2. POSTING CALENDAR EVENTS

3. Welcome  Your first step in the process of becoming a freelance reviewer at Splash Magazines Worldwide is to post calendar events. It may seem tedious but it is a very important feature on all of our worldwide sites. This only takes 1-2 minutes for each posting and that time gets even shorter as you post more events.  The calendar will keep our readers coming back to the various Splash Magazines if it provides exciting, current, in depth, varied listings.  The calendar will also expose you to many things in your city that are usually available for you and a guest to attend, at no cost, provided that you do a review on whatever it is you request.  In time we will be bombarded by dozens of invitations each day from PR firms but for now we need you to do your own harvesting of events to post in your cities Splash calendar.

4. Harvesting Events from the Web  One of the best beginning resources for gathering event information is through your local Visitors & Convention Bureau (do a Google search for (your city’s) Visitors and Convention Bureau.) Of course use any of the local resources that you currently use to find out what is happening in your city. You can also go to your address bar and type (your city’s name).com i.e. www.la.com or www.losangeles.com and you will find calendars with information you can use. www.la.com www.losangeles.comwww.la.com www.losangeles.com  You can also check any other local websites that you know of that list events in the area to find events that Splash Magazines can include in the calendar: concerts, exhibitions, fashion shows, etc…

5.  Initially, after you have posted 20 events for your city’s calendar, you will have one credit which will allow you to request an event of your choice, be it from the calendar or something you request on your own. The more events you post, the better assignments we will offer to you!  The number of posts to get to go to a free event will decrease with the passage of time and as you prove to us that you are doing the postings correctly and following all of our guidelines. However, the posting of calendar events will always be a very important element of our site! Calendar Requirements

6. Helpful Hints  The best way to use this presentation is to actually follow along using the calendar program as the steps are being explained.  A good way to use both this presentation and the calendar posting program is to use Alt-Tab to go back and forth between them or to make them both fit on your screen by minimizing each and putting one on the right and the other on the left.

7. Calendar Posting Steps  Once you have harvested the events, happenings, etc. that you think would be interesting to include in the calendar &/or if you receive PR or other press releases, do the following:  Open MS Word and your city’s Splash Magazines website.  Check the website to make sure that the event you are planning on posting is not already posted by looking at the calendar on your city’s website.  Check all the dates if there are multiple dates to make sure the event is not posted on any of the dates.  If the information is not already posted, select the information using the mouse to highlight the information or ctrl-a to select all or right clicking the mouse then copy it using ctrl-c and paste the information into a new Word document by using ctrl-v or the right mouse key.

8. More Calendar Posting Steps  Create a title that is in Title Case (never ALL CAPS) You can do this by going to “Format” menu, select “change case,” and change to “Title Case”.  Also keep in mind that you need to have the entire title on one line with no paragraph returns so when you copy and paste it into the title field late, everything will show.  Always include clearly written information with who, what, when, where and why using all the information that is available.  If all of the pertinent information is not there, find the missing information by typing the key words ( title, subject, company, etc.) into GOOGLE. Keep in mind that the use of “ will minimize your search tremendously. I.e. “LA Splash” will come up with 29,500 but la splash will come up with 72,300,000! By putting the term in quotes it will search for that combination as if they are one word. If not, either word anywhere in a document will be counted.  If all of the pertinent information is not there, find the missing information by typing the key words ( title, subject, company, etc.) into GOOGLE. Keep in mind that the use of “ will minimize your search tremendously. I.e. “LA Splash” will come up with 29,500 but la splash will come up with 72,300,000! By putting the term in quotes it will search for that combination as if they are one word. If not, either word anywhere in a document will be counted.  If available and appropriate have a URL & email address.

9. More  Delete any press contact or private information.  Delete any unnecessary information that is not of value to the readers.  Make sure everything is aligned left.  Make sure to use spell check.  Have a paper or online calendar available for multiple day events.

10. Connect to the calendar website of your city  Put in the web address for your city followed by /calendar/cal_login.php  Put in the web address for your city followed by /calendar/cal_login.php /calendar/cal_login.php i.e.  For Los Angeles Splash Magazine Go to: http://www.lasplash.com/calendar/cal_login.php http://www.lasplash.com/calendar/cal_login.php  For New York Splash Magazine Go to: http://www.nycsplash.com/calendar/cal_login.php http://www.nycsplash.com/calendar/cal_login.php  For Chicago Splash Magazine Go to: http://www.chicago-splash.com/calendar/cal_login.php http://www.chicago-splash.com/calendar/cal_login.php  Etc…

11. -You'll see “Calendarix” User Login  Enter Login and Password that you have chosen.

12. Click on the "plus" on the top right-hand side of any date. Its easier to go to the date you are entering. This screen will appear

13. This Screen will Appear

14. And you will see this box appear  Enter Event Title – it should be in Title Case (not ALL CAPS).  Paste in Event Description box all the information about the event.  Put Email or URL (web address) in appropriate fields if available.  Choose Category from pull down menu.  Add Start Time (note pm or am),  NO END TIME – it takes up too much space.  Add Date of event.  If it is a multi-day event, click the Repeat button and choose the consecutive days (ex: Thurs, Fri, and Sat) from the drop down field. Enter the additional number of days the event will repeat consecutively or for the number of specific days i.e. Sundays, If the event last 3 days – click “repeat” and enter the number 2 since it will repeat 2 additional days or Sundays or Tuesdays etc.  Finish by clicking Add Event.

15.  As an example of adding multiple days, lets say you have a play to post that starts June 1, 2006 and runs Thursday-Sunday for 7 weeks. The times are 8pm Thursday–Saturday and 2pm and 7pm on Sunday. Here is the first screen you would see after clicking on the plus sign to the right of June 1 st and how you would fill out the Add event popup.

16. Adding Multiple Days  You will click on the Repeat button.  Then choose the number of days from the Repeat drop down that the play will repeat. Total days 7 so 6 repeats.  Then choose the day you want the item to repeat from the times every drop down menu. We are starting with Thursday.  Then click Add event.

17. This is what you will see

18. Once you have entered the event go back to the calendar and click on the event you just entered

19. Now click on Copy Event

20. Now change the date, in this case to June 2, and click the repeat button and choose 6 June 2, and click the repeat button and choose 6 and choose Friday from the drop down menu.

21. Adding Multiple Days  Repeat with Saturday and change the date, in this case to June 3, and click the repeat button and choose 6 and choose Saturday from the drop down menu.  Repeat with Sunday but change the time to 2pm and choose Sunday from the drop down menu and finally.  Repeat once more with Sunday choosing 7pm for the starting time and Sunday from the drop down menu.

22. Procedures for Calendar Postings when you receive an email from our office. (PNRE)   We will use the acronym PNRE in the header of our emails to you which stands for: P: Post the even in the calendar section. N: Notify the sender that we have posted the event. R: Send an R.S.V.P. request so that a generic journalist or if are interested in the event you or if indicated, a specific person’s name wants to ask for tickets to the event you are posting. E: Post the event in our Event Manager program so that enrolled journalist may see that the event is available online and have the ability to view and request the event. This only can be done once we receive a verification from the PR people that we have permission to attend the event.   Note - that you need to carefully see what initials are in the beginning of the subject line. ONLY do the work for the initial indicated, i.e. P means Post only, PN means Post & Notify ONLY etc.

23. If there is a PN or PNRE on the email we send you.  After posting an event, notify the PR contact that the event is online.  Make sure to blind copy BCC ld@lasplash.com on ALL emails that you send.  A stock email is available for notification of calendar postings which you will be sent as needed.

24. Sample Letter of Notification on Calendar Posting «Full_name_of_person»«Title_of_person»«Name_of_business»«Address_»«City_State_zip» Via Email: «Email_Address» Dear «Greeting_name_Mr_or_Ms_or_first_name_», I have posted your «Name_of_EventTile_in_Calendar» event in the calendar section of (Name of City) Splash Magazine. You can view the posting at www(name of city)splash.com. Once there, go to the calendar on the left hand side of the page. Move your mouse over the dates of your event and you will see the title; click on the date of your event to see the summary and click at the bottom where it says Read more to see the full listing. www(name of city)splash.comwww(name of city)splash.com if you are personally interested I would like to arrange for myself and a guest to attend this event and to publish an article for you. If this is possible, let me know if you are not interested and there was a R in the PNR then - I would like to arrange for one of our journalists and a guest to attend this event and to publish an article for you. If this is possible, let me know I look forward to working with you in the future. All the best, Your name Journalist Splash Magazines Worldwide www.lasplash.com 323.650.0084

25.  Please make the return email address for the N (notify) letter (events@(name of city)splash.com). events@(name of city)splash.comevents@(name of city)splash.com  Once we receive permission for a journalist to attend and event, add that event to the Event Manager program. Procedures on how to do that will be sent later. After you have been taught to set up an email for your city

26. Congratulations!