In partnership with the Rowan County Visitor’s Bureau, the Salisbury Post now offers a comprehensive Community Calendar.
The calendar is interactive and allows the public to add events while providing useful information for the entire community.

Listings include area sports and arts events, music, theater, and special events, including the Salisbury Gun & Knife show this weekend and the Salisbury Sip Craft Beer Festival.

The partnership with the Visitor’s Bureau came about because, “A community calendar has been a topic of conversation within the community for many years,” said Tara Ludwig, director of public relations and communications for the Rowan County Tourism Development Authority.

“The question has been asked numerous times, ‘How do we have an affective calendar that blends the needs of both visitors and residents of Rowan County alike?’ ”

“We appreciate this partnership with the Convention and Visitors Bureau,” said Greg Anderson, publisher of the Salisbury Post. “Because of this partnership, we can bring the community a great civic service … a one-stop platform with a critical mass of event content. It is easy to search and easy to submit events by mobile phone, tablet or desktop computer.”

To find the calendar, visit salisburypost.com/calendar or if you are already on the website, you can click “Calendar” in the navigation bar. There are small versions of the calendar on several pages of the website — currently, on the right rail of the home page and lifestyles page, and the top and right rail of the sports page.

Submitting an event or editing one on the list is free.

For a nominal fee, you can enhance or promote your listing.

• For a $5 flat fee, the listing will be highlighted in a different color and you can add video to engage visitors.

• For $5 a day, your event can rotate at the top of the calendar as a featured event.

• For $10 a day, you can buy one of the ad spots on the side of the calendar.

“A local organization planning a local event or fundraiser needs a good calendar to reference and promote their event on,” Ludwig said, “but it might not be what a visitor is specifically looking for. But then again, a visitor, looking for a visitor-related event, might be interested in the more localized event that’s occurring. This calendar is a mechanism to blend all of that together in a platform that’s accessible locally so that both residents and external visitors can find it easily,” she said.

There are several options to view the calendar listings.

You can sort by date or by category, such as sports & outdoors or food & drink, or destinations.

You can view the calendar as a list or in a tile view, which highlights the photos that go with each listing.

Once in the calendar, you can change the distance from Salisbury or even the city, provided the town has a similar calendar.

When you click on an event, a window will pop up with more details including a map, social media sharing options, detailed description, contact information and more.

Anyone can add an event, but first you must create an account and log in. Neither the Post nor the Visitor’s Bureau will use or sell your information to a third party. This log in allows you to create, edit and promote events. Basic information is requested, including a short description in case the Post uses it in the newspaper’s printed version of the calendar.

“The calendar is extremely user-friendly,” Ludwig said. “People are able to search by category based on their specific interest and/or date of interest and find robust event details. This calendar is also a fantastic tool for local community members to use when determining a date for their next special event and there’s great special advertising opportunities to promote your event on the calendar page.”

Tips
To make your event more noticeable or attractive to readers, you can add multiple dates, either by selecting the dates or choosing the day of the week and length of time — such as the third Wednesday of every month.

• Use art that goes with your event but will also look good as a thumbnail image.

• Do not include time or dates in your shortened print description, that appears as another part of the entry. Space for a description is limited.

• The event title is what will show up on the calendar, so be precise but not too long. Do not use all capitals or all lower case letters.

• Include weblinks or contact information in your listing if you want the public to be able to ask questions or find detailed information.

• Events can take up to two hours to show up on the website

What if your event already exists?

Some events have been automatically added to the calendar. If you need to change the image or content, log in or create an account. You will be able to edit the existing information.

“The Rowan County Tourism Development Authority is a primary resource for external visitors, but we do not carry local events on our calendar,” Ludwig said. “We are happy to partner with the Salisbury Post to get this initiative up and running, to serve as a resource for both locals and visitors to learn about events and to also help people in the community plan their events, as well.”