What do brand new first-year students, returning upper-class students, alums, faculty, and staff all have in common? They need one of the best event calendar tools for colleges to help them plan their campus experiences.
When all of the members of your campus community can see upcoming events in a space with high functionality, they’re more likely to act by submitting an RSVP, sharing the event on social media, and attending.
That brand new freshman may be looking for orientation events while your returning students are hoping to find a new club to join. Alums want to come to exciting galas and sporting events. Meanwhile, faculty and staff have meetings to schedule and departmental events to promote.
A high-quality, interactive online calendar is a necessary component of robust event management software that can make all of these events a well-attended success with minimal frustration for those involved in the planning.
Choosing the best event calendar tools for colleges means considering all of the stakeholders involved, from the backend administration to the front-end user experience.
Look for an online solution designed to work for everyone. So, let’s take a closer look at the five best event calendar tools for colleges you might consider to promote events, schedule meetings, and manage the campus calendar.
Localist Events
Trusted by multiple higher education institutions, including Western Colorado University and NC State University, Localist Events from Concept3D offers a wide range of features. Together, these applications promise seamless functionality for event organizers. With unlimited events, brand customization, and fantastic customer support, this option provides superior options for your school.
Streamlined Master Calendar
With one master calendar, any type of event can be added, allowing community events of all types and sizes—free or paid, virtual or in-person—to be easily accessed by their target audience. Functionality for multiple users in a single workspace means fewer points of confusion and better workflow for all.
Event Performance Measurement
Localist Events goes beyond ease of use for event planners. It provides crucial data to support the success of future events. Learn about your marketing reach, audience behavior, and admin activity to make plans that work for your school.
Registration and Ticketing
With Localist Events, there’s no need for a third-party site to manage ticketing and registration. Centralize financial elements with registration, vendor payout, and more integrated into a single site. With high-quality registration tools, you can minimize delays, keep events running smoothly, and stay on top of changing event needs.
Social Connectivity
The events on your campus are designed to bring people together. So, shouldn’t your event calendar promote that same level of engagement? Localist Events has social connectivity features that encourage communication and connection even before the event begins! As an added bonus, engaged users are also more likely to share. This provides additional promotion for the event from a genuinely enthusiastic audience.
Localist Events provides benefits for users across the event planning spectrum. From individual group leaders who can easily submit their small campus activities to administrators who need updated and accurate data on the entire campus community to the marketing team who needs clear and consistent branding, Localist Events offers something for everyone.
When you’re ready, you can request a quote to get information about a detailed solution tailored to your specific needs!
The Events Calendar
One of the best event calendar tools for colleges for WordPress users, The Events Calendar offers multiple calendar views and notifications to ensure communication between event planners and participants.
- Integration with Popular Calendar Software: The Events Calendar offers imports from Google Calendar and iCal, as well as options for users to sign up to receive notifications in their own calendar apps.
- Advanced Widgets: Plenty of its widget options allow for customization. Find features like event countdowns, upcoming events, and one-click social media sharing tools. These options provide users with flexibility in how they present information and engage users.
- Multiple Calendar Views: Different audiences have different preferences when it comes to searching events. The Events Calendar meets those varied needs with calendar views ranging from monthly to weekly, list, photo, and map views.
The Events Calendar is a win for those already running a WordPress site who are looking to add event calendar functionality. While not solely designed for higher education institutions, its features make it a good choice for schools looking to provide key dates and event information easily.
Pricing starts at $99 for a year of updates and support for a single site with unlimited site availability for $799.
Calendar Wiz
Calendar Wiz offers an online calendar solution that many universities and colleges have implemented on their sites. With simplified scheduling for department events and shared calendar management for multiple users, it provides key tools for organizing and administrating event planning.
- Email Subscriber Sign-Up Form: With an opt-in option for email subscribers, your potential participants can be sure they get notifications and updates for your event and stay engaged.
- Branding and Logo Options- Build Calendar Wiz seamlessly into your existing marketing strategies with customizable branding options. By matching the online calendar to your existing color scheme and logo, you provide users with an integrated, brand-conscious experience.
- Real-Time Updates: Allow everyone who needs to know up-to-date information about your events with iCal and RSS feed integrations. This will then let users see the content on Outlook, iCalendar, Google, Android, or Apple products.
Calendar Wiz is a great choice for those who are looking to gain control of event management with an easy, straightforward calendar app.
Basic pricing starts at $99 annually and then goes up to $450 per year for Enterprise-level features.
Course Dog
As the academic-focused name suggests, Course Dog is one of the best event calendar tools for colleges. It’s built with higher education needs in mind. Their campus calendar is designed to drive engagement in the campus community through custom workflows and high-quality integrations.
- Contracts and Invoicing Tools: Course Dog’s built-in contracts and invoicing tools make the financial side of event planning easy.
- Streamline Academic and Event Planning: There’s a lot going on in different areas of a campus community. So Course Dog has tools designed to streamline and coordinate multiple events to ensure the smooth integration of academics with community events. Also, reduce bottlenecks with student-centric calendars designed to increase event attendance and student engagement.
- Save Scheduling Time: Event planning is time-consuming and resource-heavy. But Course Dog’s features streamline the process to save time and increase efficiency. Make sure that everyone involved has a clear understanding of the next steps and assigned tasks.
These features will benefit those who are looking for high functionality in the administrative elements of event planning and improved workflow.
Planning Pod
Designed for K-12 and higher education institutions, Planning Pod understands the needs of an academic community. This event management software includes a range of tools built for efficiency and ROI.
- Integrated To-Do Lists: Keep your event running smoothly with Planning Pod’s integrated to-do list. It provides clear notifications to all involved in the event workflow. Rest assured, your event will go as planned from setup to teardown.
- End-to-End Attendee Management: Do you need to drill down into the details? Planning Pod gives you tools that will help you manage your participant user experience from ticketing to entry to seating and beyond. Then, your participants will be impressed with the attentiveness and clarity.
- Track Event Space: Double booking a room is a nightmare for event planners and attendees alike. But Planning Pod includes integrated features to manage event spaces and room bookings with ease.
Planning Pod provides features designed for academic settings and is great for managing many types of events, including:
- Seminars
- Student orientations
- Symposiums
- Faculty meetings
- Fundraisers
Engage Students, Increase Event Attendance, and Make Event Promotion Easier With Localist Events
Higher education institutions have many moving pieces and a foundational goal of community engagement. The best event calendar tools for colleges are built to perform a range of tasks. They can help streamline workflow around event planning and create a seamless user experience.
Choosing Localist Events for your school’s event calendar needs will provide a highly functional workspace where you can:
- Schedule meetings
- Manage all types of events
- Provide FAQs to answer user questions
- Collect RSVPs for better planning
- Assign jobs to team members for smarter task management
Localist Events works smoothly as a mobile app and integrates with a range of platforms so that your participants (whether on a Mac or Android, Gmail or Microsoft Outlook) can all get the information they need to participate fully in all your school has to offer!
When you’re ready to streamline your planning process and build events designed to capture your audience’s attention and provide them with experiences that will make your campus a unique, memorable, and engaging space, it’s time to act. Choose from the best event calendar tools for colleges. Get one that has the flexibility to meet your event planning demands now and in the future.
Book a demo with Localist Events to see exactly how you can use it to promote events and meet your goals today!