One of the many tools Shiftboard offers to members of our many customer sites is the ability to upload a photo (an “avatar” in the SaaS/social networking parlance).  That’s right – just like Facebook or LinkedIn.  Ho hum, roll eyes now if you are looking for “real business value”.  Sometimes, however, I love a concrete example that can change perceptions immediately.

World Equestrian Games (WEG) the largest horse show in the world ran from September 25th-October 10th in Kentucky.  WEG had some big requirements – an integrated online volunteer registration system, real-time communication, and of course event scheduling for an estimated 12,000 volunteers.  They looked around a long time, as I don’t think there is another system out there that handles their scale (research for yourself, however, I’m a sales guy).  Buried in all those requirements was an item they only mentioned as an afterthought:  the ability to export photos and contact information from Shiftboard to their security badge system.

Our system exported a file every week  of new volunteers pictures and associated contact information.  The security badge system requires a high resolution photo (ie not the Facebook/Twitter variety), but our avatar file system supports the beefed up requirements.  Where does the rubber hit the road, you ask?  In 2 weeks, WEG’s Shiftboard site  exported files of over 100 MB holding high res photos and associated contact/security information for more than 5,000 volunteers.

Talk about business value and ROI from a distributed online system.  All those 5,000+ folks uploaded their own photos from their own web browsers at all hours of the day and night (after also applying online in the same fashion, of course).  Most event managers try to coordinate that effort – managing times when volunteers can come in to get their photos taken and badges made.  Or they need to bring a passport photo (which 25% forget to bring along).  Try to imagine the number of managers, length of lines, volunteer frustration, and massive costs if WEG had done things the old fashioned way.  Instead, they have thousands of volunteers uploading pictures to the Shiftboard cloud service. Wow!  Any operations manager will tell you, it’s not just for social networking anymore.

Mark Gadia and Julie Zhan are Volunteer Co-Coordinators at the San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF) and have been active Shiftboard users for 2 years.  As Volunteer Coordinators, Mark and Julie are responsible for all-things-volunteer including: volunteer recruitment, engagement, training, scheduling and communication.  They also contribute to the SDAFF Blog.  I recently sat down with Mark and Julie to learn more about the festival, gain insight into the volunteer experience and hear how Shiftboard has simplified their lives.

Shiftboard: Tell us about the San Diego Asian Film Festival…

SDAFF: The San Diego Asian Film Festival is an annual event with an emphasis on Asian American cinema, but we also showcase international films, shorts, documentaries and animation.  Along with films, patrons will be able to meet and speak with filmmakers and actors, enjoy meaningful discussions, hear live music, and enjoy nightly parties.  The 11^th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival takes place October 21-28, 2010 in San Diego, CA.  For more information about the festival, to volunteer or purchase tickets, please visit SDAFF.org.

Shiftboard: Give us the stats…How many volunteers do you need to recruit?  How many shifts are you looking to fill?

SDAFF: We have recruited over 800 volunteers.  We need at least 300 volunteers to fill over 1,000 shifts over an 8 day festival.

Shiftboard: Wow, only 2 volunteer coordinators manage 800 volunteers, nicely done!  What recruitment strategies have you found to work best for your organization?

SDAFF: The best strategy that we’ve had is word of mouth actually!  Our volunteers love volunteering for the festival so much that they can’t help but tell everybody about their experiences.  Also, we have a dedicated Street Team that heads out into the community and does grass roots marketing and volunteer recruitment in organizations, schools, and businesses.

Shiftboard: What advice can you give to other Volunteer Coordinators to help simplify their lives?

SDAFF:  Scheduling over a thousand shifts for an eight day film festival and keeping track of over 800 volunteers can be a daunting task.  Using Shiftboard has streamlined the process both from the administrative and volunteer side. Creating shifts, organizing and communicating with volunteers has never been easier.  Edward Shaffer, whose Shiftboard handle is “Sparkles Chocopie” and is also our Facilities Coordinator, says that “In the past, for other festivals, I have used other online scheduling systems and I prefer to work with Shiftboard!”

Shiftboard: Your team has created Shiftboard ‘handles’ sort of like a social media alias? Awesome!  Do you have any other fun aliases or stories you can share about the volunteer experience?

SDAFF: Edward’s handle is actually a combination of two things.  ”Sparkles” comes from the fact that he shares the first name of a character in a popular vampire movie/book series where the vampires sparkle when in daylight.  ”Chocopie” comes from his extreme addiction to choco pies which is a chocolate cookie snack with marshmallow filling.

Shiftboard: Is there any other ‘behind the scenes’ info you would like to share with our readers?

SDAFF:  We believe we are one of the best organized film festivals in the country.  Hopefully when patrons attend the 11th San Diego Asian Film Festival, they will see this.

Shiftboard: Thanks Mark and Julie for chatting with us. We wish you all the best for a successful festival.

Do you want to win free tickets to the San Diego Asian American Film Festival?  Be the first person to email Stephanie@shiftboard.com and we’ll send you 2 free tickets!

2006 FIFA Fan Fest in Munich

In less than 24 hours one of the worlds most anticipated sporting events will kick off in Johannesburg, South Africa- the 2010 World Cup.  While the U.S. has been notoriously lacking in the international soccer (futbol anyone?) spirit,  the increased popularity of MLS teams around the country is sure to trickle down into this year’s World Cup hype.  Regardless of the turnout here in the U.S. one thing is for sure: the rest of the world is ready to party.  For the 2006 World Cup games the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA- actually a french acronym hence the the difference) began to host official public viewing venues.  The venues were in 12 different cities around Germany, and the turnout was huge-18 million people showed up to the events over the course of the games, six times as many people that watched the games from inside the 12 stadiums.  For the 2010 games FIFA is doing it even bigger with the International FIFA Fan Fest-events will take place in six major cities around the world: Berlin, Paris, Rio De Janeiro, Mexico City, Rome, and Sydney-where Fan Fest coordinators used Shiftboard to schedule over 1,000 volunteers.

Attendance is expected to be even higher than in 2006.  Fan Fest is now a way for people to travel to the spirit of the games, especially since it is often near impossible to snag a coveted ticket to a World Cup match, and often priced well out of many people’s means to even travel to the host  city.   This years FIFA Fan Fest in Sydney will have the capacity to hold 30,000 people, and is expected to reach capacity on all match days.

-Nahid

It’s funny how things move in cycles here.  Our roots from some of our earliest customers were in the event management market.  When I came to Shiftboard, most of those customers were in film and music festivals.  We supported them well and continue to do so, but it took a women’s soccer team and a fall season to bring event scheduling into focus for me.

Our family had attended a few University of Washington soccer games a year for years.  But over the past two years, Lesle and Amy, the head coach and assistant head coach of the University of Washington women’s soccer team respectively, have become good friends of ours.  Amy and her husband have two boys the same age as my two boys, and they play on some teams together.  Lesle’s high school-age son watches our kids sometimes, and keeps them busy running around more often.  Those two coaches probably think of it more as a cruel twist of fate that they know us, because I now and then after a game I step into my “armchair mid-fielder” role (I know virtually nothing about soccer, which must make it unbearable).  Regardless, our family has become boosters and close followers of the team.

The way to really know event scheduling?  Working with customers of course.

As I have followed the women Huskies this season, Shiftboard has been pulled ever deeper into event management in terms of meeting customer needs.  Our customer base began to not only include a multitude of festivals, but also professional event management companies.  The first was OneReel, a local Seattle firm that runs many events including a nationally known music festival, Bumbershoot.  Then came Film Independent, which runs the Los Angeles Film Festival.  Soon we had event management companies coming from across the country, including Linder & Associates in the Washington DC area organizing federal government-sponsored events.  They recently ran a Department of Energy event, Solar Decathlon, with scheduling software provided by Shiftboard.

In parallel, sports event management firms have been knocking on our door.  Cal-Berkeley Events & Ceremonies referred us internally to Cal-Berkeley Athletics, where the ticket office schedules their personnel with our software.  The CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge came in on extremely short notice from a referral this fall.  We set them up to coordinate their 100+ carts and shuttles volunteers.  We have soccer league customers and we’re breaking into hockey. I won’t bore you with a long list, but lets just say our account managers have event management on the brain.

We are pretty darn good at supporting the requirements of this business in terms of real-time scheduling and communication.  As dates, times and locations change on very short notice in the event scheduling world, every worker has real-time visibility into the calendar status.  Our system is exceptionally intuitive for hourly workers or volunteers with little technology patience.  And our software handles events with as few as 50-100 workers and very large annual gatherings with thousands of workers or volunteers. We have earned our knowledge in terms of an all-up-round software solution through direct customer interaction across all these types of events.

It’s hard not to care

As this fall progressed into November, the personal and professional aspects of event management were running in parallel for me. I sat with my family in the bleachers last Sunday, and my blood was up.  After a great season, a UW Women’s Soccer NCAA Tournament spot rested on their final game against a highly ranked USC team.  At the beginning of the 2nd half, the Huskies were down 2-1 despite playing far better in the first half.  I was trying to forget Lesle’s words after a well-played loss earlier in the season, “I hate moral victories.”

Given past history and some “coaching” from my wife after a few Michigan football losses earlier in our relationship, I generally try not to care much about sports these days.  That outlook helps keep me from getting too competitive.  But I have come to know most of the players and certainly the coaching staff of this team.  Needless to say, my 3 year old daughter was complaining about me cheering on a cold November afternoon, “Too LOUD in my ear, Daddy!”

The team battled back with a beautiful assist and goal between two fleet-footed strikers midway through the half, combined with a lock-down defense.  The same pair almost scored a 2nd goal that half on a breakaway among other solid scoring opportunities, but a 2-2 draw was enough.  When the tournament pairings came out earlier this week, the Lady Huskies were matched against the University of Mississippi for their first game.  Looks like in terms of both event management here at Shiftboard and more importantly the Husky Women’s Soccer tournament bid . . . IT’S ON!

-Rob E