event. We set the program to accept ONLY the number of volunteers we need each week based on several factors. We want it to auto close when the total number of volunteers desired has been reached, or 48 hours prior to any event.

When we build an event, we use the program to create a landing page, followed by an invite to Key Volunteers (people who volunteer with us regularly), followed by a second different email sent to our volunteer database segments (volunteers with varying levels of experience from zero to 9 events previously). Within the system, we manage cancellations and volunteer substitutions that may come in for the event. We allow each registrant, if they wish, ONLY one guest. This was implemented to accommodate our married couple consistent volunteers who requested NOT to have to each register independently for the same event.  Forty-eight hours prior to any event, we send a reminder to all primary registered volunteers with specific details for that event. Twenty-four hours prior to the event, we print a full check-in roster that includes the volunteers full name, company affiliation, address, phone number and email address. We work with schools so for them to be on campus, we must capture all this information during pre-registration and have it already printed on our sign-in sheet. We need to check-in 85 volunteers onsite during a 10-minute window. So, the roster features all the required information, and they just sign by their info line. Then, immediately after the event, we send a thank you to everyone who participated.

The issues we have already found with the Events 2.0 page that will greatly affect our use are these:

1. The 2.0 version is clearly geared toward ticket sales. You addressed this in your response below. However, FREE still appears throughout the template in places where it can be viewed by our volunteers. I would prefer if there was simply a option that removed any references to pricing all together.
2. The new system allows a “buyer” to enter the system as many times as they want with the same email address. For us, this presents significant challenges in that volunteers will be able to inadvertently register for the same event more than once and potentially skew our registration process. We liked that once registered, they couldn’t register again (access the site using the same email address). With us sending out multiple emails for multiple events on sometimes overlapping days, we occasionally have volunteers who forgot they registered for an event or confuse opportunities and attempt to register again. Before, they knew they had already registered because they couldn’t register again. 2.0 allows them to register more than once, as many times as they try… Super problematic when one registration equals one volunteer fill need.
3. 2.0 also does not allow us to capture guest information as a volunteer’s plus 1. No where are we able to see in detail, without looking up the individual registrations, whether a volunteer has added a guest or not. Each volunteer participating in our events (primary or guest) must be included on our check-in roster by name. While we don’t currently capture the address for the guest, we do currently capture full name, phone and email address when the primary registers them. We then copy the address of the primary when completing our check-in sheet for printing. This brings me to a huge issue we currently see with 2.0 in creating reports…
4. The registration report is simplified to the point that we can’t even see or reproduce all the information we must have on our sign sheets (rosters). People with guests simply show up twice because they “bought 2 tickets”. People who inadvertently registered more than once will appear each time they register with no limit. With 85 ppl registering every week, we don’t have the luxury of viewing every registration in detail and trying to extrapolate the information we need to appear on the report. We simply don’t have the manpower or resources to do that. We need that report to show all the information we need it to.  

Below, you noted Are you able to have what you need your registrants to agree to listed as part of the informational section you can insert? Otherwise, if you need those agreements as separately agreed-to sections, would it make sense to include "I agree" and "I do not agree" options, if you're asking for individual agreements to specific things anyways?

1. Yes, however, if they don’t agree to our volunteer terms of which there are four or five that must be explained individually, then they can’t volunteer with us. So, our preference is simply to state with ONE radial dial, that they agree to the terms: to being over 18, to being photographed, to the physical requirements of the event, to abide by our no-show policy, to read Senate Bill 287 (sent in the reminder) which requires mandatory reporting by the school district. Etc…. They don’t have the choice to disagree, or their registration should stop. Your suggestion would allow the opportunity for a volunteer to state they don’t agree with one or more of the terms and STILL register for an event and be counted as a volunteer when they really shouldn’t. In addition, we used all the allowable custom add-ins, and still had one additional question/affirmation we needed to address.

So, as you can read, we are very, very concerned that this new event version is geared very much more toward one-off users selling tickets to an event and needing to collect very little about their buyers beyond name and email. Our management needs go much deeper, and we fear that support and ability will be completely gone.

Can you please tell us when you anticipate ending Beta testing on the 2.0 and discontinuing the Legacy Platform??

With more than 7,000 volunteers tied to this system and 10 upcoming events already created for volunteer opportunities/registration between now and January 1st, and with 12 more events needing to be built in the next 30 to 60 days to manage our January through April planned events, I would like a timeline for how long we have before the Constant Contact system switches over to 2.0. It very much appears that CC’s event direction will no longer meets our specific needs, so we’ll need to immediately begin researching other volunteer management/communication platforms. Knowing the timeline of when access to the legacy events will stop would be incredibly helpful in our strategic planning and as a long-time nonprofit customer, I would hope that you would afford us the courtesy of a defined and thoughtful exit timeline.

Note from CC: The current cutoff for the legacy events tool is December 31, 2023. If the devs push back the cutoff date further, customers with access to the legacy tool and have used it previously will be notified. We will also update our main Help thread on the topic should this occur.

[Events_TTI]

I was going to comment, but you've basically summed up everything I would have said. If this doesn't get fixed, I will cancel my account. I only use the event site; if the only option is to sell tickets, the site is useless to me now. 

So frustrated. 

[ElvinM]

Constant Contact continues to make excuses for their new Event platform, which is more a step backwards. I totally agree with many of the observations pointed out by NikkiB60508. We are a non for profit and this new system will impact how we do business.  And our major event for 2024 is already set up and already causing issues for registration.   You'd think they would have had all of the features already included (and working well) in the legacy platform already fully integrated and not having to constantly post on this board. 

Today I received a payment for a sponsorship in the mail that I had no clue about, since this new Event 2.0 does not generate an email every time someone registers, nor does it show any registrants under the heading when you log into the main page of events. 

This is annoying and really needs to be fixed by January 2024.

[HenrietteR]

Everything everyone said above, plus, how can you generate tickets without a way to check people in at the door with a QR code or barcode? Are we supposed to print the list and check them off manually? Then we also don't have an electronic report of who attended and who didn't. I hope this gets improved on in its entirety a lot, and fast.