There are lots of ways to get events into LiveWhale Calendar; the most common is using the back-end Event Editor. Once you're logged in, you can get there by clicking "New" in the toolbar, or "Add New" from the Event Manager.
There are a lot of options here – but our goal is that this interface, like all of LiveWhale, is intuitive enough that you could just dive in and start using it. In this video we'll talk through the various tools on this page, along with tips for getting the most out of your events.
Starting with the basics: from the top of the form you can enter a title and pick a date for your event. Those are the only two fields LiveWhale requires. Of course, we recommend adding more for the best marketing of your events, but we think there are good university events (like "Spring Break," or "End of Add/Drop") that just have a title and date.
Beyond that, you can set a time and end date or time. If you leave the time field blank, LiveWhale will automatically save it as an all day event.
You can also set repeating events that repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or annually. Then when you save, LiveWhale will create linked copies for each event in the series. After that, you can edit or hide individual repeating instances as needed, or come back to the original event to change up the schedule of repeats. If you want to connect events together that don't follow a regular weekly/monthly schedule, you can always use tags and pull them into a widget.
Starring an event marks it as featured – for instance, in the default calendar theme, starred events show up in the "Upcoming Featured Events" block, at the bottom of the Day View. Lots of folks also use stars in their widget or API requests to pull a curated list of events.
Marking an event as cancelled won't remove it from the calendar, but it will prefix it with "Cancelled:" everywhere it appears.
The summary is the "above the fold" hook for your event which usually appears in the Calendar List View and some widgets. We recommend entering the first sentence or two of your description here, to entice people to click in and learn more.
LiveWhale 3 also has the option to get AI suggestions for titles and summaries. You can always minimize this panel if you don't want to use it. If you do give it a try, you'll see you can type or paste in an event description, which will get sent to ChatGPT to help flesh out suggested titles and summaries. Once the suggestions pop up, you can use the buttons to copy/paste them, or click the checkmark to go ahead and use a suggested title or summary.
A good image can make your event really stand out on the calendar. When you click "Add/change images", you'll see the library of available images on the left – including the current group, or images from all groups you have access to. Any collections in your group – or shared collections – will also appear here.
You can select one or more images – one gets used as the thumbnail for widgets and list views, and if you choose multiple images, a slideshow will appear on the Event Details page. Once you have your thumbnail image selected, you can use the crop tool to choose exactly which portion of the image will be used in previews. The full image always gets shown on the Event Details page.
To upload a new image, use the button or click-and-drag it into the uploader. The image name doesn't get shown on the front-end, but will be used for searching in the library later.
For accessibility, you'll need to add alt text – either to the image record itself, or later when you apply it to an event. If you try to apply an image without alt text, you'll get an accessibility error. For people using screen readers, you need to include a short description of the image as alt text.
LiveWhale also supports the decorative image specification, which says that images that aren't content and just decorate content don't require alt text and can be skipped by screen readers. For example, an image of a football on a football game page is decorative – if you're using a screen reader, you don't need to hear the word "football" another time. We always say, reasonable people can disagree about what constitutes a decorative image, but if you do the 10 seconds of work to think about what a person using a screen reader would benefit from hearing on this page, we're doing our due diligence when it comes to accessibility.
You can also crop an image while uploading it – this crops the full, original image, so use this only if you want to save your cropped version to the image library. Photo credit and photo caption are optional, and may or may not be shown in your calendar theme.
Images can be saved with alt text or as decorative in the Images manager, and then the alt text or decorative toggle can also be customized per-usage when you apply the image.
Remember that your image may get shown at multiple sizes and different aspect ratios – for that reason, we don't recommend using flyers, posters, or other images of text. If all you have is an image that includes text, we recommend cropping it smaller to just show a portion of it, and make sure all the text is duplicated in your alt text and/or the event description.
Lastly, there's a special option for "Hero image layout" – if your theming supports it, you can check this off and your image will be displayed in a banner style across the top of your Event Details page rather than in the sidebar.
When adding a location to your event, you can begin by typing the name. As you type, options from your saved locations will show up. You can click one of those to select it, or click "Show All" to see all saved locations. When you select a saved location, its map will pop up. LiveWhale will also flag possible conflicts – other events on the same day in that same location.
Here's a tip: after you pick from your saved locations, you can always edit the visible text – this is an easy way to add a room number, for example. Some calendars also use a custom field for room number.
Here's how to add a new location: first you can search for it, using any name or address you'd type into Google Maps. After the map pops up, you can click-and-drag the map pin to place it precisely. We know that the physical address of buildings on campus doesn't always correspond to the right location or entrance. You can give it a name, and then choose to save it in your library to re-use later, or leave that unchecked to make it a one-off location.
You can also manage saved locations from the Location manager. Users with global permissions can create global locations – i.e., they appear for every group – otherwise normal publishers can add locations just for their groups. If you're setting up LiveWhale Calendar for the first time, a good to-do is to have a teammate create global locations for, say, the 20 most popular places on campus for editors to use.
LiveWhale also supports online and hybrid events. Online events have a place to plug in a livestream or webconference link, customizable button text, and special instruction fields.
Event types and tags can help people find your events. Event types we recommend using as broad umbrella categories that can cut across multiple groups. Usually this is the first way someone visiting your calendar might filter events. We start you out with some event types, but they're fully customizable for users with the event type permission, and our docs include some tips when developing your own.
LiveWhale also has optional types for audience and campus. You can configure and use these in your widgets and theming, or you may skip them. If you only have one campus, some folks cosmetically re-purpose the campus field into something like Topic or Area of Interest.
Tags are LiveWhale's most flexible taxonomy. By default, anyone who can add or edit an event can create tags. And like with locations, you can configure global tags you want to re-use across multiple groups. We recommend using tags to get more specific than your event types. For example, a soccer game might have the event type "Athletics" and the tags "Soccer" and "Women's Sports." A play might have the event type "Arts & Performance" and be tagged "Theatre."
In LiveWhale 3, users with the event type permission can configure suggested global tags for each event type. They pop up once you've selected your event types. This is a great way to encourage consistent tag usage.
Tags may be used for filtering on your main calendar – in your theming, you can have starred tags show up as a filter on your calendar front-end. You might also think of tags as a way to link events together: events tagged "Conference" could all be pulled into a widget on one of your web pages.
In general we'd say, tags are as useful or useless as you want them to be. Configuring widgets or API requests to pull by tags can be very flexible and powerful, but they're not magic – sometimes people see a tags field and think they'd better fill that out for SEO, but we'd suggest only using tags for terms you want to filter by.
You'll also notice this is another spot where possible conflicts may pop up – alerting you to events on the same day with the same event type or tag.
"Below the fold" is everything that will go on the Event Details page, once someone clicks into the event. The description field lets you type or paste in paragraphs of text – you can also add images, videos, or design elements like accordion displays or other content layouts, if your theming includes those.
You'll also notice the "Link to another site" option – if you click that, the description field gets replaced with a URL field. This is a great option for events that you already have a detailed web page for: homecoming, commencement, reunion, gala, etc. Any clicks to the event on the calendar or widgets will go right to that page, and saves you from having to reproduce details inside of LiveWhale.
Event contact info can be set per-event; you can also configure a default per group in the Group Editor.
This is also a spot where we commonly see custom fields added – extra details for your calendar that you want to track in an organized way, query via the API, or include in your front-end designs. One very common customization is something like a "Registration Link" – a URL field that, when present, gets shown as a "Register" or "Buy Tickets" link in your front-end design. Our docs have more info about configuring custom fields and how to include them in your theming.
LiveWhale has a full-featured RSVP tool for accepting event registrations. When enabled from the Event Editor, an RSVP form gets added to the Event Details view, asking for number of registrants, name, and contact info on the front-end.
The event organizer email will default to your email address, but it's editable. This is what's used in the From and Reply-To fields for registrant email notifications. You can also add special instructions to the form. You can limit the number of RSVPs and the number who can register per email address, and even restrict registrations to specific emails or domains.
You can also enable the waitlist if you'd like to accept RSVPs beyond the maximum. When the max is reached, the RSVP form will say "Only waitlist positions are available," and the email confirmation will note the registrant's position in the waitlist. Then, each time an existing registration gets cancelled or deleted, the next person from the waitlist will be let in and notified via email. Users can cancel their own RSVP from the email confirmation, or an event manager can delete or cancel RSVPs.
On the front-end, you can choose to display the number of open seats on the Event Details page once one or more people are RSVPd, or leave this unchecked and that info will stay hidden. By default, registration opens immediately when you post an upcoming event, and closes the day of the event. If you'd like to move either of those, you can customize the open and close date and times.
All registrants get one email confirmation when they RSVP. You can customize the messaging and preview the email. This template, like all email templates, can be themed by a developer to match your school's branding using the LiveWhale theming tools. In addition to the confirmation email, you may configure an additional reminder that gets sent one day before, or a follow-up that gets sent one day after.
Admins can configure custom RSVP fields (globally or per-group) that can be enabled and tweaked per-event. Common custom fields include dietary restrictions, accessibility requests, or student ID.
Once people are registered, they'll show up flagged from the manager, or in the RSVP tool tab. From here you can manage them, export registrants to a spreadsheet, or send one-off custom email messages.
In general, the LiveWhale RSVP tool is great for getting a picture of who is coming to an event: you can track a general door list, print nametags, etc. If you have more complex ticketing needs, with multiple prices or levels, we recommend continuing to use your existing ticket platform and linking there from the LiveWhale Calendar Event Details page.
Events can be suggested and shared across multiple groups. Shared events will show up in widgets and group calendars for whatever groups they're listed in.
Sharing gets used mostly for cross-promoting events – think of this like sharing horizontally across groups. Say you're hosting a Biology event; maybe the Psychology Department would be interested, so you suggest it to that group. You can start typing to find a group name, or click "Show All" to browse a full list. If you're an admin, or a group-switcher suggesting to one of your own groups, you can bypass the approval process by checking off auto-accept as live.
You can also use suggestions to curate events – think of this like sharing vertically, or "submitting up" to a curated group. This is a very popular approach: schools set up a special calendar group called something like "Homepage" or "Featured Events" and instruct their users to suggest events there. Then, the communications team can accept just the ones they want to promote on certain widgets, digital signage, etc. Admins with config access can set up special buttons for groups that receive a lot of suggestions – it's an option called "suggest_to" in our documentation.
Now, let's talk about what happens after someone suggests an event to your group. First, all publishers in the group will be notified via email (if they have email notifications enabled) and in a panel at the top of the events manager. From this panel, you can preview the event, or click "Add This Event" to accept the suggestion. Admins also have the option to edit the originally suggested event. Clicking "X" will decline the suggestion. When you accept or decline a suggestion, the user who suggested it will get an email if they have "All Notifications" enabled.
Accepting a suggestion will add it to your group as a linked copy – that is, a shared event whose original lives in another group. If the original event gets hidden, that will automatically be reflected in your copy, and you'll be notified.
On a linked copy, the event date, time, and details are still managed by the home group, but above-the-fold marketing settings like title, summary, and tags you may customize for your group's audience. If the original event gets edited, those content changes will automatically be reflected on your linked copy, unless you've already customized that field. For example, if the original event gets a new title and date and you've customized the tags for your group's widgets – the new title and date will be synced from the original, but your tag changes would be preserved.
If you delete your linked copy, the original event will be unaffected. Deleting the original event will automatically delete any shared copies in other groups and notify them. Overall, sharing is a powerful tool for making sure that the best content makes its way across and up-and-down your LiveWhale calendar and the rest of your ecosystem via widgets, the API, and more.
When it comes to privacy, we recommend keeping most events on the "Everyone" setting – after all, LiveWhale manages your public marketing calendar, and we want everyone to see all the neat things happening on campus.
Beyond that, you do have options for restricting access to your events. You can show some events to logged-in users only. These events won't appear on the front-end calendar at all, unless someone has already gone through the LiveWhale single sign-on login process. If you plan on using this privacy setting, we recommend including a prominent "Log In" button in your calendar theming. Events with this setting will never show up in API results or widgets.
On the other hand, events with limited visibility will appear in the calendar and widgets – the basic details will show up, but users will be directed to log in for things like the location, RSVP form, or online event URL. Admins can configure other fields to be hidden as well.
Lastly, events marked "Anyone with the link" won't appear in the calendar, search results, or widgets, but will be reachable via direct URL. A common example might be something like cap and gown pickup – you don't need to advertise that on the calendar, but you might want to email the RSVP link out to your graduating seniors.
Each event also has a status which you can set from the editor or the manager list. By default, new events you post will have the "Live" status – that means published on the calendar, widgets, and API results. You can also save events as hidden. Hidden events never show up on the front-end calendar or any results. The "Planned" status is for events that you want to go live at a certain date and time in the future – you can set that here, and the event will flip to live automatically at that time, without you having to do it manually.
Every editor in LiveWhale has the option to save their event as a draft. Drafts can be saved for new events, or you can save a draft version of an existing, published event. This can be useful if you have an event already advertised and you're getting ready to announce more details: you can leave the published version up on the calendar and prepare your additional content in a draft.
When editing a draft, you'll see special options including a preview link, and options for comparing a draft version to the published version to see what's changed. Publishing a draft will make it live on the calendar – and if it's a draft version of an existing event, it will replace the published version with your drafted content. You can use drafts without any required approval workflows – think of them as more flexible hidden events.
If you do want to use approvals, here's how that works: some users will be marked "Approval required to publish." They won't see the normal Save button – their only option will be to save a draft. They also have a "Ready for Review" checkbox. After they've made their desired changes, they can mark it as ready for review. This sets the status to "Pending" and sends email notifications to any curators in the group. Curators are users specifically set up to get notified when drafts are ready for review. They'll also see notifications of pending drafts in their dashboard and at the top of the Events Manager list.
More about using drafts and workflow in LiveWhale Calendar is available in our documentation, including the various user and notification options.
That's about it! We hope this overview helps you confidently post beautiful, full-featured events to your LiveWhale Calendar. Thank you for taking the time to learn some of the nooks and crannies of the event editing experience.
There's more you can learn, of course, but the concepts we covered today form a great basis for understanding how events are managed in LiveWhale. From here, you might look into syncing events from linked calendars, importing data from a spreadsheet, working with widgets, or updating your calendar theming.
Check out our documentation at support.livewhale.com for more info, or you can always ask for advice at forum.livewhale.com. Happy calendaring!