Visit Plano Elevates Local Tourism With a Smarter Events Calendar
About Visit Plano:
Visit Plano is the official destination marketing organization for the City of Plano, Texas. Their team is tasked with driving hotel stays, restaurant visits, and generating overall economic activity by attracting tourists. Under the city’s Economic Development division, their efforts are funded through hotel occupancy tax revenue making it critical to keep events visible, current, and easy to discover.
A Homegrown Headache
Visit Plano’s previous homegrown event calendar proved to be a bottleneck that overloaded server capacity, was difficult to maintain, and offered limited submission capabilities for partners. To help manage their digital presence, Visit Plano has partnered with The Atkins Group (a full-service strategic marketing and communications firm based in San Antonio, TX) since 2008. According to Erik Arredondo, Digital Director at The Atkins Group, “The old calendar lived on our main server and would tax CPU and memory resources constantly. Updates would sometimes break features, and we never felt fully confident in it.” Visit Plano’s team were in an active search for a modernized platform that could handle frequent updates and uploads.
Why Localist Won the Search
After researching and evaluating multiple vendors, Visit Plano selected Localist Events for its in-depth, cloud-based architecture and tourism-ready functionality.“We did a pretty vast exploratory on different event calendar tools and Localist stood out because of how sophisticated and flexible the platform is,” said Amanda Lundblade, Account Director at The Atkins Group.
Localist’s ability to handle a high volume of events, support recurring entries, and manage community submissions made it an ideal fit. Just as important was its cloud hosting model, which removed performance strain from Visit Plano’s infrastructure. “The fact that Localist runs on its own subdomain and servers was a complete help for us,” stated Arredondo. “That alone removed a lot of headaches.”
“A year in, everything’s working beautifully. Our partners are seeing the benefits, and the investment is clearly paying off.”
Amanda Lundblade, Account Director at The Atkins Group
The Tools That Power a City’s Event Strategy
Visit Plano and its community partners now benefit from:
- Recurring and multi-date event functionality
- Cloning tools to quickly repost previous events
- Partner-friendly public submission workflows
- Streamlined admin tools for fast edits and approval processes
“Localist is fast and intuitive and that matters when you’re managing a high volume of community-driven content.” said Millerann Moya, Assistant Director at Visit Plano.
More Than a Calendar: A Platform That Fuels Economic Impact
For Visit Plano, the event calendar isn’t just a digital tool, it serves as a community engine.
When Millerann presented Localist to city grant recipients, many didn’t realize they could submit events for free. After a concise tutorial, submissions from partners like the Plano Symphony Orchestra and local arts groups increased significantly.
One standout example? A local comic and game shop owner saw increased attendance at their events immediately after advertising them on the Localist calendar. Moya cited that he “specifically attributes the growth to being listed on Localist”.
“We want to support our restaurants, hotels, and cultural attractions. The calendar lets us amplify their events and drive more traffic and attention to the things that make Plano worth visiting.”
Millerann Moya, Assistant Director at Visit Plano
High Traffic, Higher Value: The Measurable Wins
The event calendar continues to be one of the highest-trafficked pages on the Visit Plano website, underscoring its value as a core community resource. Notably, there was no drop in traffic following the platform switch—a common concern during digital migrations—which speaks to the seamless transition and continued user trust. Since the move, Visit Plano has seen increased community adoption and earlier event submissions from local partners, strengthening its role as a hub for local happenings. The calendar has also provided greater visibility for grant-funded and cultural events, helping justify public investment and support for these initiatives.
Final Thoughts: A Future-Proof Platform for Destination Marketing
Visit Plano’s experience with Localist highlights how a powerful, easy-to-use event calendar can serve as an economic development tool beyond just a marketing platform. Whether you’re promoting symphonies or small business events, a strong event calendar is an essential part of tourism success. Learn more about how Localist Events can promote your city here.
“If you’re in tourism, your events calendar is one of your most valuable assets, Localist helps us connect the dots between cultural engagement and local revenue. We rely on it to support our mission every day.“
Millerann Moya, Assistant Director at Visit Plano
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