Featured events

The Featured Events list at the top of the home page is a handful of events the Gathin team picks by hand. It is not a ranking, and there is no application form. This article explains what we look at, and how to get your event ready to be one of them.

How it works

• A placement carries at most 6 events at a time.
• The Gathin team chooses them, and an event stays on the list between a start and an end date.
• When nothing is featured, the list falls back to the events drawing the most interest right now. An event that is going well can end up there without being picked.
• Events that have ended drop off.

There is no paid or sponsored placement. The choice comes down to how ready the event's page is and what it means for the community around it.

The checklist

These are the things we look at before featuring an event. Each of them also helps the event's own page get more sign-ups.

Cover image

• Upload your own cover. The generated gradient covers look alike in a list, and an event wearing one rarely gets picked.
• Do not print the event's name, date or venue onto the image. The card prints all three beside it already, and repeating them makes the card look crowded.
• Pick something that still reads small: on a list card the cover is about 72–80 pixels square, and on a phone the list scrolls sideways three rows at a time.

Title

• Keep it under 60 characters. Anything longer is clipped on the card.
• Leave your community's name out of it. The card already carries the community's name and logo above the title.
• No shouting in capitals, no row of emoji. The title should say what the thing is.

Date, time and place

• Enter the real date and time. Don't park a placeholder date while you decide.
• For an in-person event, pick the venue rather than typing a city. The map and the directions only appear once a venue is set.
• For an online event, decide when the joining link becomes visible to attendees.
• If the event runs in another time zone, set the event's time zone.

Description

• Say who it is for in the first paragraph. Lists and link previews show those first lines.
• Write the programme, the speakers, and what someone walks away with. A one-line description does not get picked.
• If you have them, enter the schedule and the speakers as their own entries rather than burying them in the description.

Registration

• Publish the event as public. Private and draft events cannot be featured.
• Have tickets or the registration form ready before the event goes on the list. A page nobody can sign up on helps no one.
• If the capacity fills, turn on the waitlist.

Your community page

• Fill in your community's logo, cover and description. The card shows the community's name and logo above the event.
• A page with past events on it reads as a community that turns up, which counts for a lot.

Timing

• Publish at least two weeks ahead. Featuring an event the day before it happens does nobody any good.
• Announce it to your community when it goes live: through the "Announce to your community" prompt right after you create the event, or the bell icon in the event's settings.

What to do to be chosen

There is nothing to apply to. If the above is in place, your event is already in the pool. If you would rather tell us, write to us with the event's link. It helps a lot if you also say when it is and who you expect.

Not being picked does not mean the event is weak: the list is six rows long, and we try to make room for a different kind of event each time.