SchipulCon is almost here – get your Tendenci + business learn on!

SchipulCon 2011 Quadracopter Promo of Awesome! from Schipul – The Web Marketing Co. on Vimeo.

Our SchipulCon 2011 event is October 6th and 7th here in Houston, TX.  Sure it’s a Web marketing conference – but a Web marketing conference x 1,000,000!!!

Be there for the great Tendenci 5 unveiling!

As a Tendenci software all star, you’ll learn about the new Tendenci 5 platform with an exciting unveiling on Day 2 of our great conference.  You’ll get special access to a free beta invite where you can play around with a new Tendenci 5 website of your own – how cool is that!?

Learn the ins and outs of ‘Smart’ Tendenci websites

Join programming manager John-Michael Oswalt for a neat look at how to build ‘smart’ websites that communicate to your visitors more efficiently, make your website management life easier and create an exciting new way for your community to interact with your Tendenci website.

Sign up for FREE support time with our ‘Ask A Geek’ sessions

Do you have a Tendenci, blogging, Facebook, Search Engine Marketing or other Web-related question?  Sign up for one of our FREE 20 minute support session slots and access the collective Schipul brain.  We’ll help trouble shoot, brainstorm and show you new ways of doing the great work you’re already doing on the Web.

Learn more about our ‘Ask a Geek’ session schedules here!

But of course there’s way more business and brain building content than cool Tendenci discussion and training happening at SchipulCon this year, check out some of these great sessions too:

Join the SchipulCon kick off party at Saint Arnold’s Brewery 9/21

SchipulCon 2011 robot party - join us

Ever feel the need to check out the awesomeness of conference attendees BEFORE you get there?  Ever wish you could spend an evening getting to rub elbows and grabbing a pint with speakers, organizers, sponsors and…. robots…. without the official conference pressure?

We hear ya’ – and have set up one heck of a fun soiree for you at the one and only Saint Arnold’s Brewery  for those exact purposes!

Join the fun with our SchipulCon Pop Up Party – an evening of beer, bites and fun to help kick off the upcoming SchipulCon event on October 6th – 7th.  We’re excited to have great food to nibble on from Radical Eats and some pretty nifty surprises you’ll have to see to believe.

>>> Register here for our FREE SchipulCon kick off party and be in the running for some cool prizes

And speaking of awesome SchipulCon prizes….

The SchipulCon kick off party is not just about the FREE BEER (although we can all agree that’s critical),  it’s about WINNING.

Since we just celebrated Schipul’s 14th birthday, we’re giving $100 bucks off to the first 13  people through the door — and the 14th person will attend SchipulCon for FREE.

So get your 14th-person-through-the-door strategy ready, and don’t run over anyone in the brewery. (Didn’t your mother teach you not to drink and run?)    Don’t think you can be in the first 14? No one’s going home empty-handed.

Everyone who attends gets $50 off registration until noon on Thursday 9/22. Because sometimes robots like to sleep in after a night at Saint Arnold’s…. just sayin’.

So don’t delay – get your registration on already!

Nothing says a good time like beer, robots and a room full of brainy awesome people – what better way to celebrate a Wednesday than with you!  Register for your spot at the SchipulCon kick off party – can’t wait to cheers you.

 

 

Hear ye, hear ye – welcome SchipulCon sponsor Texas Ren Fest!

Texas Renaissance Festival comes to SchipulCon

While there won’t be any jousts and we are not encouraging attendees to wear chain mail (although that would be hilarious), we are excited to welcome the Texas Renaissance Festival as a SchipulCon sponsor!  (Disclosure, they are a Schipul client)

The Ren Fest folks be spreading good cheer (in Olde English, of course) and are providing every SchipulCon attendee with 2 tickets to the festival which, conveniently enough, begins the weekend following SchipulCon.

Grab those SchipulCon tickets now, before the goblins get them!

SchipulCon registrations are going fast, be sure to sign you and your favorite co-workers of the round table to enjoy the brain growing and, mayhaps, mead imbibing experience!  Our Labor Day discount code ($25 / ticket off, good until 11:45pm Monday, September 5th) is the perfect accompaniment to your registration:  laborday  

And who knows?  You might even make some new fairy friends!  Photos thanks to Ed Schipul

Meet Brian Sullivan + use our SchipulCon Labor Day discount!

SchipulCon loves robots

Give your wallet the day off with our handy Labor Day discount code!

While Labor Day was originally designed to celebrate “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations”, the SchipulCon robots are putting their own spin on the holiday offering a handy discount code to all of our favorite laborers, leaders and learners.

Get your SchipulCon tickets with $25 to spare (that’s a decent happy hour tab, folks!) by using this code until Monday, September 5th 11:45pm:  laborday

Brian Sullivan SchipulCon speaker

Meet super hero design speaker Brian Sullivan

As if a coupon wasn’t exciting enough, we have even cooler news!  Please welcome Brian Sullivan, founder of The Big (D)esign Conference – among other notable achievements, as one of our amazing SchipulCon speakers!

Brian is joining us as an inspirational and actionable presenter bent on reaching the designer within all of us.  Yes, even you CEO of that awesome company.  And YOU, marketing director of our favorite nonprofit.

Read more about his great presentation “Collaborative Sketching for Design Ideation” and get ready to turn your brilliant ideas into well-planned and well-received successes in your business through the power

Get your SchipulCon tickets – don’t forget your favorite co-workers and clients

Know that post-conference high you get when your brain is so crammed full of ideas that you just can’t bear your old mediocre workstyle any longer?  Be sure to bring along your office cohorts so they can join in on the inspiration and excitement too!

Want to bring a group?  Let us know and we’ll connect you to a great group rate.  Getting hyper about SchipulCon and want your brand to join in the awesomeness?  Check out our totally awesome SchipulCon sponsorship info and be part of the buzz!  Can’t wait to learn and play on October 6th – 7th!

>> Awesome robot image thanks to Flickr user Steve.M~

Event Management is Easier than Ever in Tendenci 5.0 for Professional Organizations

Back to School week also marks the return of Professional Organizations’ events after the summer break.  That’s why our programmers skipped summer vacation and added a ton of great features to the T5 Event Management Module.  I have been absolutely loving how much easier it is to create, manage, and update events in Tendenci 5.0 compared to Tendenci 4.0.

Check out some of the ways we’ve made it quick and easy to create and manage your organization’s Fall Event Calendar using Tendenci software.

With Tendenci’s New Single Page Event Form – It Takes Just 2-Clicks to Create an Event

We made our “Add an Event” form just ONE single page allowing you to create each new event from your website without having to sort through multiple page loads.  We made it easier to add new events inside the Admin navigation bar and now you can add a new event from any page on your website.  Click to add a new event, fill out the event details and then click to create the event – it’s that easy!

1 Page – More Event Options

We may have saved you some pages when creating your events – we didn’t skimp on the features and that page is fully loaded with customizable fields and event options to let you create and price your events in virtually any way you can imagine.  Here are just a few of the changes we made in Tendenci 5.0 compared to T4.

* Add multiple speakers to your event summary.

Simply click to add another speaker while you are creating the event, and without ever leaving the page – a new speaker box is created instantly.  After you add the new speaker’s details in, just click to add another speaker and another speaker box is revealed.  Repeat until you’ve added your entire panel without ever leaving the event form.

Easily Add multiple speakers to Tendenci 5 event form

*Automatic addition of Google maps to help show your guests how to get to your event.

Just fill in your event’s address on the event form and when you save it, Tendenci will automatically add a Google map to your event summary.  Registrants can view the venue on a map, click to get directions from their location, and all the cool extra map functions that Google Maps includes like street views and searching for nearby places.

*Add multiple ticket prices based on membership types.

Tendenci Events lets you set a different price for members than non-members, and you can segment your ticket prices by membership types, students, and corporate levels to create as many different ticket prices as you want.

*We listened to your requests and have added bundled ticket packages.

Tendenci now has the ability for you to sell Ticket Bundles for special group events like a Golf Tournament or Table Sponsorships.  You decide how much the bundled package costs AND how many tickets are in the bundle.  And you can create as many different ticket bundles as you need for your event – in the same single page event form!

*Discount Codes!

Tendenci 5.0 includes the ability to create custom discount codes for events that allow you to offer special promotional discounts.  Have a little fun creating unique discount code names, then easily track where your registrants are hearing about your event and signing up by tracking registration based on discount codes used.

*Manage the entire registration and payment process on your website with our payment integration options.

Tendenci integrates with Authorize.Net and FirstData credit card merchant services.  Your guests can register and pay on your website event calendar.

Your Website Guests Will Love How Easy it is to Register for Events Too!

We know that creating the event online is only one part of event management and that’s why we included tons of new features in Tendenci for administering the event after you’ve created it.

These features will save you time and frustration before, during and after your event.

*New Reporting tools for you.

We included event reporting tools that allow you to easily find invoices, see who has paid and who hasn’t, calculate totals and more.

*Communicate with your event registrants about any changes or announcements via email quickly with our event email tool.

You can select all registrants, paid registrants, or unpaid registrants and immediately send an email update for your event to your attendees.

These are just some of the new features that Tendenci 5.0 includes for managing events.  If you want to know more, then check-out our upcoming Event Management with Tendenci 5.0 Free Webinar or just Contact Us to schedule a demo of all of Tendenci 5.0’s capabilities.


Support some great SXSWi 2012 panels!

SXSW 2012 promotion

SXSWi reigns as the Geek Supreme Conference for marketers, technologists and entrepreneurs alike.   The Schipul team attends and speaks regularly at this great event – boy do we love the energy, fun and creativity that is found walking through the streets of Austin in March every year!

In the spirit of awesome content and even more awesome SXSWi attendees, we have created another SXSW Proposed Panel Page (say that five times fast) to help support Schipul and friends’ favorite SXSWi 2012 panels to vote on!

Let us help you promote your SXSWi panel submission!

Did you submit a panel or see a few that you want to spread the word about?   Leave us a comment on this post with the link and reason why you think it rocks – we’ll add it to our community proposal page!

Can’t wait until March 2012?     Be sure to check out this handy ‘First-Timer’s Guide to SXSW’ and take a look at some of our adventures we have had with our favorite geeks and companies throughout the years.   Like pretty pictures instead, we can do that 🙂

Looking forward to bumping into you in line at a party and Tweeting at you in a packed conference room full of amazing minds next year!

How to support your favorite SXSWi panels

SXSW panel picker process

Unlike most conferences, SXSWi has a very interesting panel selection process.   Your vote and comments count for 30%, the SXSW Advisory Board mindtrust counts for 40% and SXSW staff weigh in with the final 30% – all designed to help deliver some of the most intriguing and diverse content of any event.

How often do you get to have your voice heard as an attendee?   Dig through the main PanelPicker 2012 interface and explore proposals by category, tag, title and more.   Once you’re logged in, you can give panels a thumbs up or down, then leave your comments on each individual page.

Comments are a great way to recommend a speaker you have seen before, leave feedback (hopefully constructive!) on the topic or just express your general excitement – which is also a great feeling for wannabe panelists.   Don’t forget to Tweet, Facebook, Google + and email topics you think SXSWi 2012 just shouldn’t be without.   A little promotion can go a long way for any speaker’s success.

And finally – comment with a link to your favorite SXSWi 2012 panels so we can add them to our list!   Voting and commenting ends on September 2nd, so don’t delay – we want to see what panels inspire you.   Thanks!

Membership Management Module for Tendenci 5.0 Launches

Tendenci Membership Module Dashboard Icon

At the end of June, we announced the release of Tendenci 5.0 – the newest version of the Tendenci CMS platform that helps businesses, non-profit organizations, and associations manage memberships and events on their websites.   We have made some big improvements in the core membership module between Tendenci 4.0 and Tendenci 5.0 (T5 as we like to call it here at Schipul) and we think you are going to love them!
Tendenci Membership Module Dashboard Icon

T5 Memberships are Customizable

Tendenci Add New Membership Type ScreenshotOur membership management tools enable you to customize the membership titles, membership applications, reminders and renewal notices.  Once you have set-up membership types and imported and approved members then you can also customize your membership directory (listing pages).  The T5 membership module enables your organization to easily create and update the levels of memberships, your communications to your members, and more!

T5 Memberships are Flexible

You now have the ability to set-up a variety of different membership types/levels, different prices for the membership levels and for renewals, length of memberships, management of expirations, grace periods and renewals.  A few examples of how we have increased flexibility in Tendenci Membership Management:

  1. You can create a student membership level that costs $25 and is good for 1 year, and also create a corporate membership that costs $150 that lasts 2 years.
  2. You can set-up a membership to expire in any number of days, months, or years that you would like.
  3. You can have a membership expire with a 30-day grace period, a discount for renewing before the expiration date, and more!

Tendenci Membership Application Screenshot

T5 Memberships are Selective

Want corporate members to receive discounts on job board postings and regular members to be able to apply for free?  With the new Tendenci membership module – you control what content your members can access, can update, and what price they pay for things like events and job board postings.  Members can pay a reduced fee to register for an event and you can control who is allowed to update event photos to a gallery or view and contribute to content on the website.  Having more control over what members can and cannot access allows you to offer more members-only benefits to increase sales of memberships.

T5 Memberships are Unlimited

The different ways you can customize and manage memberships for your organization on your website are virtually limitless and best of all – Tendenci 5 allows for you to have an unlimited number of membership types.

We also make it easy for you to import membership from your Tendenci 4 website when you call us to migrate or if you are not on Tendenci – we can import your members and memberships from a CSV file.

Beginning in August, we will be holding free online webinar training on how to use Tendenci 5.0’s membership management tools and if you would like to find out more about upgrading to Tendenci 5.0 – give us a call and we’ll schedule a live demo just for you.

SchipulCon tech + marketing conference coming October 6th -7th!

SchipulCon web marketing and tech conference

SchipulCon web marketing and tech conference

Let us help grow your marketing and tech brain!

The Schipul crew (the team behind your Tendenci website software) is holding another SchipulCon event — our fantastic web marketing, technology and innovation conference in Houston, TX on October 6th – 7th.

We’ll be covering some pretty amazing topics all designed to grow your brain and organization, as well as leave you inspired for challenges to come in the new year.

Pick up some new Tendenci tricks, learn more about T5, pick up pointers on your marketing strategy, play with robotics and so much more!  Check out our ever-growing list of speakers to see who is on deck.  You’re going to love it!

Early bird registration ends July 31st – that $100 savings will go far in helping you bring more folks from your organization.  Join us for SchipulCon!