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Help me find new tools for planning a Gameday (please)

For over a decade now, planning for #ChicagoGameday  has been handled by starting a thread on ENWorld and having people post event descriptions (blurbs, images, etc.) and chatter in general. I don’t know that I want to do this going forward. We’re not really associated with ENWorld as a community any more, and it seems sort of weird to use what’s essentially a disinterested third party for such a critical part of Gameday administration. I’ve also been polling the Gameday regulars, and no one seems especially attached to this methodology.

But what do I use in its place?

Two options currently topping the list are: 1) somehow use the existing Gameday Facebook page, and 2) create a G+ Community specifically for Gameday. As a big fan of G+, #2 is obviously very appealing. However, our Facebook page already has over 200 “likes”, meaning that there is a built-in group of people who are already essentially there and monitoring discussion, so #1 is also compelling.

That said, I don’t know how well FB would handle planing discussions. A FB post feels to me like a tenuous place to have a long, threaded discussion. I suppose anyone who’s liked the page can post, and so it would be a series of posts rather than one big thread, like it would be on a forum.

Anyway, the point here is that I’m still figuring out what FB is capable of, and don’t want to dismiss the 880 lb. gorilla of social networks just because I might personally prefer G+. Not to mention not wanting to scatter Gameday’s identity across multiple networks.

So, does anyone have any suggestions? Have you done something like this via Facebook or G+? Is there a feature of features on either platform that I am overlooking?

Suggestions welcome.

38 thoughts on “Help me find new tools for planning a Gameday (please)”

  1. In my one year experience of organizing Game Days for KC, I found FB/G+ is how I ‘ping’ folks that “it’s that time” and direct GMs to the submission site (WordPress) to submit events. I don’t have a planning thread or forum. Folks typical use social media or email to contact me for questions and I them.
    I have given up Warhorn for Eventbrite…until I have time to roll my own!! >:)
    I get better reports and functionality from Eventbrite for at worst the same amount of effort.

  3. MadJay Brown My Gameday peeps have been pretty happy with Warhorn so far. What do you prefer about EventBrite? I was looking at them, but I didn’t think that they’d handle Gameday as well as Warhorn; the ticketing seemed weird to me.

  5. FYI, I haven’t used Warhorn in @6months or more. When I quit it the site admin had to enter the events (session, venue, etc) and the GM feature did nearly nothing. Reporting required us processing the csv data.
    So, If I must enter all the data for the event and the GMs have no editing options for events, I believed there were other Event Management Software options out there for me with social media integrations baked in.
    Eventbrite integrated with WordPress nicely and I can run many reports w/o having to jack with csv data. It’s got various social media hooks ready to go.

    I like what Warhorn hopes to do, I’d go back pay money once those features come online – but I don’t want to work-around it. Again, this was Warhorn @6months+ ago .

    I do plan to spend time soon exploring the WordPress+Eventbrite+social media features, there are more things it’ll do if I set them up.

  6. hopes to do, I’d go back pay money once those features come online – but I don’t want to work-around it. Again, this was Warhorn @6months+ ago . I do plan to spend time soon exploring the WordPress+Eventbrite+social media features, there are more things it’ll do if I set them up.]]>

  11. Michael Miller Oh, man, I never thought of using a survey! Great idea.

    The only downside is the lack of transparency. The old ENWorld threads were public, so one could sort of “keep up” with event planning even if you weren’t running anything, which was nice.

  25. FB is absolutely awful for event planning and organizing. It used to be good, in fact that was what got me on FB in the first place. But now it’s terrible. You can’t message a group of more than, I think it’s 150, about your event, or add them to the event, because it’s considered spam- even though the people are in the group for that exact purpose. It’s asinine.

  29. Dave Michalak Funny that none of the FB docs I was reading mention that. Stink.

    Well, I’m thinking that I may use a FB Event as a vector for getting the word out, but not the only one.

    The simple fact is that more people are connected to our FB page than any other venue. I really like the idea of a G+ group, but then I have to convince people to use it, and now we’ve once again got two separate venues for Gameday planning and discussion. That’s my fear, at least.

  33. Is there a distinction between a “group” and a “page”, though? Gameday has a FB page, not a group. I thought groups were different.

    The docs also made it sound like a) when people RSVP, it would show in their timelines, and 2) they could invite their friends, which both sound like good marketing.

  37. Mark Delsing​ we use Google sites to coordinate our projects and releases. I don’t manage it, so not sure of alot.
    You can connect it up to many Google apps, calendar, gmail, docs, drive, forms, lightweight discussion and more. Not sure about a real database, but the forms combined with sheets works sufficiently. Heck our hr department uses it that way, so it can’t be too difficult … 🙂
    The calendar should be able to trigger events. Combined with forms, sheets and gmail, sounds like an easy notification system.