CampusTours AnyMap & AnyTour Integrate Events Feeds
The George Washington University AnyTour integrates RSS events feeds from ActiveData
Your campus is a vibrant place, with a multitude of events including lectures, performances, recitals, debates, contests, intercollegiate, club and intramural sports, dinners, alumni gatherings, and even public ceremonies. Now your CampusTours virtual tour or interactive map system can talk to your calendar software, and integrate events into specific building panels and even offices or venues inside of buildings to showcase what’s happening on campus.
Events: A Window Into Your World
Virtual tours and interactive maps offer vivid online experiences for your visitors that often involve detailed information about individual locations, structures and programs. Traditionally, virtual tours and interactive maps have provided videos, photographs, panoramic images, virtual reality scenes and student testimonials to describe the experience of attending the institution and to convey the purpose and activities associated with each location. As virtual tours and interactive maps evolve, they are beginning to change from collections of past experiences and dated footage associated with particular locations, into a more comprehensive treatment of each location, its’ place in the university and even what is happening now and in the future at this location.
The single biggest question that many prospective students face is whether they will fit in on campus, and what their daily life will be like at various institutions. Glossy brochures, videos and virtual tours purport to give them a sense for the campus and community, but often these are slickly produced marketing materials, and students are left unsure of the actual experience. Adding granular content like listings of upcoming events and candid student video commentaries into buildings in the virtual tour or interactive map helps to ground those locations in the everyday life of the campus community, and gives prospective students and other visitors a greater degree of confidence in your presentation.
Events & Interactive Maps: Getting There is Half the Battle
Showcasing events within the virtual tour and interactive map is great for visitors to see what’s going on around campus, but another important aspect of events and interactive maps is getting people to events. CampusTours AnyMap and AnyTour products allow deep linking to any location within the interactive map or virtual tour, so organizations can add links to specific locations from their events listings. This gives organizations the opportunity to educate the public and visitors to campus about not only the venue location, but also about other exciting things that happen in and around that facility on campus. Deep linking from events listings into your interactive map can also assist visitors with planning parking, routes and transportation options.
AnyMap & AnyTour Events Integration
