We hope Paddlepoint will become the single place to find all paddle sport related events and locations (like an index), showing them where to go next for more information and the place that everyone will come to add their events or locations to. The focus for this year is on the UK but we hope to expand that to cover other paddling friendly places in the world.
You do not have to have an account to look for events, groups or locations on Paddlepoint.
All sorts of groups and organisations can use Paddlepoint to store their events and locations, we provide an easy way to add and organise your events and locations and even provide instructions on how you can use our technology on your own website.
What you will need to do and the order to do them in:
1) Register
2) Create a Public Group
3) Find or add locations your events take place at
4) Find or add events that will interest people from your group
Create your group calendar now REGISTER, we are happy to help, contact us using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of every page if you need help with anything.
Using Paddlepoint to find Events
There are all sort of ways of looking up events in Paddlepoint,
If you want to see highlights for a certain month you can use the highlight calendar, simply click on the VIEW EVENTS button at the top of every page and select how you would like to start looking for events.
If you want to know when a particular event is, you can use the search box at the top of each page to find it. The search is a simple one but does give a search result ranking.
If you know about groups (if not see the about groups section of this page), then you can also hunt for events belonging to specific groups by going to that group's calendar page. Often events for a group will not appear on the main calendar, these are events that are only of interest to people who know about that group.
Using Paddlepoint to find Locations
There are all sort of ways of looking up locations in Paddlepoint,
If you want to see all locations you can simply click on the VIEW LOCATIONS button at the top of every page.
If you want to know about a particular location, you can use the search box at the top of each page to find it. The search is a simple one but does give a search result ranking.
If you know an event happening at the location you are looking for you could find the event and then go to that events location page.
Using Paddlepoint to find Groups
There are all sort of ways of looking up groupss in Paddlepoint,
If you want to see all groups you can simply click on the VIEW GROUPS button at the top of every page.
If you want to know about a particular group, you can use the search box at the top of each page to find it. The search is a simple one but does give a search result ranking.
If you know an event belonging to the group you are looking for you could find the event and then go to that events group page (owner group).
Add Events
Paddlepoint is a great way to store events,
Adding events to Paddlepoint is easy and once they are up it is easy for people who are interested to find them. Use Paddlepoint to make it easier for you to add and maintain a calendar of events on your own website (see Paddlepoint on your own website) and to increase the number of people that get to see each event.
Before adding events to Paddlepoint you will need to register and create a public group (see groups explained). Once you have created a public group you can add events to its calendar (you should probably add the evenst location first, see add location). After adding in the events details be sure to Tag it as this is the easiest way for people who might be interested to find out about it.
After you have added an event and tagged it you can apply to have it included on the main site calendar, the site administrators will examine the event and decide if it is something that would interest the majority of the users visiting the site. If they decide it would then they will approve the application
Add Locations
Paddlepoint is a great way to store locations,
Adding locations to Paddlepoint is easy and once they are up it is easy for people who are interested to find them.
Before adding locations to Paddlepoint you will need to register and create a public group (adding a group). Once you have created a public group you can add locations to it. After adding in the locations details be sure to Tag it as this is the easiest way for people who might be interested to find out about it.
Add a Group
All events on Paddlepoint are owned by a group, when you join Paddlepoint you automatically get a private group. This is your own personal calendar and you are the only person able to see any events added to it.
To add public events you need to create a public group, you can create as many public groups as you want. Once an event is added to one of your groups a calendar entry will appear in every group on the site that subscribes to your group (see Group Subscriptions Explained). Your private group is automatically subscribed to any events that you create in any of your public groups.
Once you are logged on you can add events existing in the website to your own group's calendars with one or two simple clicks.
Using Paddlepoint on your own web site
Paddlepoint has been designed to work with your website, on every group calendar page you will see a green "Get Portlet" button at the top left. Click on this and Paddlepoint will generate a special calendar for that group with instructions on how to use it with your existing website.
Every group (A) on the site can subscribe to any other group (B), once a subscription is in place all events added to B will end up in the calendar of A automatically.
So if you have three groups, one for all your clubs activities, a group for your clubs senior training and group for your clubs junior training then your clubs main group can subscribe to the other two and each time an event is added to either of them it will appear in the clubs main calendar as well.
So what is this Beta deal?
Well, that means that we have not really finished it but wanted you to help us test and improve the site. You can expect things to change based on your feedback and if you find a few bugs we are hoping you will be a little more forgiving and let us know about them so they can be fixed.
Who are you?
My name is Craig Haupt, I paddle at Richmond Canoe Club. I am a level three placid water coach and a level two competition coach. I have only been paddling a few years, mainly marathon but never made it higher than division 7. I have a fondness for descent races have taken part in last years Liffey and Dusi (South Africa).
I do not intend to become the main site for paddlesport in the UK, I intend to become the main site for finding paddlesport events (that is an index of events). The intention is that once an event is found along with a short write up of it a person is redirected via the link that is available for the event to the best location for additional information.
I am also seeking to support canoe clubs that may wish to create their own calendars but do not have the technical ability to do so or the time. While I was responsible for my clubs website I found that updating the event calendar to contain what would be of interest to our members (the number one request from them on what info they wanted on the site) was time consuming and frustrating as the information was scattered everywhere. This is an attempt to remedy that.
This is a commercial venture in that it will (hopefully) make some revenue from the Google ads placed on the site. The site itself is however a free service to anyone that chooses to use it.
Paddlepoint is also a proving area for the idea of event sharing among communities, where the people who know the most about the event can easily make it available to others in a way that it can be found by those that are interested and used by those who want it in their own groups calendar
Other than that enjoy and please let me know what else you would like to see.
Next Release
Looking in two to four months,
Group and Event Contacts - Users creating events and groups will be able to make use of this feature, people wishing to contact them will do so through a form and will not have access to their email. This should offer added protection from Spam.
Event Reminders - Registered users will be able to set email reminders on events that interest them, they will then receive an email at the selected number of days before the event.
Google Calendar Integration - Google have released a pretty cool calendar product, visitors to the site who have a Google calendar will be able to add an event to it at the click of a button.
About the Ads
To date most of the adverts on this site have been from local companies who all help us enjoy paddling in this country, most of the people involved in them are enthusiastic paddlers like the rest of us. Please do NOT click on the adverts unless you are genuinely interested in what they are advertising.
While the site should pay for itself I do not need the money and you only hurt them and me as in the long run they may choose not to advertise here if they do not get sufficient return.
