Events - how do events work and how do I add them?

Events are associated with activities and appear on the overview page.

Some examples of events are:

  • A meeting relevant to an activity you are running
  • An exhibition (e.g. of planning drawings)
  • A press conference
  • Online web chats, on sites such as Twitter and Reddit
  • Dates of council meetings or other policy decision dates

The primary purpose of events is to support an ongoing activity, however you are able to promote events which are unattached to an existing activity by creating an Offline Activity. This will allow you to add media (such as an embedded map) to the overview page, and then you can add events so that end-users can still save it to their diary (by downloading an .ICS file).  

In this article, you will find information on how to add an event to an activity, followed by answers to some FAQs. 

FAQs

How do I add an event to an activity?

1. Once an activity has been created, you can add an event in the 'Edit Activity Details' page, which you can get to from the dashboard. This can be done at any point when the activity has been published or is still in draft mode. 

Top of Dashboard with Edit Activity Details highlighted.

2. Scroll down to the 'Events' section and choose 'Add Event'.

Events section in Edit Activity Details.

3. Fill in the Title, Description, Start Date and Time, End Date and Time. (Note: If you're promoting several events in different locations, we'd recommend including the general location of each event in the title so that it's easy for people to differentiate between them and know which would be nearest for them.)

Event section with fields to complete. Save the page to add the event.

4. Each activity can have as many events as desired. For each extra event you want, click 'Add Another Event' and fill in the details.

5. Make sure to 'Save'. Events are only added to the activity when the Edit Activity Details page is saved via the button at the bottom.

6. To delete an event, click ‘Delete Event’. Events are only deleted when the Edit Activity Details page is saved via the button at the bottom. You can click 'Don't delete event' before saving the page if this is not the action you wanted to perform.

There is an option to not delete the event. The event will only be deleted on save.

FAQs

Where are events visible to the public?

Events are visible to the public on the overview page of an activity.

Is there an option for 'all-day' events?

Some calendaring systems have an option for 'all-day' events.  

We have chosen not to provide this:

  • it is more complicated to implement and
  • research into similar events found that they did not often make use of 'all-day'

A simple and effective solution is to set the event start and end times to 00:00 and 23:59.

Is there a field to add the event location?

Citizen Space does not currently have this field. If customer feedback indicates this would be useful, we're definitely open to adding a location field to this feature. In the meantime a simple workaround would be to include location in the event title, or at the start of the description.

What time zone will be used?

All times are local to the time zone that your Citizen Space instance is using.  There is currently no time zone support in events, however if there is sufficient customer need for time zone support, we'll look at it further.

Can I format the text, or add media, in the event description?

An essential part of this feature is that end users can save events to their personal calendars, for example on their phone or Google calendar. The format for calendars (ICS) only allows plain text descriptions which is why this feature is in plain text and does not allow styling or rich media.

Can I add a recurring events?

Our research so far shows that most activities have up to three or four different types of event, which does not necessitate a recurring events feature. We welcome any feedback regarding this. Please keep in mind that Citizen Space is a digital democracy platform, not a full-featured events system. To link Citizen Space with a full-featured events system, use the link activity type.

Can I add an event which is unattached to an activity?

Not technically, but creating an Offline Activity serves a similar purpose as an event with no attached online survey. This would allow you to add media (such as an embedded map) to the overview page, and then you can Add Events so that end-users can still save it to their diary (by downloading an .ICS file). Alternatively, use the link activity type to link Citizen Space with a full-featured events system.