Events & Activities
Help people discover what’s happening in the community & find events and activities that match their interests.
Why it Matters
People are more likely to participate when events are easy to discover and the important details are clear. Organizing activities around dates, interests, audiences, and locations can make a municipality feel more welcoming, active, and connected.
Can someone quickly see what is happening in the community?
When it's working well
Municipal and community events appear together in one calendar. People can filter by date, type or location, and each event shows when, where and what it costs. Community groups can submit their own events for staff to approve.
Where to start
Bring municipal events into one calendar instead of separate pages for each department. Make sure every event lists the date, time, location and cost. Remove past and cancelled events so the list stays current.
If you don't have this yet
A public events calendar with filters can usually be added to your current website, along with a simple form for community groups to submit events. If your region or tourism partner already runs a shared events feed, show it on your site instead of entering events twice.
Ideas that help
Public Events Calendar
TOOL
Make it easy for people to see what’s happening across the community, all in one place.
A public events calendar can bring together municipal programs, community activities, meetings, festivals, and other local events in a consistent format. Clear event details and recurring-event support help people quickly understand what is happening, when it takes place, and whether it is relevant to them.
An events calendar should:
Discovery & Locations
TOOL
Help people find events that match their interests, schedule, and location.
Search, filters, and location information can help residents and visitors quickly find events by date, audience, topic, venue, or neighbourhood, while maps and venue connections make it easier to understand where an event is taking place.
Event discovery should:
Community Event Submissions
TOOL
Make it easy for residents and organizations to submit events, while helping those events reach a wider audience.
A simple submission process can allow community groups, organizations, and partners to contribute events for review, while shared feeds can help the same information appear across municipal, regional, or partner websites without requiring it to be entered multiple times.
Community event tools should:
Also consider
- Content Ownership & Maintenance: keep website content current by making ownership, review, and maintenance part of the publishing process.
- Programs, Activities & Schedules: recreation programs answer the same “what can I do here?” question for participants.
How well does your website work for residents?
Take the free check-up. In about 20 minutes you'll walk through everyday situations, like reporting a pothole or finding a council agenda, and get a plain-language check-up report of what's working and what to tackle first.