Many Festology themes create calendar files that you can import into Apple’s iCal, Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar. If your theme only creates an iCalendar file (also called an iCal file), which you can recognize by its .ics extension, it’s easy to import that file into Google Calendar.

Visit Google’s support site for detailed instructions on importing your .ics calendar file into Google Calendar.

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Edit the default “series”
You’ll only have to do this once (or once a year if you have an annual series), but the first thing to do is enter the overall details for your what you will call your group of events (a “series”):

1. Go to “Series Setup”.
2. Click the default series. It might have a name like “My Event Series” or “My Festival”.
3. Add your event series title as the “Series Name”. If it’s an annual series, you can use the year as the “Series Name (Short)” (which will appear in your URL). If this an ongoing series that doesn’t have annual editions, or doesn’t have a season, you could create a “Series Name (Short)” like “events”. Add the dates here as well. Pick a date far into the future if your series is ongoing.
4. Click “Save & Close”.

Add a venue
You might only have one venue — such as a conference center — and that’s OK! For now, you’re just going to enter a venue for your first event. You can always go back and add more.

1. Pick “Venues” under “Event Items”.
2. You won’t have any venues yet, so click the “Create New” button.
3. Add the name of the venue and its address. This is a general location for your series (or at least, the next event at your series). It could be a building with multiple rooms. Don’t worry about which room your event is happening in. Just enter the general location. (You’ll be setting the specific room for each event on a separate event page in the next step).
4. At the bottom of the form, select “Published”, then click “Save & Close”.

Create an event
Now you can enter the details of your first event!

1. Go to “Events”.
2. Click the “Create New” button.
3. Enter the title of the event, the start time and an end time (if there is one).
4. Select the “Venue” you created from the pulldown list, and specify a room number or more specific location at the venue if there is one in the “Location at Venue” field.
5. At the bottom of the form, select “Published”, then click “Save & Close”.

Repeat to add more venues and events to flesh out the series as needed. You can continue to add images or video, or you can go back to the events you’ve created and sell tickets.

Related posts:

1. Quick Start Guide: An Ongoing Film Series
2. Quick Start Guide: A Conference With Panels or Sessions
3. Quick Start Guide: A Film Festival

Build your email database with embeddable MailChimp subscription forms and buttons.

Some themes in Festology make use of MailChimp, a popular email marketing and newsletter service. You can see which themes are MailChimp-enabled in the theme browser for your series (under “Series Setup”). You will first need to set up a MailChimp account if you don’t already have one, and create a newsletter “list” before you can add a subscription box to Festology.

Adding a MailChimp Newsletter Form

1. Verify that your theme allows MailChimp forms by checking the theme browser for your series (under “Series Setup”).
2. Sign in to your MailChimp account.
3. Click on “Lists”.
4. Click on “Forms” for the appropriate mailing list.
5. Click on the link to the subscribe form.  It should look something like: http://eepurl.com/abc123. This link will open a form in a new window.
6. Copy the expanded url.  It should look something like http://username.us.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=1234567890&id=123456789
7. Create a widget or edit  the widget with the shortname dictated by your theme.  For the Boxxo theme, for example, the shortname is “boxxo-newsletter”.
8. Paste the expanded url to your MailChimp form into the “Content” area.

If your theme is MailChimp-enabled, you’ll now see  subscribe buttons or subscribe forms on your site, and you’ll be able to collect email addresses from your Festology site.  Note that Festology is not able to log in to your MailChimp account and doesn’t affect your MailChimp account in any way (besides people adding their contact information to your marketing list). You can refer to the MailChimp Terms of Use page or the MailChimp Privacy Policy for more information.

Related posts:

1. Getting the Most out of the Boxxo Theme
2. Disqus-Powered Comments

Festology automatically creates the links in your main navigation to your homepage, event pages, sponsor pages, etc., but with some themes (such as Boxxo), you can add additional links that might point to an external blog, a Facebook page or deeper links within your Festology site (perhaps a key sponsor, or an “About Us” page).

You can use this widget to add links to your blog, corporate homepage, previous conference site, Facebook page or anything else!

1. Go to “Pages & Widgets”
2. Click “Create New”
3. Under “Series”, select the appropriate series for which you’d like these additional items to appear
4. For “Page Title”, you can name this widget “Additional Top Navigation Items”
5. For “Page Url / Widget Name”, you must use “topnavlast”
6. Click “Next” or the “Content” tab.
7. Type in the label for your link (example: “Blog”) in the “Page/Widget Content” box. The labels will appear in the order they are listed in this box.
8. Highlight the label, and click on the link icon.
9. Enter the url. (Example: “http://festology.com/blog”)
10. Put additional labels on their own lines. They’ll appear in the order you use here.
11. Click “Next” or the “Page Options” tab.
12. Where it says “Would you like to this page exclusively as a ‘widget’?”, select “Yes”.
13. Select “Published” from the pulldown at the bottom of the page that says “Draft”.
14. Click “Save & Close”.
15. You can edit the widget at any time by returning to the “Pages & Widgets” section.

Related posts:

1. Getting the Most out of the Boxxo Theme
2. Widgets
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Header Image

Header images are customized per series. So if you had a header image for your 2011 conference, you’ll need to go into your series setup and enter another for your 2012 conference.

1. Create your header image in your favorite image editor. It should be 960 pixels wide.
2. Upload the image to your server or an image hosting service, and make copy the URL for the image.
3. Go to “Series Setup”.
4. Select the series to which you’d like to add a header image.
5. Go to the “Design” tab.
6. Paste or enter the URL that points to your image in the “Header Image” field.
7. Click “Save & Close”

Image template coming soon.

Background Image

Background Images are customized per series. So if you had a background image for your 2011 conference, you’ll need to go into your series setup and enter another for your 2012 conference.

1. Create your background image in your favorite image editor. Light backgrounds work best with the Boxxo theme.
2. Upload the image to your server or an image hosting service, and make copy the URL for the image.
3. Go to “Series Setup”.
4. Select the series to which you’d like to add a background image.
5. Go to the “Design” tab.
6. Paste or enter the URL that points to your image in the “Background Image” field.
7. Click “Save & Close”

Image template coming soon.

Custom Default Images

You can also customize the default images. If you’re missing an image, Festology will insert a default image in its place.  With Boxxo, you can customize these default images.  Go here for instructions.  Note that large default image in Boxxo should be 344×193 and the medium image should be 216×121. (A smaller size of 152×85 will be created from the medium image.)

Image templates coming soon!

Custom Shortcut Icon (“Favicon”)

This theme allows you to use your own shortcut icon, also called a “favicon.”  Instructions for adding a favicon is here.

Custom Labels

This theme makes use “labels” to allow you to customize the navigation, the title tags and the breadcrumbs (which show your site’s visitors where they are in your site’s map and how to get back through main pages). You can edit them in the “Series Setup” section by going to the “Labels” tab.

Additional Navigation Items

The Boxxo theme lets you add items to the end of your top navigation (which includes a link to home, your events, your venues, etc.). You can use this widget to add links to your blog, corporate homepage, Facebook page or anything else!

1. Go to “Pages & Widgets”
2. Click “Create New”
3. Under “Series”, select the appropriate series for which you’d like these additional items to appear
4. For “Page Title”, you can name this widget “Additional Top Navigation Items”
5. For “Page Url / Widget Name”, you must use “topnavlast”
6. Click “Next” or the “Content” tab.
7. Type in the label for your link (example: “Blog”) in the “Page/Widget Content” box. The labels will appear in the order they are listed in this box.
8. Highlight the label, and click on the link icon.
9. Enter the url
10. Put additional labels on their own line.
11. Click “Next” or the “Page Options” tab.
12. Where it says “Would you like to this page exclusively as a ‘widget’?”, select “Yes”.
13. Select “Published” from the pulldown at the bottom of the page that says “Draft”.
14. Click “Save & Close”.

Homepage Highlights and Homepage Widgets

You can highlight events, participants and works on your homepage.  Go to “Series Setup” and select the series for which you’d like to create highlights.  In the tabs marked “*Events”, “*Participants” and “*Works”, drag the appropriate items into the box on the right side in the order you’d like them to appear, and hit “Save & Close.”

Don’t like the default labels for your homepage highlights? Change them creating “Widgets” (under “Pages & Widgets”) with short names as follows:

• For Events, use “boxxo-hp-header1″  If you don’t set this label, it will default to “Highlights”
• For Participants, use “boxxo-hp-header2″  If you don’t set this label, it will default to “Highlighted Participants”
• For Works, use “boxxo-hp-header3″  If you don’t set this label, it will default to “More Highlights”

The rest of the homepage is created for you automatically.  If you want to insert some text or html at the top of the page, create a Widget with the short name “homepage1″.

Comments

Boxxo is Disqus-enabled. Follow the instructions here to add Disqus-powered comment boxes.

MailChimp Newsletter Signup

Boxxo is MailChimp-enabled. Follow the instructions here to add a MailChimp-powered newsletter form to your site.

Related posts:

1. Adding Links to Your Main Navigation
2. Custom Background Images
3. Widgets

Edit the default “series”
You’ll only have to do this once (or once a year), but the first thing to do is enter the overall details for your film series.

1. Go to “Series Setup”.
2. Click the default series. It might have a name like “My Event Series” or “My Festival”.
3. Add your film series title as the “Series Name”. If it’s an annual film series, you can use the year as the “Series Name (Short)” (which will appear in your URL). If this an ongoing series that doesn’t have annual editions, or doesn’t have a season, you could create a “Series Name (Short)” like “film-series”. Add the dates here as well. Pick a date far into the future if your series is ongoing.
4. Click “Save & Close”.

Add a venue
You might only have one venue — such as a movie theater — and that’s OK! For now, you’re just going to enter a venue for your next screening. You can always go back and add more.

1. Pick “Venues” under “Event Items”.
2. You won’t have any venues yet, so click the “Create New” button.
3. Add the name of the venue and its address. This is a general location for your series (or at least, the next event at your series). It could be a cinema with many screens, or a building with multiple rooms. Don’t worry about which screen the film is playing on. Just enter the general location. (You’ll be setting the specific screen or room for each screening on a separate event page that corresponds to each screening).
4. At the bottom of the form, select “Published”, then click “Save & Close”.

Add an upcoming film in your film series
Think of this section as your film archive, the films you’ve shown or will be showing. You’ll be creating your schedule in another step.

1. Pick “Works (Films/Shows/Plays)” under “Event Items”.
2. Click the “Create New” button.
3. Enter the title of your upcoming film.
4. At the bottom of the form, select “Published”, then click “Save & Close”.

Create a screening
Now that you have a film in your archive, you can make it part of a screening, which in Festology’s language is an “event”.

1. Go to “Events”.
2. Click the “Create New” button.
3. Enter the title of the screening (usually the name of the film), the start time and an end time (if there is one).
4. Select the “Venue” you created from the pulldown list, and specify a theater number or more specific location at the venue if there is one in the “Location at Venue” field.
5. Go to the “Works” tab. This is where you select the films playing in this screening. You might have one film per show, or you might have a short film preceding a feature film. Just drag the films from the box on the left side to the box on the right side in the order they’re screening.
6. At the bottom of the form, select “Published”, then click “Save & Close”.

Add more venues, films and screenings to flesh out the series as needed, and you can continue to add images or video, or you can go back to the screening events you’ve created and sell tickets.

Related posts:

1. Quick Start Guide: A Film Festival
2. Quick Start Guide: A Conference With Panels or Sessions
3. Quick Entry Guide: A Meeting with a Keynote Speaker

This guide assumes you’ve already created a series.

To create a keynote speaker event as part of your meeting, you’ll need basic information for the speaker, the venue and some text for the meeting.

For the speaker…

• The name of the speaker
• The speaker’s title or affiliation
• A short bio and a complete bio
• A link to an official site (or even a Twitter link!)

For the venue…

• Name of the venue
• Address of the venue
• The location of the meeting at the venue (like the room number or hall name)

Additional information specific to the meeting…

• Title of the meeting
• The time & date of the meeting (and an end date and end time, if you have one)
• A short description of the meeting
• A long description of the meeting
• Ticket cost and a link to buy tickets (if you sell tickets online), or RSVP information

Got everything? The sign in to Festology.

Add the speaker
If you’ve already added this speaker to Festology because he or she has already spoken at your event, you don’t need to add them again. In Festology, you only need to add names of speakers once! If this is a new speaker, follow these quick steps.

1. Pick “Participants” under “Event Items”
2. Click the “Create New” button
3. Confirm that the picked “Series” matches the series of your meeting.
4. Enter the name of a panelist.
5. Click “Next” or the “More Details” tab.
6. Enter the title/affiliation in the “Affiliation” field.
7. Enter the long bio in the “Bio” field.
8. Enter the short bio in the “Bio (short)” field.
9. Click “Next” twice or click the “Links/Social Media” tab.
10. Add the official link in the “Official Link” field, and if your speaker has a Twitter handle, enter it in the “Twitter ID” field.
11. At the bottom of the form, select “Published”, then click “Save & Close”.

Add the venue
If you’ve already added this venue to Festology, you don’t need to do it again! Otherwise…

1. Pick “Venues” under “Event Items”
2. Click the “Create New” button.
3. Confirm that the picked “Series” matches the series of your meeting.
4. Add the name of the venue and the address. Don’t worry about the room number or hall name — You’ll add that later!
5. At the bottom of the form, select “Published”, then click “Save & Close”.

Add the meeting

1. Go to “Events”.
2. Click the “Create New” button.
3. Enter the title of the panel, the start time and an end time (if there is one).
4. Select the “Venue” you created from the pulldown list
5. Specify a room number or more specific location at the venue if there is one in the “Location at Venue” field.
6. Click “Next” or the “Details” tab.
7. Paste in the complete meeting description in the “Description” field
8. Paste in the short version of the meeting description in the “Excerpt” field
9. Click on the “Participants” tab.
10. Find your keynote speaker in the list on the left side and drag the name to the box on the right side.
11. In the space provided under the speaker’s name you can type in something like “Keynote Speaker” (or leave it blank).
12. Click on the “Tickets” tab.
13. If you sell tickets online, paste in the ticketing link in the “Ticket Link” field
14. If you aren’t selling tickets, but require an RSVP, select “RSVP” under the “Get Tickets button style” pulldown and add the RSVP information in the “Important Ticketing or Logistics Information” box.
15. At the bottom of the form, select “Published”, then click “Save & Close”.

You’ve created your event! You can always go back and add more details, images, videos, links, etc.

Related posts:

1. Quick Start Guide: A Conference With Panels or Sessions
2. Quick Start Guide: A Basic Series of Events
3. Quick Start Guide: An Ongoing Film Series

Festology software upgrades are free and automatic, so you’re always using the latest and best version of Festology.

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Having trouble seeing your event series? If you get a “Page Not Found” error with the message The event you were looking for could not be found., try this first:

• Sign in to Festology.
• Go to “Setup”.
• Make sure that you’ve selected a “Current Series for Website” under the “Default Series” tab.
• If your Event Series is not in the list, go to “Series Setup” and confirm that your Event Series is Published.
• If your Event Series is saved as “Draft”, click on the series, switch it from Draft to Published, and click “Save & Close”.

You may also receive this message if your account has expired or has been canceled. Contact Festology and we’ll help you get your account re-established.

Related posts:

1. Creating a Second Event Series
2. Preview Mode

Festology takes security very serious and is committed to keeping your websites and event data as secure as possible. Public, open, or unencrypted Wi-Fi connections or other untrusted networks pose increased security risks, so it is recommended that you NOT sign in unless you are working within a secure network.

You can read more about Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and read our Privacy Policy for additional information about privacy.

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1. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)