Export to a Spreadsheet

Can I use a Spreadsheet to organize my data?
Is there a way to transfer my data to a spreadsheet?

Many people are very comfortable with using spreadsheets to organize information related to their conference. I understand...change is hard and we tend to go towards that which is comfortable. So for those of you who want to suffer the pain of using a spreadsheet, we have provided a means for doing what we call a "dataDump" for this very purpose. To understand how to create a spreadsheet, please look at the dataDump topic. But please note the following warning regarding working with spreadsheets.

Spreadsheets are so last century...

Warning: Although using spreadsheets may be a known and comfortable way for you to work, you need to realize that there is a huge downside in that you are working with is static and not dynamic data. In other words, any changes made by an attendee to their record after you do the dataDump is not reflected in your spreadsheet. We have found that some people take the dataDump and spend hours organizing their data into a familiar format. Then a week later they do another dataDump and they are then faced with the big question... "do we update our original spreadsheet or do we reorganize this data again into our preferred format."

In the past six months I've had two people describe their process to me and that they spend nearly ten hours organizing data. I tried to be as gentle as I could when I broke the news that they could have done 90% of what they wanted in about two minutes straight from EventCORE. Sure they gave up some pretty fonts and they couldn't work if they didn't have an internet connection, but for ten hours of my time I'll stick with and Arial Font and pay the $9.99 for the hotel connection.

Over the years, here are some common examples for how spreadsheets are used in managing an event:

Yet to Pay: A common practice is to pull all of the people who have yet to pay and then send an email to remind them to pay.
Arrival Times: Another practice is to organize the attendees according to their arrival times.
Organize Housing: A spreadsheet can be sorted by to put roommates together line by line
Alphabetic Check-In Listing: Used as people arrive to determine who has shown up for the event.

We have recognized the need to perform these types of actions. As such, we have build in some very specific features that significantly simplify this process.

Yet to Pay Report: In the Attendee View section, there is a report titled, "Yet to Pay" it will show you your unpaid people. You can also then use the "Bulk Mail Feature" to send an email to all those who haven't paid. It keeps track of when the emails were sent so that you can send appropriate follow-up emails. These emails also include personalized links that take a person directly to their log in.

Arrival Times: In the same "Attendee View" section you will find a listing of arrival times. You can then also use "Bulk Mail" to send out emails but what makes this work so well is that the email is customized with what has been filled out already and it highlights areas that are missing.

Organizing Housing: The program has a build in roommate selection tool that allows attendees to match themselves with other attendees. The on-line housing reports can produce housing lists, hotel reports and there are also build in tools that allow you to move people between rooms.

Check In: The tool has a feature that allows you to quickly check-in people by typing in a person's name. You can then see on-line in real time if people have arrived or not from anywhere there is Web access. You don't have to pour through lists and match up notes.

Disclaimer
We welcome your proving us wrong about spreadsheets. If you have a way that you're using a spreadsheet because EventCORE can't do it as well or better, please let us know. It may be that a simple tweak is all that's needed to bring you back to the on-line reports.

Summary
In summary, there clearly is a place for spreadsheets, but most not likely in the way you're thinking. I've been running an event for eight years that has around 250 attendees and we do everything from within EventCORE. So our encouragement to you is to do as much processing on-line and through the system.