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Why do event sites suck?

jtoy.net

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Re: Why do event sites suck?

#3

Post by byoung2 »

toisanji wrote: post #2

I think this could be turned into a startup. thoughts?

I think it's definitely a good idea...the hurdle you would face is getting the data. Maybe the existing event sites thought of spidering data but were unsuccessful. How would you do it differently?

Re: Why do event sites suck?

#4

Post by toisanji »

byoung2 wrote: post #3
toisanji wrote: post #2

I think this could be turned into a startup. thoughts?

I think it's definitely a good idea...the hurdle you would face is getting the data. Maybe the existing event sites thought of spidering data but were unsuccessful. How would you do it differently?

I was thinking about this. I'm not sure how the other sites did it, but I would try to write an algorithm that classifies whether a page has an event or not. If there is an event, then parse it and check for duplicates. I have some other ideas for easily allowing users to add events.

Re: Why do event sites suck?

#5

Post by StrawberryFrog »

toisanji wrote: post #2

I think this could be turned into a startup. thoughts?

upcoming? Wasn't that the startup. yahoo bought it. ( http://upcoming.yahoo.com/ )

I think the problem is structural - the money flows from gig promoters, hence the interface is not built for the user's desires.

Re: Why do event sites suck?

#6

Post by jli »

StrawberryFrog wrote: post #5
toisanji wrote: post #2

I think this could be turned into a startup. thoughts?

upcoming? Wasn't that the startup. yahoo bought it. ( http://upcoming.yahoo.com/ ) I think the problem is structural - the money flows from gig promoters, hence the interface is not built for the user's desires.

upcoming was bought by yahoo in 2005. I totally agree that the sites are built for the promoters and not the users. The biggest problem I see how can this be built for the users and make money at the same time, any ideas?

Re: Why do event sites suck?

#8

Post by bemmu »

I have this problem too, I want to find tech events, and when I ask for them people always point me to meetup.com, which I often have to leave disappointed. I just feel like I cannot trust that it really has the events I might be interested in, often I am able to find more by googling and asking around.

For example I trust Orbitz/Kayak to find nearly any flight I might care about (as long as it is not in SE asia), but there is no such site where I could search for events and not feel like I might be missing out on something.

I was thinking of this could be built, but figured I must be in some sort of minority. I assume not many people are willing to travel long distances just to attend tech events, and if they are local events, maybe you know about them already.

Re: Why do event sites suck?

#9

Post by olefoo »

Have you had a look at http://calagator.org/

It's mostly focused on Portland tech events at this time, and I don't know how well it would scale up, it's also not a business, it's provided as a service to the community which means it's not operating under the same constraints you would face as a startup.

Re: Why do event sites suck?

#10

Post by lsb »

Songkick.com is an events site, for live music events around the world, and they're awesome. They've even got a plugin for iTunes to recommend you gigs based on what you listen to.

(I no longer work there, but their product looks better than ever.)

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