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Big South is on the Paperless Trail......
You read it correctly – no paper at the Big South. No programs and no postings. So how, you ask, will you know what in the world is happening at the tournament? Well, there are three different ways you can get tournament information.
And they are all very 21st Century……
1st – PROGRAMS AND SCHEDULES ON LINE
On Monday, March 21 (no later than 6:00 pm EST), you will be able to download and print the Big South , the tournament schedule and the club rosters from the internet. We’ll have a link posted here and also in the Net Gazette Newsletter (sign up here). The downloads are FREE and let you have all the tournament information that you want -- you can customize your information by picking and choosing what you want days before you come to the tournament.
In addition, anyone who brings a hand-held device running Palm OS 3.5 or higher to the tournament can use a special version of the Palm program developed by University Athlete (like the program the college coaches use to follow the tournament) to follow up to ten teams. And it’s FREE, too. This Palm program has the rosters for all the teams and the complete schedule. It can be updated for results from previous matches at the “beaming station” at the Tournament Desk so you can follow the specific schedules of up to ten teams.
So we won’t be printing any programs or schedules. You can choose the information you want and print your own personalized version of the tournament information at home or use the Palm program - much easier and a lot more fun, and, it saves a tone of paper!)
2nd – REAL TIME RESULTS
The tournament software we are using will update all the pools and show the advancements in pools within 3 to 5 minutes of the time the officials enter the results from each match. No waiting for paper results to be printed and posted. You will be able to follow the progress of a team, a pool or the whole tournament on the internet with your own computer, at our Real Time Results stations in Hall B Lobby at the Convention Center or with the modified Palm Program.
At the Real Time Results station in Hall B Lobby, there will be twenty-five computers available for you to look up the tournament results at any time, and the results will be up to the minute.
With your own computer, you can purchase WiFi Internet access at the Convention Center. There are hot spots throughout the lobby areas. So, bring your laptop and get up to the minute real time results! (The Convention Center does charge an access fee to users of the WiFi system.)
We’ll also have a big screen near the ASICS booth in Hall B Lobby, scrolling through the teams and showing their latest results – again, up to the minute, real time results shown within 3 to 5 minutes of the time the official enters the match results.
3rd – TEXT MESSAGING
Yes, that 21st Century feature your kids use on their cell phones all the time. Now you can use it to get notices of what is going on with Big South while you are at home or out of the building. How cool is that – you can go to dinner and still find out the pool results.
You need to have text messaging enabled from your cell phone provider. Call them to get it turned on if you don’t already have it and get your text messaging email address from them. For instance, if your provider is Verizon and your cell phone number is 555-555-5555, your text messaging address is 5555555555@vtext.com.
MOST IMPORTANT – You then need to logon to signuptoplay. Create your own account with a user name and a password. Then log on and click the "Event Updates" link and click on the "help" link for detailed instructions or just fill out the drop down menus. You will get a confirmation number back from signuptoplay on your cell phone. You have to enter this number in the box that shows up when you click on the team you are registering for, and then SAVE it to activate the service. Because you need to do all of this online, you really need to sign up for the text messaging BEFORE you come to the tournament.
Our service of text messaging is FREE, although your wireless company probably charges for each text message (usually a nickel a piece or less).
Just a word of warning: All of this is new technology for the Qualifiers, so there might be some hiccups along the way. But it's a pretty cool way to stay updated! Even if you can't go to the tournament, you can get the latest schedule changes, results, and pool finishes within minutes, or an hour at most, of it actually happening. Or, if you’re at the tournament, you can find out where you play the next day while you are having dinnner. Gotta love it!!
BUT, this is not a replacement for the official schedule, which is now the information posted on the internet. If there is a conflict between what is on the net and any other listing or posting, the internet rules.
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