Create and share dynamic visiting schedules. Faster.

Event Managing

Scheduling visits for delegations and visits for faculty and delegations visiting campus is a fairly frequent task at the Center for International Educational, and is also fairly challenging and error prone. The trick is that you have to put together a schedule of events ranging from group meals, to lab visits, to office meetings, to presentations, all of which involve multiple people who must be contacted, added to the schedule, notified of changes as the schedule evolves, etc. The current approach to tackling this challenge is about as outdated as Fred Flintstone: somebody arranging the visit starts a Word document with the schedule, then goes crazy calling people, trying out one arrangement, adding new people and so on. The process is not only time-intensive but error-prone, as participants get confused on where they are scheduled due to multiple changes, and multiple versions of the evolving schedule mailed around as an attachment (usually forgetting to include several people in the CC list).

What is needed is a powerful web app that provides easy access to the evolving schedule by all parties, including viewing, accepting appointments, and updating events. Remember how hard it was to find suitable group meeting times before Doodle.com offered their free service? Just as Doodle revolutionized meeting scheduling, CUthen will revolutionize the complex challenges associated with efficiently arranging an agenda. Although the primary target is for the client to use in scheduling visiting groups to CIE, it will be natural to allow other units at NAU access to this powerful tool to schedule their visitors, or even to offer it as an open web-app like Doodle.com.