What you are about to read may be considered controversial. I debated long and hard prior to writing this post since I often don’t write things that could be perceived as critical of Walt Disney World. And, I would like them to invite me to an event in the future. That being said, this recent story was a big one in the social media community and I felt it needed to be covered. So, here it is.
Tensions were running high in the social media world this past Friday. So much so that #disneysmmoms became a trending topic on Twitter. So, what’s all the hullabaloo about? The 2011 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. In 2010, the inaugural celebration was invitation-only and brought mom bloggers and top-notch speakers together at Walt Disney World. More than your typical conference, the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration allowed attendees to bring their families to share in the magic. A couple of lucky attendees even had the opportunity to spend a night in Cinderella Castle.
Invitations to the 2011 event were coveted by bloggers everywhere but soon the word spread on Twitter – the 2011 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration would open registration to all social media moms! For only $375, attendees would spend a long weekend at Walt Disney World and at the Grand Floridian, no less. It gets even better, 7-day park hopper passes and some meals would be provided for the attendee and up to three family members.
So How Did Something So Right Go So Wrong?
The “Save the Date” email stated that space was limited and registration was on a “first come, first registered basis.” You can imagine the buzz for this event and the number of bloggers anxiously awaiting specifics on registration. In late November, the official announcement came and once again the #disneysmmoms hashtag was active on Twitter. Registration would open on Thursday, December 2 at 2pm ET. The announcement included the information that needed to be provided during registration which included the basics, and then some information on the registrant’s social media presence such as website name, website traffic, Twitter name, number of Twitter followers, etc. As far as I know, no eligibility requirements or exclusions were listed.
If Twitter is any indicator, moms across America were anxiously waiting at their computers well before 2pm ET to be sure they were one of the “first registered”, thus securing them a spot at this conference. Registration opened and was plagued with problems from the start. Hopeful attendees reported on the spinning orange circle that refused to let them into the registration site. Other bloggers reported that they accessed the registration page only to be promptly “kicked” out. Frustrations quickly mounted. So much so that the Disney SM Moms Twitter account sent out the following message at 2:13pm.
“There is high traffic on the server. The site IS operational and we are getting registrations so keep trying!”
Near the 3pm hour, more reports of people getting registered trickled in. After providing payment information, registrants received a registration acknowledgement saying, “Thank you for your registration for the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration at Walt Disney World Resort. We are currently reviewing your registration. All registrants wil be verified prior to registration confirmation.” The acknowledgement referred to verification but I think it’s safe to say that applicants assumed it meant the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration team would make sure the bloggers were who they said they were.
Shortly after 4pm, registration closed.
Friday, 2pm. Confirmation emails were being sent out.
Shortly after 2pm, excitement turned to disappointment, bitter disappointment in some cases. Turns out many registrants were being sent an email saying that the conference was filled before their registration could be confirmed. Reactions on Twitter and Facebook ranged from “WHAT?” to sentiments I can’t print on a family friendly blog. I don’t think this was the press Disney World was looking for.
So What’s the Problem?
Credit card information was accepted (though not charged) during the registration process and acknowledgement emails were sent. In fact, the email said, “Your Credit Card information is used to hold your registration spot until your information can be verified.” It did not say, “We registered more people than available spaces and you may not be able to attend.”
Reports of people who were confirmed but registered AFTER others who were sent the “conference is full” email were rampant in the blogosphere. People felt the process was unfair and lacked transparency. Were there criteria for attendance that was not disclosed? How could people who registered in the 2pm hour be denied attendance when registration wasn’t closed until after 4pm? What happened to “first come, first registered?”
I’m not a conspiracy theorist and I don’t know what happened but I do know that there are a lot of hard feelings out there and that’s not good for a company I love. So, in the spirit of helpful suggestions, here’s my take on how Disney could have improved the registration process for the 2011 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.
Upgrade Your Servers. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone, let alone those in social media, that the response to the open registration would be overwhelming. Once the decision was made to open the registration to all bloggers, the Information Technology department should have ensured their network infrastructure could support the demand. Stress mounted when bloggers were faced with the orange circle of doom that kept spinning as they tried to access the site to register.
Set Expectations. This is one of the first lessons I learned in my professional life and it has served me well. Don’t promise something you can’t deliver. If registration was not truly first-come, first-registered, don’t say it is. If you’re going to accept more applications than spaces, be upfront about it. If there was a mistake or technical glitch, own up to it. It’s my experience that people are very understanding if they know the rules of the game before they play.
Wait List. I can understand Disney wanting to have maximum attendance at the event and there may be instances where registered attendees cannot be verified (that is they are not who they claim to be) so Disney needs to be able to fill those spaces. My county parks system has a successful wait-list system. If they can do it, it should be trivial for a company such as Disney to implement one.
Publish Criteria and Exclusions. If there were criteria for the conference, and I don’t know that there were, it should have been published well in advance. If you’re not eligible for something, you’re not going to apply. Mom bloggers wouldn’t have been left with a sense that they, and their blogs, had been personally rejected.
Rewrite Acknowledgement Page and Email. Instead of telling the applicant that her information is being verified in the acknowledgement email, leading one to believe she would be attending as long as she was who she said she was, and then sending a subsequent email saying that the conference was filled before she could be confirmed, state in the acknowledgement that not all applicants will be confirmed due to space limitations.
Did you apply for the Disney Social Moms Media Moms Celebration? What was your experience like and do you have any suggestions for next year’s process?
If you will be attending this event, congratulations! We would love to hear about your experience when you return from the conference.
Lisa M. Battista is the author of Beyond the Attractions: A Guide to Walt Disney World with Preschoolers When she’s not chasing after her little ones, you can most likely find her at the beach or in the kitchen trying her hand at a new recipe. You can follow her on Twitter @DisneyExplorer or become a fan of Beyond the Attractions on Facebook.
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I never got an email alerting me to the event, so I got all my info about registration from the event’s official web site. Maybe this is why it was very clear to me from the start that I would merely be applying for registration but might be rejected by Disney if they didn’t think I qualified. Not that I was happy about this or the Spinning Circle of Doom telling me that registration was “not available yet” for 55 minutes after registration opened.
It would be interesting to know what Disney’s criteria were for selection—as you say, they should definitely be more transparent so that those of us who’d never qualify don’t waste our time. I have a hunch that they chose people who hadn’t gone before over those who went last year, but I gave up following #DisneySMmoms so I don’t know if anecdotal evidence supports this theory…
Excellent recap. I do hope Disney takes note!
Ironically, I was in Disney World with my family on registration day. My birthday was last week, and my husband gave me an iPad because he knew I wanted to register! That way, we could stay in the park instead of me having to take a laptop to a place where I could get WiFi — or pay for access in our resort. I found a shady spot to sit down next to Minnie’s Country House in Mickey’s Toontown Fair in the Magic Kingdom about ten minutes before 2 pm, when registration began. I wasn’t able to get the form to load for an hour and a half! My husband urged me finally to move on. I kept trying on my iPad as we walked to the carousel, and it was there I was finally able to fill out the form — around 4 pm. I got the rejection e-mail the next day, and I thought it was because I hadn’t been able to get the page to load. But after getting home and reading your post and many others, I found out it wasn’t a first-come, first-accepted basis and found out that many bloggers are feeling the registration/selection/application process wasn’t spelled out properly.
I’m just sad because I wanted to go so badly, whatever went on behind the scenes at Disney. For what it’s worth, I would still love to go even if I could just get into the sessions. My family has seasonal passes, and we could stay at a different hotel, so it’s not like one extra body taking up space in the conference rooms would cost Disney anything. I have blogged about my family’s trips to Disney (my baby went three times before he turned a year old!) and also Disney Interactive and other Disney projects, so I am dismayed not to be chosen, if it’s true what some bloggers are saying that Disney selected the applicants they wanted from those who registered.
Excellent Post! I was one of those that got my registration in a little before 2:30 p.m. after staring at the orange circle of doom but got the conference was full by the time you registered email. I felt I had done well as so many others couldn’t get in even after 3. I received the initial email that said first come first serve and so I made sure I set my schedule up where I could be at the computer to register. I registered, got the confirmation email that they received my registration and credit card number and just waited for them to tell me I was who I said I was. I was excited because registration didn’t close until 4p.m. and I knew I was in. But it wasn’t like that – even though I got in at the beginning there were tons of people they had room for who didn’t register until right before they closed registration. I was under the impression that when it’s first come first serve, you have a certain amount of spots and you fill those spots and then close it down. Maybe having a few extras as a waiting list for those they couldn’t “verify.” If this was going to be a contest I probably wouldn’t have wasted my time. That’s really what I feel this ended up being was a contest. And that is fine as long as you tell people that upfront. I know I am happy for those that did get in but unfortunately this fiasco created some bad feelings in others. They really need to make some changes in the social media department if they are going to continue to do things like this. When you are not upfront and honest with people it will come back to hurt you. I think for now, it would be great if they would reissue an email apologizing for the confusion and explain what the process was or what went wrong on their part. I know from my experience with Disney, anytime I ever had a problem there be it minor or major, I always got a phone call asking how they can make it better. The silence from the Social Media Department is shocking. I love Disney and to ever criticize anything that has to do with Disney is hard. But I do feel they dropped the ball on this. Maybe since it is so popular they should host 2 of these per year instead of 1. Regardless, I still love Disney, I would still be honored to attend an event there, and I will still visit there as much as humanly possible. I just hope others can look past this fiasco and still see that magical experiences can still happen and that Disney World is still the Happiest Place on Earth.
I didn’t bother applying.. I couldn’t take another long trip so soon to my January trip.. Sorry to hear it was such a hassle! Sounds incredibly frustrating.