Here’s another meeting scheduling service like MeetingWizard.com, subject of my last AssnHack, almost a year ago.
ikordo.com: “ikordo is an intelligent, free service that works for you to organize your meetings, leaving you free to do more important things.”
Compared to MeetingWizard, ikordo is definitely more Web 2.0-ish of the two and has a much higher coolness factor. ikordo determines a meeting time in a way that seems almost human. By sending email to all invited participants ikordo asks, are you available at such and such time, and you reply yes, or — if not — when you are. You do this all in plain English using the reply button in your email browser. That’s right, there’s no linking off to a web site. That’s really cool. ikordo then reads your email reply, interprets it, and picks a date for you.
I tried it out tonight. Setting up a meeting was pretty straightforward. Their service interpreted my email replies pretty accurately (it couldn’t decipher “I’m available anytime Monday afternoon” and had to ask me for clarification). Once I clarified, ikordo picked a time and sent confirmations. It can send confirmations and reminders via email and SMS. The email confirmation even contains an Outlook appointment you can save into your calendar. ikordo is pretty slick. But…
Am I the only who is still a little uncomfortable interacting with a computer in this way? When on the phone with an automated system, I still like to “Press 1 for yes and 2 for no.” When indicating my availability for a meeting or conference call, I am more comfortable entering yes/no answers into a grid, like MeetingWizard’s interface. It felt a little weird knowing that a machine was going to interpret my response, but it actually did okay. Maybe if I didn’t know a computer was doing the behind the scenes work, I would think nothing of it. Also, their server was really slow over my Sprint mobile broadband connection at times tonight.
All in all, I think this is a really cool and really functional service. I love that it’s all email based — no web surfing required. This means you could reply to this stuff via your BlackBerry or Treo and still get good results.
Another product in this category is http://www.setameeting.com/. It seems to be a lot like MeetingWizard.
Tagged: AssnHack Association Management Associations CAE Certified Association Executive Committees Meetings
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m inclined to agree. I’ve really gotten hooked on this thing. Actually, I don’t think I’ve scheduled anything with Outlook since I got my hands on this.
Pete, I’d love to know how people respond to it. In other words, what kind of feedback have you gotten from the people who have replied to scheduling requests through ikordo?
You should also try agreeAdate (www.agreeAdate.com). This is much more flexible and gives you more control.
If you look for a more professional look, and the ability to set meetings, try http://www.TimeBridge.com – they provide just the right balance of “coolness” with actual usefulness