MyEvent - is it or isn't it...?

Having returned from the conference I was keen to look at the presentation promised in the comprehensive session handouts. On Friday one representative from the CIPD sales team returned my call and left a message. When I spoke to the member of the team he told me that due to circumstances beyond their control the presentations from Harrogate would not be up until mid week at the earliest... not what was suggested in the notes from the conference session suggest that they were available immediately... but that is one the joys of being an early adopter.

It is a shame as the promised networking from this facility appears to be a bit of a pipe dream... at least at this stage. This may well be down to too few early adopters registering on the system and more down to the users than the system itself.

Some of the facilities are 'restricted by administrator'...maybe someone has forgotten to throw the 'switch' and I am sure it will all work wonderfully when this is corrected....

Update -
Having spoken to the Conference Producer, it appears that some of the functionality is available only to users with certain profiles - this was a challenge the CIPD community had last year - so looks like it is just teething problems.

The expectation of the presentations being available 'instantly' was an expectations management difficulty - the wording on the handouts saying one thing but realistically the conference organisers needing time to confirm changes with speakers - so with the reassurance that content will be available in a couple of days all is well in MyEvent land.

User Error
With any new system there are two types of error - errors in software.. and user errors.

When I experienced errors when searching I was searching from the wrong page - so the results I obtained were not what I expected - at the right page it was working fine... DOH!


The future
It looks like the CIPD are continuing to invest in this platform and it will provide members and event attendees with some very useful facilities in the future... Next test HRD 2009

When the teething difficulties have been sorted (common with all new IT systems) and users educated (it is very different from traditional forums) and integrated with the existing CIPD community forums, this will be a tremendous facility for all members - taking membership facilities to a new level.

MyEvent... is it or isn't it....
Well that is not a CIPD decision, this is down to users to make use of the excellent facility made available to event delegates. I would encourage CIPD branches to consider educating members in the use of this technology so that when members attend events they can make the most out of it.

MyEvent - annual conference networking facility

Having received a reminder of this facility in my joining instructions I logged again to see 'where the action was'.

There appears to be a few more people sign up - but few have added much in the way of a profile. The search facility is still turned off - so it is difficult to find people you know (a real shame as most people will be looking today as the last time before they travel)

There does not appear to be any 'forums' set up other than one called "sample forum" - maybe I should post a 'hello' post... OK so while composing this post I have in fact put up a 'hello' post - lets see what happens next...!

It appears to be very early days of MyEvent and I suspect that if this is to be used at all it will happen post event, it looks like it needs to 'push' users onto the platform, as most regular users of the CIPD site will be community contributors and there is currently no link between the two technologies. It is very early days and I am sure the technology will work well - it just needs the event team to push and support the use of the technology in the same way the electronic media people within the CIPD have done with the communities.

I just hope the search facilities and other functionality is switched on before the conference.

MyEvent - The social networking space for CIPD conference attendees

One of the first things I received after my booking was confirmed was an email providing access details to a new CIPD service called MyEvent.


After logging in you have the options of setting a personal profile and joining a range of groups - each around the conference Keynote sessions and the streams. The environment has the look and feel of a FaceBook style environment.

Users have the ability to build 'friend' lists, share comments, have conversations with other attendees. The interface is clean and easy to use.

I suspect that this technology is the sort of enhancement that the CIPD member communities will benefit from. Lets see if it works in practice for an event which has a tight timetable - I suspect it will get used more after the event than during...