This topic describes:
Event locations in online calendars present a particular challenge because:
It's not enough to provide site visitors with the name of the venue where an event takes place. Visitors also need a variety of other venue details, such as address, map location, phone number, and email address.
Using custom fields to associate venue-related details with each event increases the size and complexity of a calendar.
If you use the built-in location field to associate a location with each event, you have to enter the venue name, address, and map link over and over again. This is not only time consuming. It also increases the likelihood of data entry errors.
When site visitors use an event submission form to submit events for inclusion in your website calendar, the venue information they provide is often incomplete or inaccurate.
Verifying and correcting the venue information during the event approval process is labor intensive and time consuming.
How do I get an event submission form for my website?
A Venues Object is a Custom Object where you store records for all of the venues at which your calendar events occur.
Tell me more about what Custom Objects are and how they work.
For example, a Yoga Center might create a Studios directory where it stores a record for each of its studio locations.
A simple Venues directory where a Yoga Center's 4 studio records are stored
Storing venue records in a Venues directory solves location-related problems by:
Storing venue records in a Venues directory allows you to simplify your events calendar. Rather than including multiple fields that provide venue-related details, each event can include a single field that points to a venue record in the Object.
For example, each event on the Yoga Center calendar includes a single Studio field.
Yoga Center calendar with a single Studio field.
Site visitors still have ready access to venue details. For example, pausing over a venue name opens a popup spud. Clicking the venue name opens a venue detail view.
Popup spud for a studio venue.
You can also include venue fields in event detail views.
Venue fields in event detail view.
Each venue in a Venues directory is represented by a single, unique record where you enter venue-related data one time only. Then, any event that takes place at the venue can point to that record.
If changes occur to a venue's phone number, email address, or other details, you can update its record in the Venues Object. The changes are associated immediately with all of the venue's events.
Many calendars include a wide variety of events. Most may take place in popular venues that can be defined using records in a Venues directory.
Other events, however, such as online events, don't have the attributes (for example, address and phone number) typically associated with venues. It makes more sense to provide location information for these events not in a Venues directory but rather using the built-in location field in the Event Information form.
You can easily include events with built-in locations and venue records in the same calendar by allowing overrides for an event template.
The following image of an Event Information form illustrates the event creation options with Allow overrides enabled and a Venues Object in place.
With overrides enabled, when creating an event, you can switch between venue records and a built-in location.
When you add a new event, you can:
What are event templates and how do I create them?
How do I create custom fields?
If you have a Venues directory in place, when a site visitor submits an event, the submitted event's venue is automatically added as a venue record. But submitted events often take place in locations that don't qualify as venues and venue submissions are often inaccurate and incomplete.
During the submitted event approval process, you have two quality control options:
During the merge, updated information from fields in the new record replaces blank fields in the old record.
With a Venues directory in place, it's easy to turn on venues for events.
First, you create a custom Venue field that points to the Venues Object. Then, when you define (or modify the definition for) an event template, you set Location Field, the field where events of this template look for location information, to point to the Venue field.
In the Event Template form, set Location Field to point to the Venue field.
If you're currently using built-in locations and would like to transition to storing venue records in a Venues directory, we'll work with you to make that transition as smooth as possible.
To request assistance with the venues transition process, contact your Trumba account representative or fill out the contact form on our website.
