You just planned an awesome event! Now what? Follow this step-by-step guide to share your event with Calvin and the community.
Reserve your space
Add to the events calendar
Create advertisements
Spread the word
1. Reserve your space
For on-campus events that require a room reservation, use the Event Management Services (EMS) portal through Event Services. If your event is off-campus or does not require a room reservation on campus, proceed to the next step to add your event to the events calendar.
- Reserve for only the time of the event itself. In the field where you can add more information about the event, indicate:
- The time that you need for set-up/clean-up.
- If it is a multi-location reservation, clarify which location you want on the calendar
- Select "Yes" for the question "Would you like this event on the Campus Wide Calendar?"
- The Event Services staff will reserve your space for the full time including setup/cleanup. They will send the booking for just the event time itself (not including set-up/clean-up) to the events calendar.
- It may take a day for the event booking to show up on the events calendar, as the software connection runs nightly.
- Only the below details are sent to the events calendar and are overwritten nightly by the software connection. To change these details, contact Event Services.
- Title
- Date and time
- Event type (for calendar categorization)
- Location.
- Follow the steps below to add more information and images to the calendar event.
2. Add your event to the events calendar
Including your event on the events calendar makes it more visible to our Calvin community. It also shows prospective students and families the types of activities and opportunities available to them as a Calvin student.
Events must be on the calendar to be featured in the student Knight Life newsletter.
Calendar events can be quite basic, or they can include more complex details. They can include:
- The basics: title, date/time, location, cost
- Registration/ticket links and deadlines
- Description
- Banner image
- Contact information
- Buttons, callouts, images, and other blocks
If you or someone in your department are already a web editor, you can add or update calendar events.
If not, you can request the "event editor" role. Complete the Drupal Event Training to get trained and request Drupal access.
The Marketing & Communications web team is here to help with your calendar event!
Submit a request for support. Select "web" for the request category, and then "calendar event" for the request type.
Remember:
- If the event requires a room reservation, complete Step 1 on this page first.
- You can request an event editor role on the website, to make your own updates for your department or organization. See details above!
- Please plan ahead! Web team completes these requests within 1-5 business days. You can indicate a rush on the form as needed and they will do their best to accommodate.
If your event is canceled, you must unpublish the event in Drupal and in EMS if it was reserved there.
Otherwise, university social media and KnightLife student communications may publicize your canceled event.
Find instructions in the Drupal Event training or submit a request to for web team to unpublish your event.
3. Create advertisements and get approval
Use Canva to create posters, flyers, banners/external signs/A-frame posters, table toppers, and other forms of advertisements that are intended to be printed.
Please adhere to the Publicity Policy
Please adhere to Calvin University brand guidelines when creating content on social media. Marketing and Communications has resources available for visual and graphic design needs; feel free to reach out to us so we can provide you with the proper training.
Request Approval
Use the Publicity Request form to request approval. You should receive an email within two business days that contains a digital stamp and further instructions on printing.
4. Spread the word
Now it's time to get the word out! There are numerous options for advertising. Here are a few:
After you've received approval, send your design with your digital stamp to Printing Services, and hang up or set up the advertisements once they're printed.
Remember to adhere to the Publicity Policy when hanging up posters.
Follow Step 2 to have your event added to the events calendar!
Post about your event on Instagram and ask other accounts to repost. Be sure to adhere to the Social Media Guidelines.
Remember to DM your post to @Calvin_Knight_Life to be featured.
Email those in your department, student org, or other affiliate group that may be interested and inform them of the event.
Word of mouth goes a long way! Make sure to tell others verbally about the event.
Be promoted by Knight Life
Knight Life, administered by the Center for Student Engagement, shares an overview of top events and deadlines each week with students. It is distributed through email newsletters, Instagram, and other platforms.
Knight Life administrators source events from the events calendar, so be sure to publish your events! You can also email knightlife@calvin.edu with important dates and deadlines.
Not every calendar event is shared in Knight Life, so do not rely on it alone for promotion.
