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Showing event listings from multiple organisations on a website using calendar synchronisation software

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Gendered Intelligence supports and connects trans people in London. They run an online community hub and collate news, events and services by and for trans people.

Use this Guide if you want to automate showing live event listings from multiple groups or organisations on one web page or a website. It will help you avoid the problem of publishing out-of-date listings that haven’t been updated.

Jump to steps

Screenshot of the events listing page on Gendered Intelligence's Trans Dimension website, powered by PlaceCal.

Steps to successfully showing event listings from multiple organisations on a website using PlaceCal

Test the assumption that it is needed. This will help you build a case for internal or external funding.

Consider whether existing solutions are good enough.

Consider whether you are the right organisation to do the work. Have you enough reach to other organisations and end users?

Think about the scope of groups and organisations you would list events from.

Identify groups or organisations who could be interested to have their events listed on your website.

Gendered Intelligence were receiving enquiries from trans people wanting to know where they could find out about events for them in their area. People felt lonely and isolated but we could never offer them a single place to find this information.

They interviewed leaders from 11 groups for trans people and surveyed trans people to understand their experience better. They learnt that low attendance at regular trans groups and one-off events was often down to lack of information about them.

They also analysed existing events listings for trans people in London and found 60% of listings were inaccurate or out of date.

Use your research findings from Step 1 to build a case for funding the work. Identify likely costs in terms of staff time and technical development. Find a developer and scope the likely technical requirements.

PlaceCal can be integrated into a new or existing website, or you can use a PlaceCal hosted page to reduce costs.

Gendered Intelligence were already working with agency Geeks for Social Change. They knew and trusted them.

They applied to Comic Relief’s Tech for Good fund and were awarded £80k to run the project. This included:

  • Organisations costs - including 12 months of project staffing

  • Website illustration costs

  • Website design costs

  • Technical costs - implementing the design and integrating PlaceCal into a new website - The Trans Dimension.

You might do this step as part of Step 2.

Few tools like PlaceCal exist. Choosing it for your organisation will depend on what you worked out in Step 1. You will need technical advice.

Geeks for Social Change had identified PlaceCal as a feasible technical solution. Gendered Intelligence chose to go with this recommendation because:

  • It synchronises with calendars that groups are already using to list their events. If a group changes the event on their calendar then the event on PlaceCal updates too.

  • It can simultaneously display events from different calendar sources e.g. Google and Outlook calendars, Eventbrite, Squarespace.

  • It uses a special link to export a calendar’s events into PlaceCal and runs automated daily checks for new events or changes.

  • It is accessible. PlaceCal was originally designed to display event listings for groups for the over 50s in Manchester.

  • It's easy to use and private. End users can browse listings without needing to submit personal details.

  • It offers the option to show event location and/or contact details. This offers groups control.

  • It comes with a Handbook.

  • It is low maintenance once set up and is a type of community infrastructure.

  • It can be used to show event listings on its own website or integrate them into a separate website.

Gendered Intelligence understood that getting these benefits would require:

  • Technical development to set PlaceCal up

  • Community development to find and gather groups to join it

They also asked Geeks for Social Change to do the technical development to integrate PlaceCal into a new, separate website.

Do this and step 5 in tandem.

Technical development is needed for PlaceCal to collect listings and to display them. You’ll need a developer to do this.

Do more research with groups and organisations who are interested. Find out about the types of calendars and listings tools they already use. That way the integration can be made to work with these.

Geeks for Social Change integrated PlaceCal and built a new website with a new visual design. This was called The Trans Dimension.

To help stay on focused on users' needs they used research data and tested the new site's design with Gendered Intelligence's partners.

Together they overcame a few integration challenges:

  • Some partners didn’t have a calendar.

  • Facebook and Instagram don’t allow integration

  • Some free web building tools aren’t compliant with web standards and this made integrating more difficult

Gendered Intelligence also added a disclaimer explaining that we do due diligence on the groups we partner with but that we are not responsible for the listings or the groups themselves.

Review the scope of groups and organisations you will list events from. Contact those that run events for the people you support.

Consider those who don’t but who might be suitable. Decide what would make them suitable and write this down. Be ready to review this as you learn.

Identify all the groups and organisations within your scope. Include online and face-to-face groups. They are all potential partners.

Approach them individually. This is best done by one person using a systematic process and tracking software (e.g. Trello or Asana) to manage it. With each one check:

  • Suitability of events for listing

  • Interest in being listed

  • What calendar or event listing tool they use

  • That they are willing to take responsibility for their event listings

Gendered Intelligence identified active groups with trans-friendly meetups in London. Then they approached each one and interviewed those who showed most interest. They used the interviews to vet them and their events and to answer their questions and concerns about their events being listed via PlaceCal. This took time and effort.

Vetting groups was particularly important because the people using The Trans Dimension needed to be confident that events listed would be trans-friendly. Some groups initially seemed suitable but turned out not to be during the interview.

Once you’ve accepted a group or organisation and agreed to list their events, help them get started. This is a one-off process where you onboard them to the service and they give you a special link from their calendar or listing tool.

Create a guide to getting started. Some people will need help to find their special link.

Once you have their link set their details up on the PlaceCal software.

Gendered Intelligence spent more time than we expected onboarding groups. Helping them find and provide their special link was sometimes tricky. But over 50 groups were signed up by the time it went live.

Continue to recruit new groups and organisations. Do this in waves or batches to make it easier. Expect enquiries from other groups once awareness of the service grows within your community.

PlaceCal is automated software with negligible ongoing costs. Ask your developer what maintenance budget to allow.

Ask partners to promote the service. Keep them up to date by email newsletter. Monitor site and newsletter analytics.

Be ready to remind groups and organisations to keep their calendars up to date, especially around holiday times when event times are more likely to change.

Gendered Intelligence have continued to add new groups and organisations to their service.

All new groups are interviewed as part of the vetting and onboarding process.

As your service becomes established, identify ways to increase its value to your users. This will builds service resilience and sustainability.

Gendered Intelligence made an accessibility zine to help people make an event more accessible. We made it downloadable and printed copies too.

They are also planning some new site features including the ability to search by postcode rather than area. This will make it easier to expand listings on The Trans Dimension site to cover all of the UK.

Further information

Contact Georgie McVicar, Project Administrator [email protected]

View The Trans Dimension website.

See how PlaceCal is used to show event listings without using a separate website in Hulme, Manchester.