I use a lot of online ticket booking systems for online shows that are advertised on Zoom.
Tonight I learnt a lesson when trying to join an advertised English speaking show taking place from Europe. An unexpected issue that may have been avoided had I allowed more time to join before the show perhaps.
One particular online events company that will remain nameless, normally has a good user interface and the experience is perfect and I use the language preference set to English. Such online events applications are ideal for online magic shows and I know to account for time differences as I am efficient in using Zoom. I’m not naming the company as I cannot be entirely sure who is to blame. Just in case the issue was either my fault, my laptop settings or perhaps even the event company/promoter. But a learning experience while remaining open minded.
If you ever intend to book a show that takes place overseas, even if promoted as an English speaking show from a non English speaking country, attempt to connect to the show in plenty of time.
Tonight, as soon as I tried joining the English speaking show from a non English speaking European country, the user interface of the online booking system that is normally in English, converted to the local language of the country. I was then at the mercy of the translation services available on my laptop which unfortunately did not help me to join the online show. The button that you would then believe should allow you to connect to the show, wasn’t actually connecting you to the zoom show.
Not sure if a one off glitch as I have joined shows from Europe before using the same online booking system and laptop and the user interface has always remained in English. Hence, this was a bit of a surprise.
Therefore, not sure if an actual online booking event issue or even related to how the host has set up the event. I am not going to mention who the artist is as an unknown fault. A learning experience possibly for a number of parties. I suspect that I could not join in the end as after dealing with an unexpected language barrier, it was probably too late to join, hence I could not join the event.
Just wanted to warn others to always allow plenty of time to deal with unexpected issues when joining online shows. If you have ever experienced similar issues, feel free to comment below.