Class Registration Patterns

Education
#1

I’m running into a problem with a registration pattern where I want to promote a class on two independent platforms (in this case, Meetup.com and the DMS calendar). I have tried directing registrations on both platforms to Eventbright, but potentials on Meetup.com appear to be less likely to use an outside platform, especially if the class has a fee.

I have recently tried splitting a $5 dollar per seat paid registration between Meetup.com and the DMS calendar. This is a 3-hour, 20 seat interactive class on Google Cloud IaaS that I will present in the Lecture Hall. I divided up registration so that Meetup.com was open to 10 paid signups, and the DMS calendar was open to 10 paid signups. I directed people to use the payment system for each corresponding platform. Registration on Meetup.com filled up immediately. The registration on the DMS calendar has only had a few signups. Of the 10 seats listed on the DMS calendar, 7 are still empty, even though the class is tomorrow night.

I have deployed split registration with several free events and had similar results. 2-3 people show up that used the DMS calendar, but registration on Meetup.com fills up quickly. The day before the event, I end up increasing the maximum registration limit on Meetup.com and hope that nobody else signs up on the DMS calendar so that I’m not overcapacity.

The DMS calendar does not appear to have a way to retroactively change the registration limit of a scheduled class once the class has been submitted.

For my next class, I was thinking about skipping DMS calendar registration altogether and have people from DMS sign up directly on Meetup.com to see what happens.

Maybe others in less technical subject areas have had different experiences, but this has been my experience, so far. I’m reaching out because I don’t want to overlook the marketing knowledge of other teachers who have taught non-honorarium classes at DMS. At the very least, I’d like to facilitate a useful discussion. Does anyone have a suggestion for an alternate registration pattern that is more ideal?

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#2

Can’t help with most of this, but I do know you can contact an admin to adjust the amount of the DMS seats available. That might help the current issue if you can get it done fairly soon

#3

Thanks for the suggestion. I’m more interested in exploring viable patterns that can be replicated long term.

It was suggested to me privately that I could require approval for enrollment, and then redirect everyone from the DMS calendar system to Meetup.com for payment. I think I’ll try that next.

4 Likes
#4

If paying on meetup requires a log in for meetup you might run into the same issue. Some people simply don’t want to make accounts at different places to pay for classes. I don’t care for eventbright myself, pretty sure I’ve never taken a class that requires it. I plan to try out instructor approval required and PayPal for my next class.

Is your meet up page specific to that industry? It might just be that of our membership there a rent that many seeking that specific topic versus a meetup where members are activitly seeking classes on the topic.

#5

I’m not sure why, but registration on the DMS calendar side completely filled up on the day of the class.

I don’t think I’d describe the class topic as anything industry specific. Somewhat trendy, maybe. Technical, yes. Introductory, yes.

Thinking the better way to go is to have a limited number of steep discounted seats for DMS members only, and then have the remaining majority available on Meetup. For people from Meetup who research the Space, that would have the advantage of creating additional perceived value for becoming a new DMS member.

#6

I think there’s a way to set up DMS calendar registrations to manual instructor approval instead of automatic approval. This will give you control of your class numbers.

When someone pays throght Meetup, manually approve them for the class.

I think if you want to complicate things, you could let people pay with PayPal and then manually reduce the number of available tickets manually on Meetup. I haven’t tried this, so I couldn’t tell you how to reduce your Meetup ticket number after the event is set.

1 Like
#7

Hey Mark,

I remember the hassle of telling Meetup members to sign up through the DMS website. Hardly any do.

I’ll be recommending to Meetup teachers that they set the DMS Calendar event to closed and asking DMS members to sign up through the Meetup event with a posted link. It’s currently the simplest solution that I can wrangle.

If your Meetup group is public, you should be able to do the same.

I’d like for teachers to be able to charge different rates for guests and members but don’t see a good way. Maybe refund DMS members the cash difference when they show up to the class (and make a show of it to the guests)?

I’d love to advertise your Machine Learning and Google Cloud IaaS classes on the DMS Meetup. It has 857 interested members in Software Development, 428 in Computer Programming, and 62 specifically in Machine Learning.

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#8

Can we manually add students to the DMS system?

#9

I suppose teachers could sign a person up with their given name and info, but no official means for teachers to add a student.

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#10

Well, students sign up using their email address if they’re not a member. If you’ve got your students info, you could sign them up that way.

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#11

You can, if the class is not for DMS members only.

While NOT logged into the calendar, register pretending to be them with their name, e-mail address and phone number. Be sure you have their approval before doing this; some people will not be happy to get unexpected messages from the calendar system.

Edit: If someone should report our calendar notification messages as spam, we could get blacklisted and that is a very bad thing.

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#12

After some consideration of this approach–my own laziness aside–I’m looking for a solution that doesn’t require daily maintenance. Hunting for an open slot and submitting a class appears to already take a lot of effort. If I could set it and forget it, that would be ideal. I would prefer spending my time working on class preparations instead of maintaining the calendar system every day.

Even though my group requires no approval to join, I set mine to private in order to encourage more signups. My thinking was that it would help grow the group’s mailing list. According to documentation, the system won’t allow changing it back to public once it’s private because it makes the assumption that those that joined while it is private expect privacy.

I’m going to try teaching a 24 seat class in my next iteration. Five seats, for $5 each; DMS only. Twenty-one seats through Meetup for $7 or more. I think this might help create additional perceived value for DMS memberships, while at the same time compensating for fees that Meetup charges (a whopping ~24.2%). I can certainly understand why people attempt to direct registrations off Meetup’s platform. Their rates are far higher than I expected. But given people’s apparent mistrust of off-platform payment, it seems to be the most desirable option if my goal is to fill my class to capacity while introducing outsiders to DMS.

Doing this, I’d see as a problem (asking for permission feels hackish and unprofessional to me, while not asking for permission feels as though it might damage a prospective member’s trust); not just for me, but for the reputation of DMS at large–and certainly if it goes without clear communication. I imagine there are those who wouldn’t mind being added to our system, but I believe others might have a problem with it. However, I think there are other considerations–my aforementioned laziness. Avoiding maintenance and encouraging repeatability is high on my promotion list. If a pattern persists that involves me logging into the system every time a new student signs up for a class, I’m not going to want to do it for long.

While I consider myself a marketing novice, I think my 5-5/21-7 registration split has potential. I’ll also begin providing links that direct traffic from one platform to the other. If anyone sees why this idea should be avoided or improved, I’d be honored to hear suggestions.

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#13

I would be proud to take you up on that. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#14

If you’d like me to test anything out from a user end just let me know.

I was like 'WhaaAAtt!?!" and double checked Meetup’s payment explanation formula:
Amount to charge = (Desired amount to collect + $0.50) / 0.925
$3 charge = 24.1% fee
$5 charge = 17.5% fee
$10 charge = 12.5% fee
$15 charge = 10.8% fee
$20 charge = 10.0% fee
That is a discouraging for smaller fee classes. :frowning: I’ll keep working on how to improve our sign-up processes.

You’ve been granted the highly coveted “Event Organizer” status for the DMS Meetup. Please “Publish” but don’t “Announce” you’re next class when you’re ready and shoot me a heads up. PR Committee wants to check everything we’re advertising to our public as a good measure protocol. Don’t worry, I lean very heavily towards leaving teachers to do their own thing as they see best.

Thank you Mark and don’t hesitate a second to let me know how I can help!

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#15

Can you just make a discount code and post it on the calendar for members to use? I feel like most meetup people wont double check the calendar and find it.