Admin entry of calendar events

INSTAAR events are entered by our calendar admins using the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ (Localist platform).ÌýThe events appear on the campus calendar instantly and on theÌýINSTAAR websiteÌýwith a potential delay of up to an hour.ÌýThis guide provides INSTAAR calendar admins with instructions for entering, editing, and formatting.

If you are not an admin and want to instead submit an event for consideration or have events automatically appear in your personal calendar, see INSTAAR's events calendar in the the "Resources Ìýfor INSTAAR's section.

What kind of events should we post?

As a general rule, only add events that are either hosted by INSTAAR or sponsored or promoted by an INSTAAR group. If it's just "of interest" to INSTAARs, we don't usually put in on the calendar. For example, we don't usually post Geography Department colloquia, even those that feature INSTAAR speakers.ÌýBut we might add a diversity talk on or off campus that's being recommended by the AllSTAARs Task Force.

When in doubt, go ahead and add it. It's better to err on the side of inclusivity than exclusivity.

Before you can begin entering events, you need to be set up as an INSTAAR calendar admin. This is a completely different log in than for the INSTAAR website on Web Express. Follow these steps:

  1. Ensure that you have an account for the by logging in there with your IdentiKey (upper right area of the window).
  2. Double check whether you are already an INSTAAR calendar admin:
    1. Click on your account icon in the upper right.
    2. If the resulting drop down includes a choice for "Administration", click it and check whether you can see the INSTAAR events. If so, you are an admin. Ìý
  3. If you are not yet an admin, ask David Lubinski to submit an admin request form on your behalf (for "group event admin permissions").
  4. Wait up to a few days to get approved and set up by the University (typically by the Web Express support staff, who also handle the Events Calendar).

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Once approved as an admin, you must use the university's Localist Events platform, which runs the campus events calendar.ÌýThe quickest way to get started is to log in or visit , which puts in you admin editing mode. Alternatively, click on your account icon in the upper right and choose "Administration" from the dropdown menu options.

See events - To see a list of all past and future events, click on "Events" in the left sidebar and then choose "Live."

Add event - To add a new event,Ìýclick on "Events" in the left sidebar and then choose "+ Add Event."

Edit event - To edit an existing event, navigate to its webpage on the Campus Events Calendar (e.g., and click the "Admin Event Editor" link/button at the bottom of the page.

After saving an event - See what it looks like by clicking the "View Event" link in the upper right area of the Localist event entry form.

The basic instructions for key fields are shown lower on this web page, but you might occasionally need more detailed information. If so, check out the University's Events Calendar Support page and its 20+Ìýtutorials there for event admins:

Events calendar tutorialsÌý

Example tutorials:

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Key fields

Entering information - Localist has a bunch of fields.ÌýFortunately, you can ignore many of them for most of our events. The key fields are noted below. And make sure to be extra careful with the Tags and Groups fields in the Classifications section of the event entry form:

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ÌýÌý For the Tags field, you must type seminars, community, or diversity and hit enter. Repeat for an optional 2nd tag. Be sure that you've spelled the tag correctly (e.g. "seminar" will not work, but "seminars" will work). If you don't follow these instructions, your event will not appear on key pages of the INSTAAR website (e.g. your seminar will not appear on the Seminars webpage or Research webpage).

ÌýÌý For the Group field, you must click and choose "Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research" from the dropdown menu every time. If you don't, your event will not appear anywhere on the INSTAAR website.

The entry form has horizontal tabs near the top, marking its 5 steps. ÌýFortunately, you can ignore steps 3 & 4:
1. BASIC INFORMATION | 2. DETAILS | 3. TICKETS & REGISTRATION | 4. ATTENDEE ENGAGEMENT | 5. PUBLISH

1. Basic Info: Event name 1. Basic Info: Description 1. Basic Info: Schedule, incl. Start Date 1. Basic Info: Location 1. Basic Info: Classifications, incl. Tags and Group 2. Details: Photo 2: Details: Vanity URL 3. Tickets & Registration (ignore) 4. Attendee Engagement (ignore) 5. Publish: Status
1. Basic Info: Event name

Try to keep the event name short and put its key information at the front, which is especially helpful for our webpages where the title gets truncated. For example, on our Home, Research, and Community webpages the event name is truncated until the visitor hovers over the event (desktop) or clicks it quickly (phone). Ìý

Community event examples:

  • Wilderness first aid class at SEEC
  • INSTAAR & NSIDC Ice Cream Social

For seminars, put the speaker's name first, then the talk title. ÌýFollow our format. Examples:

  • Henry Holm - Membrane lipids in sea ice and beyond: Tracing microbial adaptations to the ocean environment
  • Orit Peleg - MRS Seminar - Decoding firefly communication and conservation in Colorado

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Add whatever text content and links you need for the description of the event.

For seminars, feature the speaker at the top by changing the style of their text to "Bigger" and make it Bold. ÌýIf the seminar is part of a series/colloqium, be sure to include basic info at the bottom of the description.

Unfortunately, spacing between lines varies across different INSTAAR webpages due to problems with Web Express. Your best option is to at least include a blank line and some dashes between major sections of the description.

Here's an example description for a seminar:

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Orit Peleg, Associate Professor (BioFrontiers Institute, Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder) & External Faculty (Santa Fe Institute)

Wednesday, June 18 at 7:00 pm
Location: Megaron, Mountain Research Station

----

Join scientist Orit Peleg for an in-depth look at firefly communication, conservation,... [make this text as long as needed, which may include bio information, plain language summary, science abstract, etc].

----

MRS summer seminar series

The weekly summer seminar at the Mountain Research Station (MRS) is free and open to the public.ÌýNo reservations are required. Please arrive 15 minutes early so that you have time to park and make your way to the seminar. You will be joining a fun mix of MRS scientists, students who are taking courses, and members of the public.

Think of the Schedule section as its own mini-entry widget embedded within the larger entry form for the event.Ìý

You will need to enter information for start date, times, etc and then click the "INCLUDE ABOVE IN SCHEDULE" button for each session of an event (many events will only have one session). Ìý

For example, for five regular weekly coffee meetings, you will need enter info and click the button five times.Ìý

Regardless of how many sessions you've added for the event, be sure to check the "Confirmed Dates" listing to make sure all of them are in the system. Plus, you can alter an existing confirmed date by clicking on the pencil edit icon. Here's a screenshot of a single confirmed date:Ìý

Example of a Confirmed Date in the Campus Events Calendar

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Choose an event type, place or address, and room number, if applicable.

Event type - ÌýBe sure to choose whether in-person, hybrid, or virtual.Ìý

Place - Start typing a building name like SEEC and if it's a place in the university's calendar system you will see a drop down menu of it. If it's not a pre-existing option, like for the MRS, you need to type in "Mountain Research Station:

Address - If you choose a place from the drop-down menu earlier, there is no need to enter an address. ÌýBut for other places, like the MRS, you've need to type in "818 County Road 116, Nederland, CO 80466".

Room number - Follow a format like S228.

Dial-in instructions - Add instruction and stream URL link here. ÌýFor event better visibility, include the instructions in the Description field too (the redundancy is worth it).

Although the only required fields are Tags and Groups, it helps to enter additional information for seminars.

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ÌýÌý For the Tags field, you must type seminars, community, or diversity and hit enter. Repeat for an optional 2nd tag. Be sure that you've spelled the tag correctly (e.g. "seminar" will not work, but "seminars" will work). If you don't follow these instructions, your event will not appear on key pages of the INSTAAR website (e.g. your seminar will not appear on the Seminars webpage or Research webpage).

ÌýÌý For the Group field, you must click and choose "Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research" from the dropdown menu every time. If you don't, your event will not appear anywhere on the INSTAAR website.

For seminars, especially the publicly-focussed summer series at the Mountain Research, it helps to have additional classifications to give the event more visibility within the Campus Events Calendar. ÌýHere are some examples:

Example of classifications used for the Campus Events Calendar for event type, interests, and audience

and

Example of classifications used for the Campus Events Calendar for Tags and Group

When uploading an image, keep in mind that it will be automatically cropped for use on multiple webpages. Ìý

In some webpages, the image will be displayed as a 1:1 square. ÌýOn others, the image be displayed as a 1:1.5 rectangle that's wider than tall. Medium resolutions of ~500+ pixels will be just fine as none of the images are shown very large.

For seminars, use a photo of the person or persons giving talks. ÌýBecause of the ratio differences across webpages, you need to be careful of the image you upload. ÌýOtherwise, the person's face might be full cropped off. ÌýAs long as the person's face is in the center of the image (landscape or portrait orientation), you will probably be good. ÌýBut for circle images like those on the INSTAAR bio page, you will need to pad out the image with white pixels to either side of a portrait. Ìý Here's an example:

Example of a rectangular portrait image for use with the Campus Events Calendar

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Alter the default URL for seminars and other events that may need updates between first posting and the live event.

The default URL is based on the Event Name and might be something like "https://calendar.colorado.edu/event/Nic-Tarasewicz-MRS-Seminar-Assessing-the-relationships-among-subalpine-canopy-structure-water-availability-and-carbon-storage"

But the title of a talk is often unknown or may change before the event, making for an incorrect URL. ÌýIt is better to finish up Step 1, click the blue Save button in the lower right, and then alter the replace the default URL in the Vanity URL field with a shorter, more permanent link like this example:Ìý

"instaar-seminar-dec-8th-2025"

We haven't used Step 3; you can ignore it.

The default settings for Step 4 are ok. ÌýSo, you can ignore it.

This final step enables you to change the default status to Canceled or Postponed.

ÌýOnce you get to this final step, click the "Save & Publish" blue button in the lower right. ÌýYou should see a notification near the top of "Event saved successfully" or similar. Ìý

Once saved, click "View Event" in the upper right to see Event's published webpage.