Follow these steps for an easy way to connect to the #VegasTech IRC channel:
Note: If you’d like to get notified when someone posts in the IRC channel, navigate to Adium > Preferences… and then toggle the “Events” tab
Ayloo is connected to Facebook to make it super easy for you to grow your gathering’s attendance.
If you’re not syncing your gathering to a Facebook event, you’re missing out on increased distribution via the Facebook news feed and an increased attendance rate due to conversation on the Facebook event wall!
Let’s explore how to leverage this tool to maximize your gathering’s impact on the Ayloo network.
Did you use our iPhone app to create the gathering? No problem! Simply hit this button on the gathering’s profile to create a synced Facebook event:
If you prefer the web creation form, just be sure to leave this check box checked:
Be sure to post your gathering at least 5 days before it starts to give it time to soak on the network.
People are more likely to watch gatherings on the Ayloo app if others have already watched it. By using Facebook to market your gathering, you’re increasing the appeal of your Ayloo listing since Facebook event RSVPs are pulled into the Ayloo app as watchers!
It’s tempting to invite everyone you know to your gathering’s Facebook event all at once, but if you want to optimize attendance you should take a more strategic route.
Start by inviting a handful of friends you know will be into your gathering. Having a few Facebook RSVPs before others are invited is a good way to establish credibility. Then, slowly invite more people to maximize the news feed coverage for your gathering’s Facebook event!
Create an active conversation space on your gathering’s Facebook event wall to maintain news feed coverage over time and to provide further information for on-the-fence attendees in an engaging way.
Remember: everyone invited to a Facebook event gets notified whenever something is posted to your gathering’s Facebook event wall!
…and that’s it!
At the end of the day, Ayloo allows you to reach your audience where and when they care most about gatherings. Using this process, you can leverage the Facebook networks of your watchers to improve your gathering’s appeal to this mobile audience.
We’ve observed something interesting about the activity on the app so far: you may be cutting your Ayloo watches in half! Less watches mean less interested people will receive reminders on their phone when your gathering is coming up.
Have a look for yourself:
As you can see, gatherings on the Ayloo app steadily increase in watchers until a little over a week after the initial listing.
Moral of the story: be sure to list your gathering at least one week before it starts. List closer to the wire and you’ll miss out on lots of interested people who just haven’t had a chance to discover your gathering yet!
Have an awesome gathering next week that you want us to help promote? Be sure to list it now.
Until next time,
Shaun
Marketing your gathering has never been easier! Use ayloo on your iPhone or on the web to spread the word with ease.
Have an idea for a class? Time to get people in the door for your gallery opening?
Our one page creation process is easy to turn that brainstorm into a reality.
Twitter, facebook and email all right at your fingertips
Connect easily with anyone who has a Facebook account, whether it’s through our
app or on the web!
Know who’s interested and keep them engaged.
We put your gathering in front of the people who are interested.
We push-notify everyone watching your event 2 days before, day-of and 1 hour before
it occurs.
We create a custom page for your gathering so you can refer anyone to a beautifully-designed, SEO-friendly web page with all of your gathering information complete with:
*a map
*the number of attendees watching from the app and on the web via Facebook
*social buttons so your audience can help spread the word
Hey gang,
Thanks so much for coming out this week! We’d also like to thank the community-focused small businesses we’ve partnered with to make Gather possible: Grouchy John’s Coffee, Sunrise Coffee, Perk Up Coffee, The Beat Coffeehouse, and Leoné Café. Hope you had fun and met someone new!
If you haven’t had your fill yet, there are two really great gatherings happening in conjunction with First Friday today. Artist Michelle Boudreaux swings by Perk Up Coffee around 7:00 pm for a meet and greet and to explain her process to an intimate crowd! Staying around Fremont East for First Friday? Definitely check out the Blue Beat jazz night at The Beat Coffeehouse from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
Don’t be sad that Gather is over… We hope our launch week has shown how our new iPhone application can provide useful information about what’s going on locally even after this week. To drive the point home, we’ll have lots of First Friday’s sub-gatherings on the app tonight to discover while you’re out and about. :)
Come chat with us at our booth at First Friday on Casino Center and Colorado tonight!
See ya around,
The Ayloo Team
We are nearing the end, ladies and gentlemen.
This experience has been transformational - working alongside passionate community organizers, meeting community-hungry Las Vegans, and learning from each gathering has been such a pleasure… this is why we love doing what we do. :)
But we’re not done yet!
Interested in bringing sustainability into the classroom in a big way? Join the efforts of members of the Green Jelly community as they meet at Sunrise Coffee at 4:00 pm to brainstorm and prototype solutions.
If health and wellness is more your bag, there’s a fantastic gathering starting at 6:00 pm at Grouchy John’s Coffee Shop for you - learn how to strengthen and care for your body to prepare for your favorite fitness activities. This training will feature a special guest Exercise Physiologist!
Round out the day with a classic Vegas gathering: the Vegas Jelly, casual tech coworking with occasional presentations from the tech scene. If you have a tech-focused company or are thinking of starting one you need to check this out.
Catch you at the last Coffee & Culture tomorrow at 8 am at Sunrise Coffee!
See ya around,
The Ayloo Team
Take some time this afternoon to get connected to your local community.
The next gathering today is an all-ages open mic night at Leoné Café, starting at 3:30 pm. Poets young and old will perform for a coffee shop crowd in Tivoli village!
You’ve got some choices immediately after work: do some soul-searching around 6:00 pm… if you’re into community activism, you’ll definitely want to check out the monthly Shift Vegas roundtable for community leaders at The Beat Coffeehouse! A team of greenies are also meeting at Leoné Café to design a better recycling system for Summerlin. If you’re a health nut, you should definitely head to Sunrise Coffee to check out a new fitness facility opening across the street with some passionate health advocates.
Consider listening to the recently-funded Vegas company, Wedgies, as they tell their story around 7:00 pm at Grouchy John’s Coffee - an hour before Pop Up Coworking starts at 8:00 pm! Technology not your thing? You can always check out the new wednesday night hang at The Beat Coffeehouse around 8:00 pm: an intimate jazz night with a phenomenal trumpet player and friends.
Catch you at the next Coffee & Culture tomorrow at 8 am at The Beat Coffeehouse!
See ya around,
The Ayloo Team
Lots of interesting stuff happening today!
As I type there’s a handy ‘Why cowork?’ session happening at Grouchy John’s Coffee - it’s going until noon if you want to check it out. One would do well to carry the themes and lessons from this experience into the first Node JS meetup nearby at Perk Up Coffee later this afternoon!
You’ve got some choices at 6:00 pm - need something positive this afternoon to shake things up? Come out and Laugh with Terri. Or, you can join an intimate discussion about the foundations of scientific thought with Ayloo CoFounder Shaun Swanson’s Skillshare tonight at 6:00 pm at Sunrise Coffee. Green Coworking will start at 6:00 pm at The Beat Coffeehouse as well, providing sustainability-minded people a forum to collaborate.
Still ready for more? Don’t miss a downtown classic: trivia night at The Beat Coffeehouse. 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm!
Catch you at the next Coffee & Culture tomorrow at 8 am at Leoné Café!
See ya around,
The Ayloo Team
If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the past two years, it’s this: the more we simplify our application and our design, the better we communicate.
Interactions, words, and icons are our best hope of effectively delivering information. Knowing this, we do our best to distill complex ideas down and to relay the relevant information in the most effective and least-consuming way possible. This isn’t any different from how you should be spreading information about your gatherings.
We’ve spent an uncomfortable amount of time checking out how others are trying to communicate event information in community calendars, meetups, and other forms of event data. The consensus is this: we need to yell at everyone, write a dissertation, and make everything bold, italic, and on fire just to tell someone an event is occurring in October.
When you get to the meat and potatoes of almost any gathering, it boils down to about three things a person needs or cares to know:
There are a few bonus details such as a description, the end time, who’s going, and what kind of experience it might be, but we found that the first three answers usually determine user interest. Yet most of what we see if read aloud would leave the reader winded before giving them a chance to care.
It’s not hard to overlook the fact that when you’re inputing event details into a form, what you’re actually doing is talking to people. It’s safe to assume these people have less time than you do. So the more additional information you’re putting out there, the more content you require readers to understand and the more opportunities you present for it to be questioned.
Noticing these things is why our forms, our fields, and our entire application really is set up to be more conversational. We know that regardless of the function of our application, we’re ultimately talking to you visually through a box you’re carrying around.
Keeping it short isn’t just keeping it simple… keeping it short is making it easier on yourself and everyone you’re communicating to. Keeping it short is knowing what you’re trying to say and what the point of your gathering is.
MJ
This blog post is being written at the first official gathering of our launch event!
‘Coffee & Culture’ will be a chain of five gatherings organized by Ayloo CoFounder Mark Johnson, highlighting the community-focused coffee shops participating in Gather. The 8:00 am to 9:00 am time slot for this series is perfect for drawing a crowd of locals together during their pre-work caffeine worship!
This afternoon should make for some solid coworking time. Come by Perk Up around 1:00 pm ‘til 7:00 pm to meet the local tech scene and to get some work done! This is the first time #VegasTech is gathering at this coffee shop to work so it should be exciting and fresh. Looking around now, we can already see where some of the popular tables will be. :)
In the afternoon around 6:00 pm, join Chef Donald Lemperle and the Food Jelly for their bi-monthly gathering at The Beat Coffeehouse to support the Downtown 3rd Farmers Market and the real food movement!
At 7:00 pm, have your choice of two deeply human options: Tiger Todd of Hero Academy will be holding a lecture at Leoné Café on his understanding of the psychology of self-actualization he used to lift over 9,000 homeless off the streets of Las Vegas. At the same time, Human Experience will have its weekly open mic - a staple at The Beat Coffeehouse - celebrating the action of love through art, music and culture.
Catch you at the next Coffee & Culture tomorrow at 8 am at Grouchy John’s Coffee!
See ya around,
The Ayloo Team
