Events Calendar Changes


The following message was sent to Events Calendar event owners last week:

This is a reminder that Friday, May 29 will be the final day event owners will have access to the calendar.

Here’s what that means for you:

  • After Friday, May 29, you will not have access to the calendar. Please run attendee or sales reports (if applicable) if you will need this information going forward. Please also make note of any event history you may need to reference. If you have a lot of events and need a full event list, please contact us and we can run one for you.

    To run a report: In your “Event Owner” portal, two attendee reports can be found in the dropdown menu below the “Event Host Sales” section. Select “View” to view the reports. Both reports can be printed.

    If you prefer a printed list, click the “Download” button for a CSV (comma separated values) file, which can be opened in Microsoft Excel.
  • If you have events with no registration already built into the current events calendar past Friday, May 29, the events will transfer over to the new events calendar once that is in place. If the event takes place in between those times, we recommend setting something up on your own departmental page. If you don’t have a departmental page, please contact us. We apologize for any inconvenience.
  • For event listings with free registration, our team will help you transfer over any event and registrants into the new calendar system once that is in place. LiveWhale does have an option for free event registration that you can utilize when that is in place. If you need a platform for taking free registration in the meantime, we can assist with registrations in our ticketing system, AudienceView, through the U of M Tickets and Events team, or you can utilize another registration system on campus, DestinyOne. Google Forms is also an option.
  • For event listings with paid registration already built into the calendar, these events will move into AudienceView through U of M Tickets and Events. We will be contacting you about this process if applicable.

As of June 1, 2020, the current events calendar will be decommissioned by the vendor.

Later this summer, the events calendar will change to LiveWhale—a campus-oriented events calendar platform.

We have received some questions regarding what will happen if someone tries to access events.umn.edu during the down time. We plan to have a temporary page there informing visitors that we are in the process of implementing a new calendar.

The University is currently in contract negotiations with LiveWhale, and we do not have a timeline as to when that will wrap up. We do know that there will be a period of time when there will not be an active calendar for the Twin Cities campus. We hope to have the LiveWhale calendar up and running by mid-summer. We will be in communication as soon as we have further details.

Once the LiveWhale events calendar is in place, the event creation process will be similar to what it is now; however, there is a key difference:

Posting an event with paid registration on LiveWhale

Unfortunately, the payment gateway used by LiveWhale has not been approved for use by the U of M Controller’s Office. If you have an event where you need to accept payment, there are two PCI-approved options on campus: AudienceView and DestinyOne. Here is a matrix explaining the difference between the two products.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding during this process. We will be in contact as details finalize.

Please contact us with any questions at events-calendar@umn.edu.

Sincerely,

The Events Calendar Team