Three Events Engine Software Partnerships Compared

Local media have a number of options for event calendars. Here is a look at a few that have the following characteristics: User-generated listings (although online calendars do require more content than gnat-sized print listings and a vigilant editor), pictures, maps and up-sell opportunities like from ticket sales, locational targeting.

The three companies we like for events are Zvents, Trumba and Eviesays.

Zvents

The largest player in the events space, Zvents was founded in the Bay area in 2005 and quickly ruled in the hyper competitive Bay area. The company has turned its prey competition into partners. You now can find San Francisco events on Zvents.com, or sfgate.com, the web site of the Bay Area News Group’s San Francisco Chronicle, as well as the New York Times, McClatchey Newspapers and Yellowpages.com.

Besides being the first to capitalize on reverse publishing, Zvents has the advantage of selling tickets, both on its front screen and imbedded in the listings, with seven or eight ticketing partners unavailable to many local media on their own.

Zvents is a great partner for large markets, but as a potential competitor is not as negotiable on price and customization. Which leads us to two great smaller partners.

Trumba

Trumba has been creating customized calendars for cities and universities, as well as several local television stations. The software is hosted, but not part of a larger network so a lot of customization is available (each database starts from scratch). One unique feature on the calendar, besides the general elegance of the interface, is the ability to click to post the event on your personal calendar, whether yahoo, google, or office. Users can also customize how the calendar appears, and opt-in ability to mobile feeds.

Some problems are created by user-generated entries; they are not always easy to manage, but communities are using the software and like it.

Eviesays

This final company is functional, customizable with all the features offered by Trumba, and an existing database of events listings which Trumba lacks. Eviesays a slightly different user interface; the super-lean design and instructions look built for mobile. The sites point back to the Eviesays parent site for quickie mobile sign up:

Eviesays has 150 print partners as well as broadcast partners, and the top executive, Bruce Dobie has a deep background in local entertainment publishing.

The author, Alisa Cromer is publisher of a variety of online media, including LocalMediaInsider and  MediaExecsTech,  developed while on a fellowship with the Reynolds Journalism Institute and which has evolved into a leading marketing company for media technology start-ups. In 2017 she founded Worldstir.com, an online magazine,  to showcases perspectives from around the  world on new topic each month, translated from and to the top five languages in the world.

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