Contact

If you have questions about the booking system please have a look at the Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) page – thank you!

If the aforementioned page does not answer your question, or if you have suggestions, please get in touch with the IBD+ 2025 organisation committee at ibd2025@mensa.de.

Please note that we will add frequently asked questions to the FAQ page. Thanks.

Who Developed It?

With the former booking system for annual gatherings booking opened at a given date. At that moment hundreds of Mensans and others tried to book at the same time. Response times were dreadful – if you got your booking done in less than half an hour you were lucky and usually within the first four hours several hundred people signed up.

These issues with the old booking system – especially the impact of overload, but also the smaller "oddities" that could cause frustration – were a nuisance, and various ideas were considered to address them. Initial attempts included separate the booking start times for the basic program and other events or setting an unknown booking start time. While these measures slightly alleviated the problem, they didn’t really resolve it, and keeping the booking start time secret was not a fair solution. Another idea was to significantly increase server capacity, which was also tested and helped to some extent, but it didn’t fully solve the issue either.

After extensive discussions, the idea emerged to allow guests to book in a relaxed manner, with an algorithm ensuring maximum fairness while fulfilling as many requests as possible. This algorithm would also consider family and couple bookings (now group bookings), among other things. Within the national event organisation support team (Großveranstaltungsteam), we gathered ideas, developed and refined solution concepts, and then discussed them in a broader circle, including the leadership team, organising teams of annual gatherings, and several others. A non-negotiable principle throughout this process was that guests who simply wanted to book without caring about the algorithm or new features should not be at a disadvantage. At the same time, fairness and the consideration preferences of the guests had to be honoured as much as possible – while keeping the system as user-friendly as possible (I admit that the user-friendliness still leaves a bit to desire, but the functionality is there).

It was not an easy journey (and took longer than nine months), but the effort was worthwhile, as it ensured that many crucial aspects were taken into account... and the journey is not at its end.

Navigation

The Booking System (Main page)
The Time for Wishes – Booking after Seat Allocation
Group booking – Single booking only
Amend Booking – Cancellations
Priorities – Waiting List – Representation
Options – Children's prices
Common Errors – Frequently asked Questions (and Answers)
The Algorithm allocating the Seats – Contact