Mihai Papuc

Electronic Tickets for NGO Event Skills Used: ❖ Project management ❖ Web development: ➢ Wordpress ➢ PHP ➢ HTML ➢ JS ❖ Data processing Project description The NGO I was working with had scheduled two similar events in two different locations, each of them expected to host several hundred attendees. While the entrance was free, it was conditioned by prior registration. To maximize the number of attendees while still keeping within the maximum number of seats available at each location, we needed a system for confirming the attendance. Furthermore, we needed a system for recording the participants’ details (nationality, gender, age) for reporting purposes. And the entire system needed to ensure a fluid processing of the attendance at the hall’s entrance. Challenges ❖ Limited time available for preparing the needed system (2 - 3 weeks); ❖ No budget available for building the system; ❖ Attendants from two nationalities - Ukrainian and Romanian; ❖ Different channels of communication preferred by the attendants: ➢ Email - a relatively limited number of people; ➢ Telegram - preferred mostly by Ukrainians; ➢ WhatsApp - preferred mostly by Romanians; 1 ❖ Multinational team, speaking either Ukrainian or Romanian, with English as the common language; Advantages ❖ Several people employed in the parent project of the events were available during the planning and the execution of the events; ❖ Prior experience with smaller events; Implementation of the project Registration ❖ For registration we used a bilingual form (UKR + RO) built in Google Forms, collecting only the minimum information needed; ➢ He form asked the language at the first step and for the next step displayed the selected language; ❖ The form was open for more than maximum number of persons allowed in each hall; Issuing electronic tickets Wordpress app Components ● Custom coded WP theme - implementing: ○ a basic design ○ all the needed functionalities on the backend ○ AJAX calls from the front-end to the backend for data entry / editing by the end users (not logged in) ○ ● basic multilingual system (EN / UKR /RO) ACF PRO - for the storage of the attendants data in custom fields (primarily repeater fields) ● Backup & security plugins Workflow ● Admin: import the registration data from Google Forms for the persons that would receive an electronic ticket (so that the total number of participants remains within the capacity of the hall) 2 ● The app generates unique codes for the each ticket; ● Admin: email the codes to the registrants in a custom template (see below) ● Clicking the link in the email takes an user to the ticket confirmation screen: ● The user can reduce the number of participants for the respective ticket, enter the details and thus confirm the participation, or they can cancel the reservation; ● Admin: for the registrants that are not issued a ticket (capacity reached), email a custom template regarding the addition to the waiting list; ● Admin: monitor the cancellations and issue new tickets to the persons from the waiting list; ● 2 days before the event: ○ Admin: ■ Get the list of the persons that did not confirm or cancel their reservation; ■ split the list by language & number of persons to the members of the team, with a standard template to send via messaging platforms; ○ Team: 3 ● ■ send the templated messages to the specified registrants; ■ monitor the replies received and update the status of the registrants; Before the event: ○ Admin: ■ Export and print the sorted attendance lists for collecting the attendants’ signatures; ■ ● During the event: ○ Admin: ■ ○ Monitor the functioning of the system; Team: ■ ● Train the team welcoming the attendants at the hall; Record the attendants; After the event: ○ Admin + team: ■ Process the attendance records and extract the data needed for the reports; Office Tools Google Sheets ● Used for data processing; ● Used for building the templates sent to the registrants via messaging platforms; Libre Write ● MailMerge used to prepare the templates and send the emails to the registrants; Messaging platforms - Telegram + WhatsApp ● Used to contact the registrants closer to the event (in the last 2 days) to get their updated status; Project results NGO Objectives Maximize the number of attendants without going over capacity => realized Fluid processing of the attendants => realized Data reporting needs are met => realized 4 The attendance data is easily exported to the format requested by the periodic reports => realized Other Remarks While the entire system, with the small apps I built to support it, was far from perfect, and needed a lot of manual work, especially from myself, it ensured we fulfilled all our objectives. At the same time, the entire team appreciated the technical and organizational measures introduced for the fluid access of the participants. 5