About 65 people came visited TNT HQ yesterday to learn about our new DIY events calendar. Since the web has brought self-service to banking and airline reservations, why not events calendars?

Seriously though, I think most of those who attended appreciate the control over their events they will have with our new system. Plus, their event will be listed almost immediately online instead of having to wait for the once-a-week GO section to be printed first, where their event make not make the cut due to space constraints. (The online database feeds the print GO section, by the way.)

A question that came up during the session that might also be worthwhile knowing for those of you who use our online calendar to find events, too. Someone asked how the events were listed on the site if a user is browsing by date and/or category (if you search for events, then the relevance of your search keyword determines the display). So we asked the folks who power the site for us (a company called Zvents), and I'll try to translate the explanation:

Essentially, the events are ranked based on page quality and popularity. The most important factor is the popularity of a listing, if the listings have received a substantive amount of clicks. After that, it's page quality. What determines "page quality" you ask? Basically, if there is more content, it has a higher page quality. This would include a fuller description, media reviews, user reviews, all fields filled in (price, web site, etc), pictures, etc.

If you missed yesterday's demonstration and want to know how to submit an event to our calendar, download this PDF tutorial and submission guide.