I put up notes on my experiences at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Fest: https://kd2wll.winstonlawrence.us/radio_days/2021_march.html#2021-03-12_qsotoday_day1 (they are under the Ham Radio Notes section on the home page or Adventures in Radio column). To summarize though : Day 1 a work in progress - could not get mic or camera to work so had to join with NO mic and NO camera. By the time I joined (45 minutes after first attempting to login) there was not a lot going on. Email support was eventual (several hours later) and online support was a chatbot. I'm very concerned as to the security on this platform....
I'm having the same experience. Today (Saturday) I cannot find the sessions, just exhibitors; help chat is unresponsive.
This has been a total fiasco. For people who are supposed to be at the forefront of communications, this has been a complete bust in terms of seminars. Verrrrry disappointed and in good faith, the registration fees should be refunded to us users. Nobody seems to know how to make any of the seminars that I attended functional.
I was never enticed last year and from what I am reading on here, I am glad I did not waste my time (or money) this year.
I enjoyed it last year but had no luck this year. I tried an iPAd and a desktop PC. The "e-ticket" did not work and no support was forthcoming. I'm glad I only wasted $10. Will not bother with it again.
It was pretty good last year! Why fix something that was broken. Well they did. I probably won’t return.
- Ticket arrived only at the last minute. - There was a menu pick called "booths & exhibitors" that opened a blank screen (found some vendor pages later). - The presentations I wanted to watch today were not presented, with no explanation. - Looked in on a couple of others: > they were all pre-recorded > video quality was poor, especially with poorly designed slides full of dense text > saw no way to get rid of the chat window with its ongoing litany of complainers > presenters were typically just reading slide after slide - not very effective - Summary: lousy platform, poorly executed. Too bad, last years' was not bad at all. 73 Dave, VE3WI
Colossal waste of time and $10. I wasn't thrilled with the first one, but figured they would have improved it. Just the opposite. Nothing worked as advertised and I gave it several shots, with different browsers.
I thought it was okay last year and the program looks good this year. Unfortunately after repeated attempts I've not been able to get the ticket to work. I've emailed the 'contact us' and not heard back as yet. Still hoping it will turn out well in the end.
I do think they took a step back with this provider, but overall I was able to attend all the sessions and join the round tables in the lounge and arena. Looking forward to Dave, Wo2X presentation on node-red today.
Sounds a bit like the lottery. Very few winners and lots of losers. Think I'll wait for the real thing. Nice to be able to stroll around look things over chat with a few folks and maybe munch on some hamfest food. Even with the CC Virus, we had a few in this area last season.
Glad it's not just me having problems. I give up. Maybe I can win one of the prizes, but if the platform is that hosed, who knows if my visits to the booths were even noted.
I've been busy Sat and now Sunday, so planned to watch after the fact. Hopefully some of the problems will get ironed out. I very much enjoyed last year's, several presentations were top notch. It costs money to put on an event and I don't begrudge the $10. I guess from the comments the platform is different this year. Let's not be too down on the guys involved.
As a postscript. I never heard back from them and received no support in accessing the program. A great disappointment. I don't understand how they went from a smooth operation to a dud this year. It would be good if they even just acknowledged that people are having problems, but there is radio silence so to speak. That is perhaps more frustrating than the fact that it doesn't work. It's amateur radio's version of the Fyre Festival (look it up).
