Events Improvements

We're excited to share a series of improvements we've rolled out to our events tools.

Many of the changes we've implemented are aimed at making it easier to support recurring events using our existing "shifts" feature. 

• Event reminder emails are now shift specific: Previously, event reminder emails were sent to the host and attendees prior to the event's official start time. Now, reminder emails will be sent according to the user's shift schedule, regardless of the event's official start date and time. 
  
  If an attendee has RSVPed to shifts across multiple days, they'll receive a new reminder email for each day they've RSVPed. If attendees are signed up to multiple shifts on the same day, they'll receive a single reminder email that includes information about all shifts they're signed up for that day. Reminder emails will be sent 24 hours (for in person events) or two hours (for virtual events) before an attendee's first shift each day. 
  
  Hosts will also receive reminders before each day their event has shifts.
  
  
• Attendees can add or change shifts: Previously attendees could only RSVP to an event once. If they tried to RSVP again, the second RSVP would not be recorded. With our updates, users can now RSVP again – any new shift selections will be added to their previous shift schedule. For recurring events across multiple days, this makes it easy for attendees to sign up for more days after they've completed their first shift.
  
  Known attendees – people logged in our viewing the event with a tokened URL –  can also update their shift selections if needed. 
  
  
• Email if shifts updated by host or admin: Event hosts and admins can reschedule an attendee's shifts. This can be useful if you have too many volunteers for one shift and not enough coverage for another. Now, when attendees are assigned to different shifts, they'll receive an email notifying them of the changes. We'll delay the notification email by 5 minutes, in case multiple shifts are updated. 
  
  The text of this email can be updated by going to Settings > Content > Emails > Attendee Shifts Changed Email.
  
  
• Direct links to the host contact form: When sending emails to event attendees, we're now including a direct link to the event host contact form. This changes makes it easier for attendees to contact hosts directly if they have questions about the event. Organizations can direct link to the event (or petition) contact form by adding #contact-campaigner to the end of the event or petition page URL. We've also added a set of variables that can be included in the default emails to petition signers and event attendees.†
  
  
• Updated admin interface: We've updated the event's admin interface to show when the next reminder email be sent to attendees. For upcoming events, the banner will be shown on the event's Admin > Settings page.
• Event list updates: We've updated the logic we use for public-facing and admin-only event lists to better support ongoing recurring events. With these changes, events with upcoming shifts will remain in event lists even if the event's official start time/end time have passed. 

We've also made some more general updates to our events tools, including: 

• Calendar default event times: Previously, when setting a default time for events in a calendar the organization's timezone was included. For organizations mobilizing events around the world, this could lead to events far from the organization's timezone having their default time too early or too late. With our update, you can decide whether the default times should be in each event's local time or another specific timezone. 
  
  
• Hiding the conference call link: We're no longer always showing the "join conference call" button on event pages. The button will only be shown to hosts and attendees. 

Each of these changes is aimed at making the event tools more powerful in your organizing. If you have any questions or want to learn more about how you can use events at your organization, please get in touch!

† The contact campaigner variables are:{{ event.campaigner_contactable? }} and {{ petition.campaigner_contactable? }}, which can be used for conditional logic like {% if petition.campaigner_contactable? %}, and {% contact_petition_creator_url %} and {% contact_event_host_url %}, which can be used in emails to direct link to the petition/event creator contact form