What’s new on the World Flair website?

You may have noticed the World Flair website has changed a lot over recent months, aside from the visual updates we have incorporated an online store and updated the entire membership area and there is much much more to come. We caught up with Bjorn from the WFA Tech Team to talk about the of the new site and to try and find out a little more about what we can expect to see over the next phase of development:

So Whats New?

Well I guess the two biggest area’s have been the addition of the WFA Store which has a great range of products – tried, tested and approved by Tom and a bunch of the WFA team. In the future we will be adding many unique and exclusive items – we love cool new products and toys as much as we love learning a new trick or enjoying a new cocktail – so that in itself is a really exciting addition!

A big part of the WFA is our members and the old site didn’t do that much to support their growth or help them share their love of bartending, this became the 2nd key area to address. We re-built the membership system to give every member their own profile page where they can do just that and we have started rolling out different features that will continue to improve that part of the site in a similar way to profiles on other social sites but more specifically tailored to bartending and bartenders.

world flair website

WFA Grades

“We haven’t thrown everything away and started again, instead we have tried to take all the really good parts and put them together in a way that makes more sense and works better for our members. WFA Grades are a huge part of the WFA as they underpin part of the core mission statement: “The WFA is an association dedicated to flair bartending, bringing together bartenders from all sides of the globe and creating professional standards for flair world wide.”

“You will notice that we have worked to integrate this aspect straight into the heart of the new site. Traditionally bartenders are awarded a coloured shaker that represents the level of bartending skill they have achieved as they progress through the system (in a similar way to the karate belts system). This is still the case but it is supplemented with the award of a digital badge that is displayed in your member profile. The first level (WFA WHITE GRADE) is awarded once a user has created an account, added a profile picture and updated their basic information. They are then able to follow the traditional path through the bartending schools to earn and collect their next levels and that journey is then replicated to their profile on the site”.

world flair website

“Personally I think this is really cool as it allows us to create and award digital badges for completing other challenges on the World Flair website too!  All of your badges and achievements will show up on your individual profile – almost like an online trophy cabinet! They look great and can be easily shared across the WFA website (an upcoming update will allow you to easily share them across other social channels too). At FlairMania next week there is a Super Girl Award for the best placed girl so hopefully we will have the next development ready to be able to recognise that digitally in time!”

Activity Wall & Social

“In the same way other social site like Facebook have a news feed and a user timeline (previously called the wall) we wanted to make the site much more social. At its roots bartending is probably one of the most social industries to be involved with so it makes sense to have those features. We have started by providing a similar experience but the challenge for us is really to make this much more tailored to bartending as we develop it further. With the last updates we rolled out earlier this week you can now post text, pictures, links and videos to your ‘wall’ You can also tag other users using the @membername method, add #hashtags like and reply to other posts in a threaded way. Activities such as achieving a new grade, connecting with other members and changing your profile picture are all automatically added to your activity and the latest update also allows you to edit your post and control where it can be seen.

world flair website

This can be a great way for bartenders to engage with each other all over the world in one place, we know that almost all our members probably already use Facebook, Twitter, etc in addition to email and normal text messages but as I said earlier a lot of these features are expected now. As we build out other more specific features unique to the WFA site, we can see how these supporting tools will actually help bring everything together into a single place to go for everything bartender related – from the latest moves and tricks, images from a recent course, camp, to questions and discussions about drinks, rules and tricks and everything in between.

The messaging and friend system for example allows members to quickly build up a valuable network of contacts. You can post on another members wall, boost their ego with a ‘like’ or communicate privately if you need to without having to exchange contact details. I should also mention you can search for other members by name using the search bar at the top of the site. Provided you are already logged in you can reach your own wall from the ‘my profile’ icon in the top right.”

“If I am honest though, what would be really cool to see would be a like a digital Flair Off! One bartender would post a short video of perhaps an original move and then challenge the rest of the community to come up with better, posting their replies to that video on the WFA Activity Wall for all to see. We can take this even further in the future by awarding digital badges and achievements for winners of these community challenges, etc”.

Events

“So far we have only rolled out a basic Events section but this is one of the next big area’s where you will see some changes happening very soon. The event calendar will list every single WFA event and WFA supported event around the world. It will be a great way to find out all the details you need to about each event prior to taking part, including specific rules, requirements and of course what’s in store for the winners and that is really just the starting point – perhaps something to cover in a future post?

world flair website

The competition calendar for bartending and flair bartending have historically been a core component of the bartending world – The International Bartenders Association (IBA) was founded in 1951 and in 1966, together with MARTINI International Club they created the “Paissa Award” which is a far as I know one of the first competitions that recognised bartenders and their unique skills. It really can be a career choice now – certainly for those guys who aspire to be great professional bartenders and I think many people can see how close it lies to the path of the professional chef. Having access to a list of all the events and competitions around the world will no doubt make the world of bartending more social, more accessible and more widely recognised for the skills that it requires – and that’s a great thing for everyone”.

Feedback

“We have been chatting to many of our members already and monitoring various areas of the site to see what is popular and what is not because this website is really here for them, for you – for bartenders. We would love to hear your feedback because you are the primary users and it is important to us to hear what you love or what you think is missing so that we can continue to focus on the areas that are of most value, just let us know directly below in the comments! If you discover something wrong or broken please let us know by submitting a ticket or email us directly.

Comments

  1. gunders

    Hi !
    I’morgen a little confused, how do I get the yellow tin ?
    I understand that I have to do this test, but where do I perform ? Do I send a video or show up somewhere ?
    Thank you.
    – Thomas