eventbrite or similar for public classes?

eventbrite or similar for public classes?

by Gavin Crosby -
Number of replies: 7

Dear all,

Are any local authorities using a third party booking system for public events. Specifically I'm looking for our range of paid for adult learning classes, but I'd ben interested to anyone who is using it, even if its for free events.

I know that some public sector agencies are using eventbrite for staff training events, but I've yet to see anyone using the payment facilities, and that's something I'm really keen on finding out about.

I know that there are a range of competitors to eventbrite, and that some would be cheaper than others-  but we'd (Midlothian) be more interested in a system that allowed managers, workers, admins and tutors to look at who had booked and paid


thanks for any help

Gavin


In reply to Gavin Crosby

Re: eventbrite or similar for public classes?

by Gavin Crosby -

just an update,


had a conversation with the eventbrite team and it does seem to offer the functionality that we need, but I'm still interested in others experiences, anyone?

Gav

In reply to Gavin Crosby

Re: eventbrite or similar for public classes?

by Pauline Roberts -

Hi Gavin

We've just started using it for our free courses but it seems to be working for us. Would be interested in getting more info too as we do want to expand what we're doing (maybe fees) - let me know what else you get from people. I know there are other systems about - did look into it a bit before we started on Eventbrite.

Pauline

In reply to Gavin Crosby

Re: eventbrite or similar for public classes?

by Deleted user -

We are just in the process of looking into using Eventbrite for a particular project which runs open courses. Ideally we are looking to go down the paid structure and on initial investigation it did seem to offer what we are looking for - just need to put our own systems in place to ensure we are clear over refunds, cancellations etc.

Following the post to see what others experiences have been - will certainly update if/when we have trialled.

In reply to Gavin Crosby

Re: eventbrite or similar for public classes?

by Gavin Crosby -

thanks both


we are going to pilot it in the next 2 terms with a view to a full roll out for the start of the 2017/18 school year.

For free courses its a no brainer - as you get a bit of free advertising too.

its the payment systems that are a bit stickier for us - being able to allocate funds to a specific cost centre when we draw down the money from Eventbrite - but really that's not their problem but an issue for our finance dept.

The other issue that I'm most interested in is who can access the contact details for people who have booked on, and how can they do it, we need:

  • someone with a 'master user' account who can see all of the data and draw it down to be put into our management information system (Cognisoft)
  • several 'local organisers' who can see all of the data for a particular geographic or thematic  area.
  • Individual tutors who can see just the names and maybe an email for people who have booked on their course.

My call to eventbrite seemed to suggest all this was possible, but then they've not emailed me, so I'll have to call again.



In reply to Gavin Crosby

Re: eventbrite or similar for public classes?

by Alison Russell -


Hi, I'm wondering what kind of classes do you charge for?

In reply to Alison Russell

Re: eventbrite or similar for public classes?

by Deleted user -

Hi Alison,

I'm a youth worker in school and youth groups. 

Do you want to know what groups I do? 

Thank you 

Gerry 

In reply to Alison Russell

Re: eventbrite or similar for public classes?

by Gavin Crosby -

Hi Alison,


We charge for our adult learning 'open' programme - which includes traditional 'leisure' classes like pottery and knitting but also has academic subjects (Nat 5 maths and higher English for example) These classes are delivered by sessional tutors and are run based on both demand from learners but are also limited by being able to find tutors  - you can see a brochure for the classes here: https://www.midlothian.gov.uk/info/284/adult_and_community_classes/67/adult_education_courses

We also deliver free courses under our community based adult learning banner. There is some overlap in these programmes, but in general to be a free CBAL course it has to be more employability focused, or be responding to a specific need - such  as a health and wellbeing programme in an area with low health outcomes according to the SIMD data.


Part of the reason to go online with both bookings and payments is to rationalise fees and be able to explain clearly on each programme why it costs the amount it does compared to other classes - we do explain the costs in print form  but it only appears once in the printed brochure due to space - online we could have it appear for every programme.