Keeping the Basin eventful

So you have an event planned. Maybe it’s a business seminar, maybe it’s a crafting class, maybe it’s a black tie fundraiser. No matter what it is, it’s only going to be successful if people know it’s happening. You need to get the word out somehow.

The Columbia Basin Herald has partnered with EVVNT to help you get the word out easily and in a timely manner.

The first step is to go to the CBH website, www.columbiabasinherald.com. There, across the top of the page immediately under the logo, you’ll see a series of tabs: “Local News,” “Sports,” and so on. (If you’re using a mobile device, select the three horizontal lines next to where it says “All Sections”.) Select “Events,” and we’re off.

The basics

Select “Create an Event,” at the top-left of the page by the large blue bar and a form will pop up. The example shown here is the fundraiser auction for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Columbia Basin. The theme for this fall’s event is “A Night at Hogwarts,” so that goes in the “Event Title” field. In the “Category” field, click in the field and start typing, and the site will suggest some possibilities. For this example, we’ve started to type “fundraiser,” and several possibilities appear: “Community | Fundraisers,” and a few others. The Boys & Girls Club auction seems to fit best under “Community | Fundraisers | Charities,” so we select that.

There’s an optional check box for “Virtual Event,” to use if your event is going to be held online. “A Night at Hogwarts” will be held in person, so we’ll enter a physical location. As with the category, begin typing an address and the pulldown will offer suggestions. Some locations come up automatically when you enter the name, like Big Bend Community College, which is where the Boys & Girls Club auction is held. With those fields filled in, click “Submit.”

The details

You’ll be taken to the EVVNT website which partners with the CBH to create a calendar of events. The first thing you see is an offer for “Premium Community,” and it looks like you’re going to be charged for listing you’re event. Don’t worry, it’s not required. Look to the right and click the “Continue for free” button to move forward with a free listing.

If you choose to pay for an upgraded listing in the calendar, the system will polish up your event with a photo, background and other items that you can select.

If you opt to continue with the free listing, it brings you to a new page. You’ll find the information you entered on the last page already filled in. Now put in the details.

Click in the “Start Date” field, and a little calendar will come up. Simply navigate it to the date of your event and select it. You can type in the start and end times in the appropriate field.

There’s a field where you can upload an image – a photo, a logo, whatever you like – from your computer or phone. You’ll also be asked to enter a short summary of what your event is about, and a longer description where you can detail as much of what’s going to take place as you can fit in 5,000 characters.

Scrolling down, you’ll see a few more questions. Does your event require tickets? This is where you enter the specifics about the cost of those tickets and how and where people can buy them. (If there are multiple ticket prices, click the “Advanced Form” button in the upper left to get to a page that will let you enter them.) If it doesn’t require tickets, just select “no” and move on.

Next, let people know if you have an outside link – a website or social media page – for the event. This is helpful if you want to drive some traffic to your own site, where you might have more information that you’re listing here.

Finally, enter your contact information, for people who want to know more. This information will all be published online and will be considered for publication in the physical paper, so don’t enter anything you don’t want displayed.

Finally, click the green “next step” button in the upper right. This will bring you to a preview page, where you can check what you’re entered and fix any goofs. Once that’s done, click “Continue” in the upper left.

Finishing up

On the next page, enter your email address. If you already have an account with EVVNT, just log in; if this is your first time using the site, you can create a free account.

Finally, you’ll be brought to a page that offers you several different ways to display your listing. For a fee, you can have a more detailed listing. In the upper left corner are buttons for subscription or single premium listings, or a free listing. If you choose “free,” a green button will appear below that says “Stay Free, Upgrade Later,” but you never have to upgrade if you don’t want to. Click that button, and you’re done.

Your event listing will go to the Columbia Basin Herald’s website and be sent to our newsroom.

The Columbia Basin Herald will be using this service to develop our community calendar in the Lifestyle section. The idea is to ensure that we inform our readers of as many community events as possible and have them formatted in a manner that is easy for readers to digest. Remember to put the information for your event in as soon as possible to ensure it makes it into the calendar each month or week.

What it means

That brings us to the other side of the news page – we’re changing the way we print our events listings. To fully leverage this new partnership, we’re going to print events listings more often. Each week, we’ll print a calendar in the Friday Lifestyle section that covers the following week’s events. Additionally, on the last day of the month we’ll publish an events calendar that covers everything we can fit that was entered in for the upcoming month. Our intent is to start this at the end of June for the July events calendar. In the meantime, happenings listed in EVVNT will be published digitally in the “Events” tab of the ColumbiaBasinHerald.com website.

If you need assistance with putting your event in, please contact our office at 509-765-4561.