Focus on Competition - 2010/05

Online event listing: This will
attempt to be a short tutorial on using and
navigating the new event listing on the
AMA Web site. To quickly clear up one of
Technically Speaking ...
Greg Hahn
Technical Director
[email protected]
Focus on Competition
the most asked questions, the old calendar
and the new event listing will not work
together.
When we were tasked with creating the
online sanction portal, the first item we had
to come up with was a searchable event
listing to coordinate with the sanctioning
process. The old calendar software was
extremely dated and the company was out
of business, so there was no chance to get
upgrades. The old calendar and the new
listing operate with their own databases, so
obviously they won’t play together.
The reason for the event listing having
the look it does was to keep it looking as
close as possible to what is printed in the
magazine, hopefully making it familiar to
all you users. When you run a search, the
listing you get will have the feel of the
magazine listing without the small columns.
And also the font is larger and should be
much easier to read without a magnifying
glass.
One of the huge benefits of the new
listing is it being updated every 24 hours.
So when you do search for an event, you are
getting the most accurate and timely listing
that is possible.
Always keep in mind that the accuracy
of the search is completely dependent on the
info you put in the blanks. The fewer blanks
you fill, the larger your response will be.
The only required fields are “Flying”/”Nonflying”
and the start and end date. You will
only be allowed to spread the date 12
calendar months.
We have removed the asterisk from
“City” because it was causing problems
with users thinking it was a required field.
And of course putting a city in the search
often narrowed the search so much that the
event you were looking for didn’t come up.
Also, the obvious, if you knew where the
event was, you wouldn’t be searching for it
in the first place.
We didn’t include a “district” drop down
because we felt that the sizes of the districts
were too large for most users. But as time
will tell, it might be something we include
at a later date.
Once your search is complete and if you
wish, you simply push the print button and
print a copy of your listings. As time goes
on we will continually look at the system
and make updates and small changes as the
need arises.
As always, your comments are always
welcome and we’re here to help. MA