What's On

Tai Chi – Beginner friendly

Next on Thursday 20 August, 8pm – 8:50pm.

Beginner Friendly – suitable for folks brand new to Tai Chi, or folks wishing to return to the early stages of learning.

Our Tai Chi Chuan classes run in 8-week prepaid blocks (currently £40) and are taught by Emma Young who has over 30 years’ experience in the long yang form. We’ve had some really lovely feedback over the past three years, about Emma’s teaching style.

We currently have some spaces available for this block. If you would like to attend, click the button or email events@duncanplace.org to reserve your spot.

This class is part of the Duncan Place Community Events Programme

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Classes, groups and events run at Duncan Place every week.

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What’s changed — and why

Design notes on this event page · Tai Chi – Beginner friendly

1Read your own words, then look to the right

The description on this page is yours, unedited. It says “please email events@duncanplace.org and we can let you know if there are spaces available”. Next to it there is now a button that answers that question in a second, at any hour, without anyone opening the inbox. That contrast is the entire proposal — nothing else on this page needs explaining.

2It sells the course, not a ticket for Thursday

Tai Chi runs in 8-week prepaid blocks at £40, and Chair Yoga sells a standing place with a waiting list behind it. Neither is a dated ticket, which is precisely what Eventbrite sells — and why the programme fell back to email in the first place. Booking here matches how the classes actually work: one payment, all the dates, enrolled.

3The waiting list runs itself

Somebody joins a full class and takes a numbered place in the queue. Somebody ahead drops out and the next person is promoted and emailed — at 11pm, on a Sunday, with nobody remembering to do it. We tested eight people claiming one free place at the same instant: exactly one gets it and the queue behind them stays in the right order.

4Most of the programme should not be bookable — and isn’t

Six modes, assigned per series: drop-in (Music Circle £3, Craft £2, Qigong £6 — untouched), roster (Chair Yoga, Laughter), block (Tai Chi, Choir), ticketed (workshops, cinema), external (other organisations), and private. Any series can move between them with one field, and every one keeps its email fallback. This is a smaller change than it looks — on purpose.

5This page is your WordPress, live

The title, description, image and dates all come from The Events Calendar you already maintain — fetched when the page is built, not copied, not migrated. Staff keep the tool they know and keep working exactly as they do now. The only new thing anywhere is who holds the bookings.

6The link survives the block rolling over

Your calendar renames each recurrence — this page is …-3. Booking is matched on the stable part of the name, so when the next 8-week block starts and the number changes, the button keeps working. Small thing; it’s the sort of small thing that silently breaks a booking page six months after launch.

7Private hires stop appearing here — but still block the room

Today “Private Booking” entries sit on the public calendar because that calendar doubles as the room diary. On one shared grid they can do their real job — holding the room — without being advertised to the public. Your what’s-on page gets cleaner for free.

8No fee on top of your price, and the list is yours

Eventbrite turns a £3 Music Circle into £3.83 for the person attending — +28% on a session priced to be affordable. It also holds 762 followers that Duncan Place cannot email. Booking on your own site charges your price and puts those people on your list.

9Nothing here is a real booking yet

The booking pages run on invented participants and no live payments. Real names start only once the privacy notice, retention schedule and processor agreement are in place — which is a first task, not an afterthought, because half of what is being sold here is handling people’s data properly.

Prepared for Duncan Place by Michal Szyszka · every figure quoted here comes from duncanplace.org, your Terms of Let or your OSCR accounts

Tai Chi – Beginner friendly

Big Duncan room

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