Sun, 14 May 2006
Event Signup Emails - What I do with them
I've had a couple of people ask what I do with peoples emails addresses
once they've sent me a request to sign-up/register. In an attempt to
prove I'm not making millions with them (but if you know a way, I'm
open... :)) I thought I'd document the reasons I ask for email addresses
and what I do with them afterwards.
The reasons I ask for them are pretty simple: so I can adjust the venue if we need somewhere with a bigger capacity. The original Frameworks night venue held 40 people. We ended up with 207 people in the audience. Without knowing how many people were going to turn up I'd have turned a lot of unhappy people away.
Secondly, some venues require a list of attendees before they'll let anyone in. If we go somewhere that does this I give them names but not email addresses. This way they can check you off their list but they can't spam you.
The last real reason is so that I can send interested people last minute updates/amendments. If Murphy bites I'd like to let as many people know as early as possible. Most people read their personal mail before mailing lists so having your address available may make the difference between a cold night on your own outside a locked building and sitting indoors watching Firefly.
After the event I nuke the mailbox I stored the sign up emails mails in, and the sent mails about the event. I keep a tally of how many people registered, for future planning, but I don't keep any specific details on individuals. Hopefully, making the why more transparent with ease suspicions. Yeah, right.
PS: The most amusing one so far was a man complaining (via email) that he didn't want me having his email address...
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Posted: 2006/05/14 15:10 | /unixdaemon | Permanent link to this entry | This entry + same date
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