Our brand new MyFestival tool has loads of great new features - this document will help you get the most out of them.

In summary, what you need to do to get the most from the system is:
1. Register and Log in
2. Update your profile
3. Do a search for any of your Facebook or Twitter friends who may also be registered
4. Join some Groups of like-minded people
5. Browse the full schedule and build your personal schedule - a wish-list of the shows you don't want to miss
6. Send and receive messages from your MyFestival friends and Groups

This document will take you through everything you need to know to do all of that. We suggest that you download and print out the PDF version of this document so you can have it next to you while you browse through MyFestival. Right...let's get started:

The Main screen appears when you log on, or when you click "Messages" on the brown bar at the top of the MyFestival page. On this screen is a summary of all your MyFestival activity, a list of the shows you have added to your schedule and the ability to search for other users and message them.

MESSAGING

MyFestival users can send messages to all other users, or directly to specific users. To send to everyone, simply type your message directly into the message box and click send.

If you would like to send a private message to someone, type D before their username, and then type the message in the box before clicking send. For example, if their username is Bob, you would type:

D Bob hi there - look forward to seeing you at Festival

Only Bob will receive that message.

If you are happy for everyone to see the message you write, but you want to tag someone specifically in it, put an @ before their name

I've just had a great show recommended to me by @Bob - It's caled "Bob, a life story"

To read messages, take a look at the yellow tabs below the message input box. These are ways of filtering the messages you see:
The first one labelled MESSAGES will show you a flow of all messages you have sent and received
@REPLIES will show you messages in which people have tagged you by using the "@" sign
SENT will show you all the messages you have sent
DIRECT MESSAGES will show you direct messages sent by you and received by you
EVERYBODY will show you a flow of all public messages sent by all users

PROFILE

Editing your profile is quick and easy - and unlocks many of the powerful social networking capabilities of the system. You can choose how much information about yourself you want to share, and upload a small picture of yourself that will appear alongside your messages and comments.

Once you have edited your profile you will become "searchable" by other users and will appear in their results when they do an "Advanced People Search". This is a great way for your friends to find you, or for networking opportunities.

FOLLOWING

The "Following" function is a way of keeping track of certain people on the system. It enables you to create a small group of people whose comments and schedules are of interest to you. Maybe there's a theatre critic registered and you want to see what shows they plan on seeing, or perhaps you want to hook up with a group of friends and share your schedule with them. "Following" is the way to do that. If you are in a "mutual follow" relationship with someone, then you can view each other's schedules.

FINDING PEOPLE

This section lets you find other users of the system - either by doing an Advanced Search for them, or by looking for "matches" between your Facebook or Twitter friends. The Facebook and Twitter options are completely non-invasive - you have to provide your logon details so the system can search through your friends to see who else is registered on MyFestival, but those logon details are not stored on our server and remain secure.

Once you have found people, you can send them a message directly using the @ tag, or you can Follow them.

GROUPS

We have set up some user groups on the system. These allow like-minded people to converge in smaller groups and share information/messages. If you have suggestions for other groups we could form, let us know and we can add them.

BUILDING YOUR OWN SCHEDULE

When you click on Full Schedule you will be presented with a screen much like the one above. First thing to do is select the Category (Genre) you are interested, or leave it on "All" and then select the date of the programme you want to view. The correct date will come up with the events listed chronologically on that date. Scroll through the list and, when you see a title that catches your eye, click on the small tick box next to its name. It is then automatically added to your schedule. If you want to find out more about a production, click on the production name and the event info will appear. When you have read it, just continue scrolling down. At any stage you want to see the shows you have added, click on "Show my Schedule" and you will see a listing of just the shows you have added to your schedule. Like this:


To delete a show from your schedule, just click on the X to the right of the show name. The three icons to the right of the date will let you export your schedule to Outlook, Google Calender, or Apple iCal respectively. On your main page (reach by clicking Messages on the left of the brown bar) you will now see a box that looks like this:


This is a list of the next few shows on your schedule.

TAGGING

While you're in Grahamstown you can share your Festival experience with others by using "tags". Each production has a unique tag. Typically the tag would be NAF- followed by three digits. You can find a list of all the tags in the Festival programme, and some productions will advertise their tags on their posters and on flyers. If you want to comment on a production you have just seen, or upload photographs from an event you're at, there are several ways of doing it:

• SMS - there will be an SMS shortcode set up during Festival, which will be widely advertised. SMS your comments to the number and they will appear on our website.
• Twitter - If you are a Twitter user simply add the production tag into a Tweet (eg #NAF-100). Your Tweet will find its way onto the relevant production's page under "Comments"
• Flickr - if you take and upload any pictures to your Flickr account during the Festival, tag them with the relevant code, and the picture will be placed on the production's webpage.

RSS Feeds

Various elements of MyFestival are available via RSS feeds - your personalised schedule, your messages, your replies and more. Just look out for the RSS icon ( ) across the site and grab the feed you want, putting it into your favourite feed reader or onto your Google homepage.