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No more workshops?

buzglyd

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I can't see any reference to workshops on the website. Only webinars are mentioned. I believe the last one was in Houston and Carlsbad was on the schedule for November but now, nothing.

I was going to attend the Carlsbad class but I'm guessing it is no longer.
 

CanuckTravlr

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Being in Canada we have never been invited to one of the workshops, nor have most of them been convenient in terms of travel. Lately they have certainly been pushing the webinars. So I suspect your conclusion is probably correct. A huge cost savings for them!!
 

Tamaradarann

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Being in Canada we have never been invited to one of the workshops, nor have most of them been convenient in terms of travel. Lately they have certainly been pushing the webinars. So I suspect your conclusion is probably correct. A huge cost savings for them!!

I suppose it may be a savings, but the real benefits is that instead of having to schedule many sessions around the country to try to make it possible for all members to attend the can have anyone anywhere log in to a webinar.
 

CanuckTravlr

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I suppose it may be a savings, but the real benefits is that instead of having to schedule many sessions around the country to try to make it possible for all members to attend the can have anyone anywhere log in to a webinar.

I agree that it is a benefit to all members to be able to access the webinars, including those of us who live outside the USA. In my business I have done both seminars and webinars. The latter are definitely less expensive and less complex to arrange and more easily repeatable. And in my case it was without the added complexity of arranging accommodations for attendees.

So while the convenience for members may also have been a consideration in HGVC's thinking, I suspect it was the cost saving that was the primary driver for how to deliver the education sessions. Otherwise they would probably offer a choice. Just my opinion.
 

Tamaradarann

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I agree that it is a benefit to all members to be able to access the webinars, including those of us who live outside the USA. In my business I have done both seminars and webinars. The latter are definitely less expensive and less complex to arrange and more easily repeatable. And in my case it was without the added complexity of arranging accommodations for attendees.

So while the convenience for members may also have been a consideration in HGVC's thinking, I suspect it was the cost saving that was the primary driver for how to deliver the education sessions. Otherwise they would probably offer a choice. Just my opinion.

The reason I said, "I suppose it may be a savings" was because it seems that the IT world is an endless modify, fix the bugs, upgrade situation. Since I have been an HGVC member in 2006 we are on our 3rd change to the reservation system, and endless number of bugs needed to be fixed and endless modifications. I have an Apple Air Laptop and it is constantly needing new operating systems and upgrades to new versions. The people that do that must be paid and I know they get more than minimum wage. The older existing systems work fine. However, that is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. If I ever work again, which I don't expect to do at 70, I will sell computer software upgrades. it has to be the most profitable business there is.

If they can create a webinar and show it over and over without things changing all the time to make the webinar out of date that would be a savings. However, in the IT world
 

brp

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The older existing systems work fine. However, that is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

The "older systems" and "fine" are not good enough for most consumer, though. While some people (usually from older generations when it comes to technology, IME), find something to be good enough, the majority of people want Bigger, Better, Faster, More (which happens also to be the title of an album from the 90s by a fabulous band called "4 Non Blondes) and are not satisfied without it. Here in Silicon Valley, even us older folks want this. As an example, our common SFO parking garage had a payment system that worked just fine. They just made an app that will make it even simpler (taking it from "fine" to "better") and I'm quite thrilled with this.

Improvement is what people want. GOOD ENOUGH isn't. (Bugs, of course, are a different story :))

And I'm certainly not contenting that one view is better than the other. It's just what it is. Working in tech, though, I'm appreciative of the demand for Bigger, Better, Faster, More :)

Cheers.
 
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PigsDad

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If I ever work again, which I don't expect to do at 70, I will sell computer software upgrades. it has to be the most profitable business there is.
Let me ask you this: when is the last time you paid for a software update? Most consumers expect updates for free, so it's pretty hard to make a profit on no income...

Kurt
 

Tamaradarann

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The "older systems" and "fine" are not good enough for most consumer, though. While some people (usually from older generations when it comes to technology, IME), find something to be good enough, the majority of people want Bigger, Better, Faster, More (which happens also to be the title of an album from the 90s by a fabulous band called "4 Non Blondes) and are not satisfied without it. Here in Silicon Valley, even us older folks want this. As an example, our common SFO parking garage had a payment system that worked just fine. They just made an app that will make it even simpler (taking it from "fine" to "better") and I'm quite thrilled with this.

Improvement is what people want. GOOD ENOUGH isn't. (Bugs, of course, are a different story :))

And I'm certainly not contenting that one view is better than the other. It's just what it is. Working in tech, though, I'm appreciative of the demand for Bigger, Better, Faster, More :)

Cheers.
Since you make your money in tech I can totally understand your position on this. My post expressing the point that HGVC going to webinars instead of live sessions "may be a savings", was my thought on that issue and your post about people wanting improvements furthers my thought on that issue.
 

Tamaradarann

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Let me ask you this: when is the last time you paid for a software update? Most consumers expect updates for free, so it's pretty hard to make a profit on no income...

Kurt

Even if we don't pay for upgrades directly, we are paying for them through the things we do pay for. For instance, we all know that Apple is a hugely profitable company. The computers, phones, and everything they sell has the cost of the upgrades built into the cost. They don't give anything away for free. In fact, at times the upgrades make some of the equipment they sell too slow, too small memory wise, or obsolete so you must buy a new phone or computer.

Now since this is an HGVC forum let me focus on HGVC. The upgrades in the website are paid for by our annual membership fees which keep going up each year. In addition, since the website has so many problems and bugs and keeps changing they need to have more call center people than should be needed to enable members to use the timeshares that they paid so dearly to own and pay maintenance for each year to book their vacations. I don't think I need to tell you who pays for them!
 

Tamaradarann

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Since you make your money in tech I can totally understand your position on this. My post expressing the point that HGVC going to webinars instead of live sessions "may be a savings", was my thought on that issue and your post about people wanting improvements furthers my thought on that issue.

Those of us that have been HGVC owners for more than 12 years know some of the problems that we have experienced with new websites so I won't go into that in detail. For my purposes the Classic system worked just fine in making, changing and cancelling reservations. This is an example that I personally have experienced. I just upgraded my MacBook air to Majave 10.14.6 operating system a few months ago. I just saw a note that now there is an operating system upgrade to Catalina 10.15.1. I don't know if there have been upgrades in between since I try to do the work I need to on the computer not keep getting bothered by upgrades, since the computer works the same before and after all the upgrades so there is no earth shattering improvement.

However even though I may be the OLDER GENERATION, I am not against improvements and upgrades if they are significant improvements to our life. I just read a story about some of the benefits of 5G speed in the communication system. That does seem to be earth shattering, and worth an upgrade even if it means new phones and computers!!
 

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For my purposes the Classic system worked just fine in making, changing and cancelling reservations.

And for me, the current system is so much more functional, convenient and useful than Revolution and whatever was the system before it. Well worth the growing pains to me for what I can do and how much easier it is to view things. At this point, I actually don't remember the specific differences, but I do remember being so relieved that they did this.

Definitely a YMMV situation.

Cheers.
 

Tamaradarann

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And for me, the current system is so much more functional, convenient and useful than Revolution and whatever was the system before it. Well worth the growing pains to me for what I can do and how much easier it is to view things. At this point, I actually don't remember the specific differences, but I do remember being so relieved that they did this.

Definitely a YMMV situation.

Cheers.

As far as the HGVC website I must agree with you that the final product is nice. However, the first time I needed to change a reservation and couldn't, I said why did they change a system that worked which one that didn't work. I believe our disagreement here comes from my overwhelming past feelings about the HGVC IT TEAMS'S incompetence or lack of focus on the real customer, the member, in releasing new systems. That feeling is reinforced recently with problems with the new system.

I will remind you that when they added the REVOLUTION system to replace the first CLASSIC system they ran both systems for like 2 years. They asked members which system you liked better. I told them the CLASSIC system since you could change reservations on line and in the REVOLUTION system you couldn't. (The call center used a different system than we do. By the way they still do use a different system, so even though the website doesn't work the call center can still do things when you call in. Furthermore, when you called in to the call center back then they didn't even know that you couldn't change reservations on line. They were ignorant since THEIR SYSTEM WORKED FINE and they never ever used the member's system.) Finally they did away with the CLASSIC system without fixing the REVOLUTION system. So member's couldn't change reservations without calling in.

People make mistakes, we all do. Change is good, we all must be able to deal with it to survive. However, I can't comprehend this method of implementation of change. I know the people involved in my closing example of change, which was much more significant and tragic from the change of a reservation system, can't comprehend it either. The Boeing change from the 737-800 to the 737-Max. They have determined that those 2 crashes were caused by software problems.
 
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