One of the most frequent requests we receive at BCTV is to add events to our free, online Community Calendar. This week’s relaunch of the calendar feature answers the call, and makes a new and improved event schedule hub available to all community members – another benefit of community media in action.
English Bradley, Administrative Manager at BCTV commented, “It’s in our tag line, we want Berks County to be ‘informed and involved’; it only makes sense that we’d house the community curated events calendar. Our platforms were created to disseminate local information and this new interface is user-friendly, and easily accessible.”
With a redesign and new functionality the BCTV Community Calendar gives community members access to happenings across the area and in turn offers organizations, municipalities, schools, and citizens a place to hub their event dates in one free, easy to access place. The calendar page can be accessed from the homepage of bctv.org and also through the site’s menu bar, and events can be added by clicking the ‘Submit An Event’ button and completing the form with your event information. All submissions are reviewed by BCTV to make sure they meet guidelines before publishing.
“We implemented a new calendar system that allows for a more seamless user-experience. This includes a more visually appealing list-view of events, a full calendar view, search tool, and also date filtering,” added Lee Gustin, Senior Developer for Weidenhammer.
The calendar is ‘community populated’, meaning that the content is submitted by individuals adding their event details to the calendar. This is done without requiring a log in, subscription, or payment. BCTV in turn promotes and shares the calendar and link to the page, increasing visibility and promoting the wealth of activities in our neighborhoods.
“All are welcome to contribute to this feature. We wanted to upgrade the calendar experience because it receives so much traffic and with the help of the team at Weidenhammer we were able to select and build the functions that were most requested,” said BCTV Executive Director Heather Adams. “We have had conversations with several local groups, organizations, and community organizers that have expressed interest in having one central location for community events – and we feel this fits the bill with free, and open access.”
Whether it’s fundraisers or film screenings, church dinners or chorus concerts – the BCTV Community Calendar is a great place to post your events and to explore fun things to do around Berks!
