As a key community engagement function your organization needs to let users know of upcoming events such as school board meetings, graduation and school start day. The Event Calendar module of EZCommunicator allows an administrator to create an unlimited number of event types or categories and allows users to subscribe to these to receive email alerts when any new event is added.
Events are displayed on your contact center site (Settings > End User Menu) in a monthly calendar view or a list view. Users can see events at a glance and can drill into the details and add the event to their personal calendar, using an .ICS attachment to each event.
Events can be created on the district site and on individual school sites, allowing schools to setup and manage their own online calendar, while also allowing district administrators to share events common across the district to be displayed on all school calendars.
When created, events can also be posted to the district or school Facebook and Twitter pages at the same time they post to your online calendar. Attachments can be included with your event containing forms or other downloadable documents you want attendees aware of in advance of the event.
Upon creating your event you can choose either to notify just the subscribers to the event type or select a different group of users to send an email alert of the event. If you want to send a reminder the day or week before the event you can edit the event and send another email to your subscribers.
Creating Event Types
Event Types, or categories allow administrators to organize their calendar events and also allow users to subscribe to those event types both for email alerts and to receive updates via an RSS feed for any event type on the calendar.
Event Types can be SHARED by district administrators which will result in all events of that type added to the district calendar also being displayed on all school calendars. Only the district, or central office administrators can create shareable event types.
In the Event Types function of the Calendar Module administrators can either Add an Event Type or List the current Event Types, which can then either be edited or deleted.
Adding Or Updating An Event
Events can be added or updated in the Events function of the Calendar Module. The administrator can choose to either Add an Event directly or List the Events already added and then edit or delete an event.
Add event details which will be displayed on the online calendar as well as sent to event type subscribers via email.
Event Name – This will appear on the End User view of the Calendar.Event Type – Select from event types previously created in the Event Type function of the Calendar Module
Start Date/Start Time – The beginning date and time for the event
End Date/End Time – The ending date and time for the event
All Day Event - If this is an All Day event check this box instead of specifying start/end time
Share On Social Media - Check this box if you want to post this event to your Facebook and Twitter sites. You will be able to type a 115 character post and the Calendar Module will insert a hyperlink back to the event details page on your contact center site.
Event Location - Type the location or gathering spot for the event. Be as specific as possible - like lunchroom, auditorium, football field rather than just the school name
Event Description – A description of the event that can include HTML tags using the WYSIWYG editor. This can include images and links.
Contact Information - You can optionally add the contact details of the person responsible for this event. These details will be added to the display of the calendar for users viewing the website and can be used if you are creating an event where you would like attendees to contact someone in advance.
Attach Files - You also attach a file to the event for users to download when looking at the details on your calendar page, or when looking at the email of the event sent to subscribers. These files can either have been previously uploaded to the Files Module or uploaded from your local computer.
Email Notification - As a final setting before adding an event to a calendar you can choose whether to send the details of this new or updated event to event type subscribers, or use the publishing filter to choose a different group of users to notify by email. Alternatively, you can add the event to your calendar without sending any email notification.
Canceling Events
If you have created an event that you later need to Cancel, use the Event List page to find and then edit the event. On the same page as you would add a new event you can update the event with a CANCELED label in the Event Name and/or Description and then send an email notification to your Event Type subscribers.
End-User Calendar View
End users can interact with your site calendar in several ways. First, the calendar can be displayed on your contact center site by setting the End User menu to include a link to the calendar page. Alternatively, you can use the calendar page URL and either link to the page from somewhere on your district or school website, or you can embed the calendar in one of your website pages using the iFrame function in HTML.
When a user views the calendar he will see all the event types for your calendar (including Shared Event Types) on the list at the left of the page. These Event Types also have RSS feed links which allow the user to subscribe to that Event Type as feed.
As an alternative view to the monthly calendar the user can click the LIST radio button and view the month’s events as a list. This view of the events also includes a mini-calendar and a list of any events on the calendar for ‘Today’.
Whether viewing the events as a calendar or list, the user can click any event and view the details of the event. When viewing the details a user can share the event with friends by email or on their personal social media site (requires social media configuration). They can also add the event to their personal Outlook or other calendar program.
