Thursday! Live!

[Constance Peregrine]

I will try to attend this as the time is decent for me and Thursday is clear for me [of course, Thursdays are ALWAYS clear for me!!].

[Dot Matrix]

I've posted details about this event (copied from this thread) to the large event board on the Kitely Welcome Center.

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Roxy,

I think that the performance times may be a bit too early for most working people. There are enough people in SL to get good crowds at all times but that isn't the case on the Hypergrid. I think what we've seen is that the people who arrived at these times are from a rather small group of a few dozen people who could make it. However, after a few shows some of these people stopped attending all of the shows which resulted with low turnouts.

Scheduling for a later hour may make it possible for more people to attend so even if people don't make all the shows there will still be a sufficient crowd to justify a live performance.

[Dot Matrix]

Those who were there were appreciative and made sure they tipped Tip.

It was a good concert.

[Ilan Tochner]

I'm just guessing Roxy. We have several active community members from Europe but most our our users are from the US. I know that many people wanted to attend the Kitely Community Meetings and couldn't because 1pm PST was too early for them even if they were on the east coast (people either still at work or on the way back home).

[Ilan Tochner]

I think it may have been both. When it was new we got a lot of people who could attend to attend. But after a few shows people started seeing how this fits in with their regular schedules so they stopped attending all the performances. If the people attending were mostly from a small group of people having them go down from attending every show date to attending every other show date would result in half the number of people showing up.

The way to work around that is to (A) try to reach more people who can make the show times and (B) schedule the show times for when more people are available.

[Ilan Tochner]

Attendance in the events went to the mid 20s for some events and those did get people visiting from other grids. I don't think there was a set time people were aware of, something in the line of "2 shows every Wednesday at 1pm PST in this location". You'll note that it's been almost a month since we changed the day of the Kitely Community Meetings from Wednesdays to Sundays and some people have still not become aware of it (which is why we still have that announcement promoted in the forums).

A think fixed times with no variation work best. It gives people something they can plan their schedules around. You put on a lot of shows on multiple days and that made it difficult for the hard core of your group to fit all those performances into their schedule. Remember the first few performances which got a lot more PR got crowds that both you and the performers were happy with. I suggest you reduce the frequency and set a fixed time each week for just 1 or two shows. Less is more in this case. You'll get higher attendance and it will require less work to get it.

[Ilan Tochner]

Different fruits indeed but the underlying principle is the same, it takes time for people to learn of and get used to recurring events. The Wednesday at 1pm PST timeslot was the second most desired spot after the Sunday at 1pm PST timeslot which we're using for the weekly Kitely Community Meetings. I think it has a better chance of getting people to attend than a changing schedule. That said, if you look at the recent poll we did for what days/times people preferred for the community meetings you'll see that many people stated that they'd like to attend but that 1pm PST was still a bit too early for them.

[Ilan Tochner]

As you wish Roxy

[Dot Matrix]

At the Community Meeting on Sunday 1st February, the group discussed how to support those setting up events in Kitely, and how to make sure people knew they were on. Part of the discussion touched on scheduling and frequency of events, and size of audiences. See Event types, scheduling and attendance.