Most of the time, I would say 25% absenteism.
On event which requires payment in advance, 0%...

I say the same thing, or close to, as Yoan R

between 10 and 20% in a normal event and, strangely, 0% if i ask a payement in advance...

Hi Richard,

you are right, I had 12 registers and only 2 showed up for the actual event,  90% cancelled an hour before they were due to arrive...

In my experience, it depends on the way the activity is announced

If I don't put the exact location on the post but send it only to people who signed up, as a rule of thumb, I reckon with 30% of no-shows and 0 unexpected guest.

If I put the exact location on the post: same proportion of no-shows, but partly compensated by 15%-20% of people showing up without having signed up.

So Richard, your no-show rate seem pretty close to the norm, even if it's not satisfactory.

Hello,

There is another post, more general about how to improve event organization in glocals. 

Feel free to post your ideas!

http://www.glocals.com/forums/general/How-to-improve-event-organization-through-glocals--185576.htm#msg_185580

I think it depends on the kind of event. When i do a live music event more people turn up than actually register, and some of those who register just dont show. 

Its a pain sometimes, when they dont show , especially when i have reserved places, and those that show up without rsvp ing just makes things more awkward, when we run out of space. 

Ive done drinks nights where no one has registered but 40 or 50 ppl turn up, just because they know its on . Ive alos done them , where there have been lots of registrations, and no one shows up . I reckon its a 60/40 mix for my events ..

Its not satisfactory at all , as an organisor, many of us go to great effort to make sure the night goes well, as well as organising the event itself. I think part of the issue is because people just want to wait until the last minute to decide what they are doing.. sometimes its weather related, and at other times its party related. 

The more people that actually sign up, the more people want to come , because the perception is that it must be good if youve got lots of sign ups ... but not good if they dont. 

It would be maybe a good idea if we had a maybe button for the undecided ones, and then we could factor this in when organising event.s

As we will organize events for humans, we should not have too many expectations.
There will always be people late
There will always be people not satisfied.
There will always be people who lack education and respect.

It is like that,  it is included in the organizer function.

Rather than get upset against a minority, I try to watch the majority.

I have plenty of people who thank me
I have many people who are very happy to come with me.
I have many people who have a lot of respect for me.

This is also included in the organizer function.

The participants in an activity often represent what can be found across the globe. We can not change that, so rather than wasting energy to fight, I try to accept it. Although if sometimes it's difficult.

Christophe, with all due respect, you organize activities in Lausanne and this makes a huge difference with Geneva. 

Generally speaking - and this is not only my experience but the one of many - Geneva people (whatever Swiss or foreign) tend to be more versatile and less committed. 

I am not complaining but just asked the question if others had similar experiences. There are similar websites where your profile is suppressed after 3 no shows. That might seem tough but they consider quality is more important than quantity.

However if I still organize activities after 4 years this means of course that I find satisfaction in what I am doing. But I also think of friends and acquaintances who were great organizers and who gave up due to lack of respect.

I take this opportunity to thank Glocals and its founders for enabling us to meet so many interesting people whom we might have never come across hadn't there be such social networks.

Hello Richard,

Whether in Geneva or 60 km away, for example in Lausanne, an expatriate is an expatriate. A person from another country.

Maybe he should watch the activity itself: I think a nightclub output does not attract the same people an evening dedicated to a philosophical debate.

I'm sure you have the pleasure to organize activities, it is no doubt.

You spend time trying to change, control, improve what's bothering you.
I respect your approach.
For my part, I try to make another choice: To accept what is. It's not perfect, but I'd rather spend my time doing something else. It does not bother me enough that I spend time.

I think there is no solution to this problem.

I am on "On va sortir" is the same kind of site Glocals but with a local clientele.
The system is much more strict and repressive as Glocals.
The result is exactly the same....

I hope you find a solution for this problem.

good luck to you and have a nice day

PS:
Sorry for my english, i am swiss, french mother tongue.

Richard - i know from experience it is a pain especially if numbers are important for things like discounts/reservations - but 60% turn-out is actually quite good --- concentrate on the people who DO show - its better to have 6 committed people rather than 10 half-assed

Christophe B:

Thanks. You mention you also use another site - on vas sortir - to organize events, and that the other site uses a more strict approach to dealing with no shows. Could you pls share a little info about their approach and tools for dealing with no shows?

Thanks for your help,

Nir

I have already shared my point of views on no-shows in post 113 of this thread:

http://www.glocals.com/forums/general/Glocals--new-etiquette--163314.htm

I still believe what I wrote there.

Nir, we already mentioned the "OnVaSortir" way of managing no-shows on that other thread too. They show a participation rate on each profile and organizers can set a cancellation time limit on their event (post 26 and 31).

I am mainly participant and just orginizing events. I must say agree with Christophe B. Here are what I think:

- First, orginizers should be aware of the fact that there are no shows without notification. So he or she can be prepared. 

- Second, orginizers should not take no shows as an offensive behavior and get affected. Deal with reality....

We are ALL aware of the fact there will be no shows. To be honest, when organising events NO SHOWS are very frustrating, especially when places have been reserved for an event. So when someone puts there name down for an event, then it is expected that they turn up. If they cancell and inform the organisor that they are not coming, then its not an issue. It becomes an issue when an event is full and then people just dont show up . It IS Offensive behaviour... if you have no intention of showing up, then you shouldnt put your name on the list. We all understand circumstances can change, but please have some respect for others, and let us know . This is reality... 

100% ok with that : We all understand circumstances can change, but please have some respect for others, and let us know .

@ Nir : I give a answer this evening ;)

Let me share a great experience I had lately.

I had been willing to organise a line-dancing evening, American country style, for a long time. I knew the perfect place in Lausanne to do it. There was a country music band on April 27 for a live concert. I contacted a couple of line-dancing schools. When I went to discuss the organisation of the evening with the venue manager, I explained to him the "reality" of Glocals and he told me he could not afford too many no-shows on a Saturday night. We agreed on a percentage of cancellations, meaning that if too many people bailed out we still would have had to pay so he advised me to ask for payment of the menus in advance.

Honestly, I was not comfortable with the idea of asking people to pay in advance. I always managed to avoid this for all the events I had posted so far on Glocals. But I knew if I really wanted to have that evening, I would have to do it (I had a sad experience at a restaurant in the past where 10 people from Glocals didn't show up and I was threatened to pay for them by the manager). So I contacted Rich for advice as I knew he had a good experience in the matter with his fondue evenings at Chateau de Nyon (thanks for your tips mate by the way!).

In the end, the evening was a great success! Not only I had great fun but I think everybody did. And guess what... despite the Lausanne marathon blocking all the streets and the heavy rain... there was 0 no-shows! Just one person was sick and had to cancel but other 2 people decided to come at the last minute which made up for it. In total we were 38 people, more than I had hoped... The venue manager and the dance school were happy too and they already told me they'd be very happy to do other events with us. My accounts were precise and I managed to give the exact change back to the last franc to everyone.

So my conclusion is that setting up the event post so that people have to request an invite or drop a line to the organiser does help. The downside is that participants couldn't see who else was coming but only one person seemed to care so I emailed the Glocals names to that person. Payment in advance is also quite efficient although it is more work for the organiser. The additional work is counterbalanced by the fact that on the evening nobody had to worry about money. The drinks were paid on the spot which avoided any mistake.

http://www.glocals.com/things-to-do/lausanne/56705.htm

@NIr: if you need more infos on how onvasortir.com handles the problem I can also provide you explanations. I have been a member since 2008 and organized over 100 activities there. The presence rate I had was between 80% to 100%.

@Chris:  I respect your philosophy (very buddhist) and admire you for this but depending on the activity you really have to book in advance and get annoyed when half of participants show up.

During the last 55 weeks i have organized the " leisurely saturday brunch " in lausanne. We have had, more often than not, 4-6 people sign up and 10-16 people show up. As it is quite unmanagebale to have 16 people around a table made up for 10, it is somwhow unfortunate that some people feel they don't need to sign up, as it is like an "open house". Even when the limit was set to 10, and the event was "full" some people showed up anyway! In conclusion, it is really great that the Café des Avenues does not hold this against the Glocals group, and we all have a good relaxing saturday morning brunch. I gess you can't have it all ways!

@ Nir : on the site I mentioned, there is a system that allows the organisteur an event, to classify people into different categories of color. It also allows participants to judge the organizer.
It just works: You take part in an event, you judge the organizer and participants judge him.
The system takes into account only the last four months.

As I've told you, it does not change. It happens exactly the same as Glocals. Sometimes people do not show up.
The only thing that is a little different is that people have a greater tendency to make excuses. But basically, it changes nothing.

There is another thing : On Glocals, the average age is around 30 years, maybe less. On "On va sortir" the average age is around 45.
in général, there is a difference in maturity, wisdom and respect ( i say in general, not blame me) ;o)

@ Richard : You're right, if I have to book something, I ask that people pay in advance. Strangely, when people pay before they are all present. ;o)

have a nice day :)

My events are not typicial as they are primarily for friends or club (CAS, Oxygène74 and next year Geneverando) members and I reserve places for glocals members but not every time.

So a glocal member is being invited to participate in an already organised event where the attendance is around 50% Swiss/Savoyard and the language tends to be French.  This already weeds out those glocals members who do not wish to integrate and my no show rate is very low, as is my tolerance level.  If somebody does not turn up and does not warn me in advance, then they are automatically blacklisted (even if they are members of the club). They do not know they are and not does anybody else. 

Since I have started advertising my outings on glocals partly in French my no show rate has dropped to almost zero

One other hint.  If somebody starts asking a lot of questions about the event you can be pretty sure they will cancel.

That was SUCH a good evening Izzie and so well organised.  

You have the organisation of glocals evenst "down to a tee".  

The Italian meal at Restaurant a l'theatre was another example where you made it clear and organised everyone's food, everyone's bill and nobody was in any doubt at to what had to be paid at the end of the evening (although I have to take some credit for suggesting that you write down the cost of everyone's meal down at the beginning of the evening, rather than at the end!)

Clarity in the posting is everything and you manage to do that every time - whether it's Cafe Philo with drinks or a large dinner in Lausanne.   Thank you Sweetness, you are fab and we all appreciate the effort you put into organising dinners, cafe philo and other activities :-)

Christophe B is one of the coolest people on the planet.  He doesn't have any "rules" about who can show up and who "can't" show up. He welcomes everyone onto his hikes (even me!!) and is totally relaxed about the numbers (sometimes going WAY over!).  I have been guilty of just turning up (which I hate when I organise a hike!) and he is totally cool with it.

He is a living example of the "glocals community spirit" - that doesn't mean that I like or dislike the guy as we've had some "run ins" in the past (mainly on vertigo issues!) but I can't critisise his way of doing things - AT ALL and I totally respect him for it :-)