KCLSU have postponed the Digital Welcome Fair due to ”technical issues”.
Due to the pandemic, many students have been stranded in various countries across the globe. Unable to attend the Welcome Fair in person at Old Billingsgate, they were invited to attend a “Digital Welcome Fair” on the September 22 and 23, in which university societies were given a 15 – 20-minute time slot to advertise themselves.
However, at around 2:24 PM on September 22, student societies received the following email:
Societies were told that the system had been “struggling since the event kicked off” and that the KCLSU had decided to “stop the event early”. They were also told that the KCLSU would “be in touch with more information” as soon as it had a “plan of action”.
Freshers from across the globe who weren’t able to come to King’s to attend the in-person Welcome Fair due to various reasons were extremely disappointed. Omar, an engineering student, said: “I thought i’d be able to experience the welcome fair online, if not in person. Guess my thoughts will remain as thoughts.”
The technical difficulties have also affected societies; many planned weeks in advance how they would welcome freshers after receiving an email on September 9 regarding the Digital Welcome Fair.
A few student societies, like the KCL St John Ambulance Society, changed their platform from the KCLSU’s Digital Welcome Fair to Instagram, in order to answer any questions freshers had.
Dani, Vice-President of the KCL St John Ambulance Society, told Roar: “We received a notification that the app had crashed several hours before our time slot stating that there had been technical difficulties and all live streams for yesterday afternoon had been canceled. We received no communication from KCLSU, with no alternatives offered. Instead, we had to scramble to arrange content for our Instagram story last minute so that we could still offer something for those unable to attend the Welcome Fair in person.”
We’re aware of technical difficulties with the Digital Welcome Fair video sessions and will be going live on Instagram instead to answer all your questionshttps://t.co/7WpgwTHaJl
— KCL St John Ambulance Society (@KCLxSJA) September 22, 2021
However, at 9:02 PM on Thursday, September 22, KCLSU sent out the following email to societies:
Societies were informed that the KCLSU will “continue to work with with the service provider to fix the system” and hope to “provide a Digital Welcome Fair later in the academic year”. KCLSU also thanked both societies and freshers for their patience and apologised that “the event was unable to go ahead as planned”.
The KCLSU will be sending out updates to freshers and student societies via email. Meanwhile, keep an eye on their Instagram and Twitter pages.
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