Announcing Events in Waterloo Region
When you are organizing an event, getting the word out is one of the most frustrating and time-consuming aspects of the job. Everybody has different rules, deadlines, and contacts. Keeping track of all the details can be frustrating. This page aims to be a one-stop shop of information about how to announce your event in Waterloo Region.
You may want to send out press releases, put up posters, submit announcements to newspapers and radio stations, and more.
The page is maintained by Paul Nijjar. Please contact him with additions, corrections, comments, and criticism. Additional information is especially welcome for information marked as WANTED. With your help, this can become the best source of announcement information in the region.
Internet Resources
When used properly, internet resources are one of the most effective ways to get word out about your event. When used poorly, you will be seen as a spammer (or worse) and ruin your group's reputation. Be very careful to respect the local rules and guidelines of the Internet resources you are using.
You can choose to advertise your event using assorted websites, newsgroups, and mailing lists in the region.
Websites
WANTED: studentlifecentre.org, uwstudent.org, meetup.com, Facebook, WPIRG
The Loop
The Loop (http://www.theloop.ca) is an online events calendar focused on music, culture or entertainment. You can post to it freely. They publish a weekly e-bulletin as well.
UWEvents
UWEvents (http://www.uwevents.uwaterloo.ca) is a web calendar that caters to University of Waterloo events and activities. It is free to list activities on the website, but you need to be a UW community member (that is, have a working UW login name and password) in order to post events to the website. Event postings are moderated.
This site allows you to access other UW advertising as well: the Daily Bulletin and giant TVs in the Student Life Centre.
WANTED: Other output resources. What is UWDir called now?
Kijiji
This is a free classifieds site, run by the people who brought you Ebay. http://kitchener.kijiji.ca/ .
There is an "events" section available. It is free to post ads.
Locally it is much more popular than Craigslist.
Wonderful Waterloo
The Wonderful Waterloo is a fairly popular site focusing on Waterloo Region. They have an events calendar.
LiveJournal
The blogging service LiveJournal has a few communities relevant to Kitchener-Waterloo:
uwaterloo which is limited to postings of interest to the University of Waterloo community.
wilfridlaurier for issues of interest to Wilfrid Laurier Students.
uwlu which is intended for both university communities.
k_dub which is for "the fine people of Kitchener-Waterloo".
Note that as of this writing (2011) Livejournal is mostly dead.
upcoming.org
Upcoming.org (http://www.upcoming.org) is a worldwide, Web 2.0 events listing service owned by Yahoo!. There is a Kitchener-Waterloo section to which you can add your events. You can also subscribe to feeds and tag events.
It does not appear to be widely used.
WANTED: URL for K-W section.
Craigslist
The K-W Craigslist (<href="http://kitchener.craigslist.org>) is an online classified ad service. Globally, Craigslist is a very popular site, but as of this writing (Dec 2006) the K-W section of Craigslist is pretty quiet.
It is free to post ads. There is an "events" section available.
WANTED: Check URLs, guidelines.
"Old Media" websites
These websites are affiliated with local media publications.
CTV Community Announcements
The local CTV station has an online events listing: http://swo.ctv.ca/calendar/
Echo Weekly
Echo Weekly is an "alternative weekly" newspaper for Waterloo Region and Guelph. They have an events calendar, which you can submit to by contacting "calendar" at their domain.
Kitchener Post
Send an email to the editor of The Kitchener Post weekly newspaper with the word EVENT in the subject. Include date, time, place, cost, and contact information.
The Record
UPDATE: The Record site is defunct, or the URL has been changed.
Rogers Television Community Billboard
Local television station Rogers Television has a billboard where community groups can submit events: http://www.rogerstv.com/page.aspx?lid=191&rid=22
It looks like these messages are crossposted to television as well!
The Daily Bulletin
The Daily Bulletin (<href="http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca> is a daily newsletter published weekday mornings by the University of Waterloo Department of Communications. You submit events for consideration either by sending e-mail to [WHO?], or by using UWEvents. Events listings are limited to those that are affiliated with the University, or which happen on campus.
The
newsletter appears as a website, as an RSS feed, as a posting to the
uw.general newsgroup, and as an e-mail sendout.
Lots of people read it. However, they will typically only
advertise events a day or two before they occur.
You should submit events for consideration at least two days in advance, and preferably earlier.
WANTED: Is this who actually publishes the thing? Who is the contact? Are these access methods correct? Deadlines?
Downtown Kitchener Events Listings
The City of Kitchener maintains an events listing for downtown Kitchener events: http://www.downtownkitchener.ca/things/events/ .
Newsgroups
A number of newsgroups exist which permit event announcements specific to Waterloo Region. Be aware that spambots routinely harvest addresses of newsgroup posters, and that since the ascent of the World Wide Web, newsgroup usage has fallen.
At the University of Waterloo, uw.general is fairly popular and allows event postings for UW-affiliated events. There is also a newsgroup called uw.talks , but I do not think many people read it.
For Waterloo Region in general, the best newsgroup to use is
probably kw.general .
Posters
WANTED: Information about the Cities of Cambridge, Kitchener; Conestoga College; Wilfrid Laurier University; Waterloo Public Library; kiosks at Waterloo Park; stores and organizations in the area that accept posters; contact phone numbers/webpages for each organization.
City of Waterloo
The City of Waterloo allows postering on the plastic sheaths around selected lightpoles in the city. Posters must be stapled (not taped) to the plastic sheaths. There is a limitation of one poster per pole, and posters must be taken down once the event is over.
University of Waterloo, Main Campus
The University of Waterloo boasts a huge population -- over 20 000 people work and study there -- but postering is mostly limited to on-campus events.
The postering rules at UW are complicated. There is a campus-wide poster run, and in addition each faculty has a student society which authorizes posters to be placed in buildings for that faculty. Different boards in the same building are often owned by different organizations, and you have to be aware of which boards belong to whom.
WANTED: Who controls Optometry, EIT, CECS? What about the church colleges?
Federation of Students Poster Run
The Federation of Students manages the campus-wide poster run. There are actually two different runs: the large run consists of 104 posters, and the small run has 52 posters. Slots on the poster runs must be purchased (prices vary depending on your organization's relation to the university) and posters must be delivered to the Feds office in the Student Life Centre by Thursdays at 10am.
The Federation of Students puts the posters up and takes them down again. Posters stay up for two weeks.
The location of Feds board in most buildings is good, but exposure in the Math and Computers building is poor.
WANTED: restrictions on posters, website, costs.
Mathematics Society
MathSoc controls poster boards in the Math and Computers (MC) and Davis Centre (DC) buildings. For non-math affiliated organizations, they accept up to six letter-sized posters, or two posters of any other size. They put the posters up and take them down.
Submit posters to the MathSoc office (MC 3038, on the third floor of the MC building).
Every poster must have information that identifies the sponsoring organization, and provides contact information.
WANTED: Restrictions, how long posters stay up, MathSoc location.
Engineering Society
Engsoc authorizes posters for all engineering buildings on campus: Rod Coutts Hall (RCH), Douglas Wright Engineering (DWE), Engineering Buildings 2 and 3 (E2, E3), and Carl Pollack Hall (CPH).
Groups may put up 40 posters for an event. You must take the posters to the Engsoc Office (CPH 1327) to be approved and stamped. You must also sign their names and contact information into a logbook. Every poster gets stamped with an expiry date.
Once posters have been stamped, you are responsible for putting them up AND taking them down again before the expiry date.
WANTED: poster restrictions, good postering areas; are there new buildings?
Arts Student Union
The ASU authorizes posters for Arts-related buildings: the Arts Lecture Hall (AL), Modern Languages (ML), Hagey Hall (HH), Psychology-Anthropology-Sociology Building (PAS).
Posters must be stamped at the ASU office (AL 105). You put the posters up, you take them down. Posters can stay up for two weeks.
Science Society
SciSoc's fiefdom consists of Biology 1 and 2 (B1, B2), Earth Sciences and Chemistry (ESC), Chemistry 2 (C2), and the Physics (PHY) buildings.
Posters must be authorized and stamped. You put posters up and take them down. Posters have an expiry date, but you may choose this date.
WANTED: office location, duration, restrictions; does SciSoc control EIT?
Environmental Studies Society
The ESS controls the Environmental Studies buildings (ES1, ES2).
Posters should be authorized and stamped. The ESS office is on the bottom floor of ES1, inside the beautiful coffee shop/student lounge. The board just outside this coffee shop is a good postering spot.
WANTED: office location, duration, restrictions; is this the correct acronym expansion?
Student Life Centre
The Student Life Centre is a hub of student activity. The Turnkey desk controls several boards in the building. This is one of the few areas that appears to accept posters for off-campus and non-UW events.
You can submit up to 4 posters to the Turnkey desk. They put the posters up and take them down.
WANTED: Does the SLC actually take 4 posters? Or is it 6?
Dana Porter Library
This library has a poster board at the entrance. They are one of the few places that takes posters for off-campus events. You can submit exactly one poster to the checkouts. They put the poster up and take it down again. This is actually a good place to poster, because the board is well-organized and prominent.
South Campus Hall
This building contains the bookstore and clothing store. It has one board on the main floor, which appears to be a free-for-all.
Outdoor Kiosks
There are a number of round outdoor kiosks throughout the university. I think these may be controlled by the Federation of Students, but in practice these kiosks are a free-for-all/tragedy of the commons. All kinds of posters appear on these kiosks, but often people will poster over each other's offerings. These kiosks are not fantastic postering locations, but occasionally people read them.
Wilfrid Laurier University
My understanding is that only WLU students/staff/faculty may put up posters on campus. I have very little information besides this.
WANTED: Better information.
Outdoor Kiosk
There is a big square outdoor kiosk directly across University Avenue from WLU. It appears to be a free-for-all board.
Kitchener Public Library
The Kitchener Public Library maintains "community listing" boards for posters. They accept up to six posters -- two for the main library and four for the branches.
Submit your posters to the "Borrower Services" desk in the main branch.
WANTED: Restrictions on posters, how long they stay up, when they go up.
Radio Stations
Some radio stations have "community announcement" times when the DJs advertise events in the community.
The Beat 91.5
The Beat is a dance-oriented station. You can submit events for its community listings service by contacting streetsense at the domain <519thebeat.com>
Kool FM
This station does "Community minutes" but they need two months notice. See