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Psychological Effect

od sudanglo, 24 października 2012

Wpisy: 8

Język: English

sudanglo (Pokaż profil) 24 października 2012, 11:45:59

I have been discussing recently with other organizers of the British Congress (Ramsgate, 10th - 12th May, 2013) the best way of encouraging early signing up.

Traditionally, enrolment for an Esperanto Congress requires the attendee to furnish a whole host of details and to pay at the same time. But I think that this raises the psychological barrier, and discourages an early indication of expected numbers to the organizing team.

I have been thinking that we should allow attendees initially to simply reserve a place, completing the enrolment formalities at a later date.

Faced with this option would you be more inclined to sign up early, or do you think this would make no difference.

Cisksje (Pokaż profil) 24 października 2012, 12:39:07

I'm really not sure about that one.

I suppose it would encourage people who want to go, but don't have either the time or the inclination to fill out forms at the moment of impulse. On the other hand, I'd still want the deposit along with the abbreviated booking so as not to end up bankrupt as potential complications in the vagaries of human lives set in as the time approaches.

For myself, I want to go, but cannot book until I have arranged employment cover, and that is not possible till much closer to May.

auxro (Pokaż profil) 25 października 2012, 00:19:41

The common practise is to have different rates of "aliĝkotizo" in terms of the sign-up date - earlier you sign up, less you pay.
Anyway, you should consider the application valid only after the "aliĝkotizo", or part of it, is transferred. Otherwise you will not be able to determine the real number of persons who WILL take part in the congress.

sudanglo (Pokaż profil) 25 października 2012, 13:17:46

Yet, my feeling is that when commercial firms are trying to peddle their wares they do make an effort to make the decision process as simple as possible for their prospective customers.

I don't doubt your experiences in organizing Esperanto events, but maybe with a little imagination there is a way of avoiding this problem of last-minute aliĝado.

The best I can come up with at the moment is allowing a simple expression of interest in principle. Yes I would like you to reserve me a place. I'll do all the form-filling and send you the money later, or cancel with reasonable notice, if it turns out I won't be able to come.

The practical advantages from an organizational point of view of having well in advance an indication of the level of interest seem to me to outweigh the practical disadvantages of a certain level of no-shows or subsequent cancellations.

Any suggestions as to a technique for securing early indications would be of benefit not just to the specific case of the Ramsgate Congress, but to all organizers of Esperanto events.

So the general question is what approach would be most likely to make potential attendees make an initial commitment.

For instance, how many UK forum followers would be ready to tell me now by private messaging that in principle they are coming to Ramsgate?

sudanglo (Pokaż profil) 26 października 2012, 12:16:56

Radio, if you have found the Facebook event button click method effective then that confirms my suspicion that presenting people with a simple Yes/No decision has some psychological validity.

For people to whom (like myself) Facebook is alien territory, a simple retmesaĝo - rezervu por mi lokon - may be similarly effective.

Some costs for events are almost linearly related to subscription - like provisions of refreshments, congress paraphernalia etc - they go up as more people sign up. Other costs are fixed overhead and independent of number enrolling - like hiring the Kongresejo.

Depending on the proportion of fixed overheads, you could theoretically bring down the per head kotizo depending on numbers. I don't know whether it might be practical to say maximum kotizo will be X, lower if a lot of people sign up.

Looking at the enrolment figures for the Universalaj Kongresoj in adjacent years I think we see evidence that a major factor is the vizitindeco of the congress location and the convenience of travel to it for a higher number of Esperantists. It seems to me that what's on the programme has little to do with it.

What do Forum members think? Has the interest in going to a particular place been the major factor for you in deciding to attend a particular Esperanto event?

erinja (Pokaż profil) 29 października 2012, 01:15:09

I feel like interest in visiting a particular place might matter more for beginners than for experienced speakers.

I was at UK in Copenhagen but I don't feel like I've seen Copenhagen, because I was busy with stuff at the kongresejo for all of the days except one. I think that my new opinion is that if I want to really see a place, I shouldn't go for UK.

However, that calculation might be very different for someone whose UK experience isn't likely to include a lot of meetings and sitting at a booth.

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Don't forget to take advantage of lernu for your publicity activities. We offer the possibility of placing a news item on the front page, and also sending a mass e-mail to a certain population (all users who indicated they live in the certain countries, for example). That e-mail only goes to people who indicated they don't mind receiving informational messages, so it doesn't catch every single person, but then at least you won't be spamming people who don't want to hear from you. And feel free to post stuff to lernu's facebook wall. Our number of 'likes' is beginning to become significant.

sudanglo (Pokaż profil) 29 października 2012, 10:35:08

Many thanks Erinja for info on publicity facilities that can be made use of at Lernu. Had no idea about that, so really grateful for the heads-up.

erinja (Pokaż profil) 29 października 2012, 15:24:08

sudanglo:Many thanks Erinja for info on publicity facilities that can be made use of at Lernu. Had no idea about that, so really grateful for the heads-up.
We don't make a secret of it, and I make a point of mentioning it when I talk to representatives from national associations, but not many groups seem to take advantage of it. Polish and Swiss groups seem to be the main exception. Probably a few times a year they take advantage of our e-mail mailings to sent out notifications of in-person courses or weekend events.

You can tailor your e-mail mailing to the following categories:
- country
- language in which the user uses the page
- language level (zero/beginner/intermediate/advanced)

Feel free to work up, for example, an English-language mailing for the UK and an Esperanto-language version for some neighbouring European countries. Or you could put both into one message. Don't forget to include a title for the e-mail subject header. Plain text only, so no fancy formatting. If I were you I wouldn't get fancy about tailoring it to language level, since not everyone bothers putting that into their profile. Not everyone sets a country in their profile, but for regional events we prefer not to spam the whole world just to be sure to reach inhabitants of a certain country that didn't indicate their location in their profile.

Our 'news' items on the front page need a URL, a short header text, and a short paragraph of explanatory text (what will hover up in a box as you mouse over the title). The e-mail mailings don't need to be so short.

For Facebook, a link would be nice, and a short text, if you want to have us do the posting rather than you posting to our wall.

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