Chatham University Centralizes Campus Event Promotion and Ticketing Under One Vendor
A Historic Pittsburgh Campus Enhances Event Communication
Chatham University is a small private university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Known for its wooded historic campus and close-knit community, Chatham provides a personalized educational experience within an urban environment.
To strengthen how campus events are shared and discovered, the university partnered with Concept3D to implement the Localist campus calendar platform. The new system replaces a decades-old internal calendar and provides a centralized, modern hub for promoting events across the campus community.
Outgrowing a Legacy Calendar System
Before implementing Localist, Chatham relied on a homemade events calendar built into the university’s intranet more than two decades ago. While the system served the campus for many years, it lacked the functionality and flexibility needed to support modern digital communications.
The platform offered only limited sorting capabilities and sometimes displayed events out of chronological order by time, which could make it difficult for users to quickly understand what was happening on campus.
Recognizing these limitations, the marketing and communications team began exploring solutions that could modernize the event experience and make event information easier to manage and share.
“We had a nice, clean calendar, but it was very outdated and very, very simple. But then we were always leaning on other resources for ticketing or for sharing the events. Now that it’s just in one place, it saves us a lot of time.”
Jenalee Schenk, Digital Marketing Manager
Securing Cross-Campus Support
The decision to adopt a new calendar platform involved collaboration across multiple departments. Marketing and communications partnered with IT and senior leadership to evaluate solutions and identify a platform that could support the entire campus community.
This collaborative process helped ensure the new system would improve the experience not only for event managers, but also for students, faculty, and visitors searching for campus events.
A More Professional and Engaging Event Experience
With the launch of Localist, Chatham introduced a modern and visually engaging calendar that better reflects the university’s digital presence. The new platform allows events to be shared easily across communications channels such as newsletters and campus websites.
“This calendar has been a huge upgrade for us,” Schenk says.
The improved design makes event listings more appealing and easier to navigate, helping students quickly find relevant campus activities.
Chatham’s new calendar also strengthens how the university presents campus life to its community. Because the calendar is shared across newsletters and other digital touchpoints, having a mobile-friendly experience that meets students where they are helps reinforce trust in the information being promoted. Instead of sending students, faculty, and visitors to an outdated system, Chatham can now point them to an events hub that feels more aligned with the university’s brand and better suited to modern campus communications.
Centralizing Event Promotion and Ticketing
Localist also allowed Chatham to streamline its event management process by consolidating tools into a single platform. Previously, many departments relied on third-party tools like Eventbrite for event registration and ticketing.
With Localist’s built-in ticketing capabilities, the university is transitioning toward managing both event promotion and registration in one place.
“We’re hoping to move everything into one system for events and ticketing because that saves a lot of administrative work for some of our offices,” said Schenk.
Supporting Mobile Engagement
The new calendar is also accessible through Chatham’s campus mobile app, making it easier for students to discover events on the go.
“We are linking the calendar in our mobile app, and even as a simple link within the app, it looks great and is very mobile-friendly,” Schenk says.
This mobile accessibility helps ensure students can stay informed about campus programming wherever they are.
Results and Impact: Automating Event Updates Across Campus
Since launching Localist, departments across campus have been able to streamline event management and reduce manual work. For example, the athletics department now imports its game schedule through RSS feeds rather than entering each event individually.
“Our athletics events now come in through RSS feeds. Before that, the department was entering every game by hand,” Schenk explains.
These types of automations help departments save time while keeping event listings accurate and up to date.
“This calendar has been a huge upgrade for us because we are using it in a lot of places already. The fact that we now have a more visually appealing calendar, it feels more professional and garners more trust.”
Jenalee Schenk, Digital Marketing Manager
Supporting Accessible Event Discovery
Accessibility was an important consideration for Chatham as it evaluated new calendar platforms. The university wanted to ensure that event information could be accessed by all members of the campus community.
“I appreciate the ability for students and visitors to use screen readers,” Schenk says.
By partnering with Concept3D, Chatham benefits from a platform designed with accessibility in mind, helping ensure campus events are accessible to all users.
A Supportive Onboarding Experience
For the Chatham team, the onboarding process with Concept3D played an important role in the successful implementation of the new calendar.
“We had a really easy time onboarding because everyone was always available to answer questions,” Schenk says.
Structured training sessions and clear task assignments helped guide the team through the setup process, while continued support from the Concept3D team ensures the university can keep improving its calendar experience.
Looking Ahead, Continuing to Expand the Calendar’s Impact
As more departments adopt the platform, Chatham expects the Localist calendar to play an increasingly important role in campus communications.
The university is also exploring additional ways to expand its partnership with Concept3D, including the potential implementation of a campus map in the future.
With a modern event platform in place, Chatham is better equipped to connect its community with the programs, activities, and experiences that define campus life.
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