Use Lockers
Review, publish, and announce an event
Check a multi-session draft on the Review step, preview it as a member or a guest, and publish it with an optional announcement in Community.
The short version
- On Pro, an event you start with Add sessions stays a draft under the Drafts tab on Calendar until you select Publish event on the Review step.
- Review checks each part of the event and keeps Publish event greyed out while anything required is missing. Its preview shows the page as a Member or a Guest will see it.
- Announce it in Community starts switched on and posts text you can edit, with the event card attached. Pin the announcement keeps the post at the top of Community.
- A single-session event skips Review and publishes the moment you select Create event in the New event sheet, on any plan.
Before you start
- You are the owner or an admin, and your authenticator is set up. Publishing is a protected change.
- The event started as a draft: in the New event sheet, you entered a Title and selected Add sessions, which saves a draft and opens the builder.
Find and reopen a draft
A draft is an event that is saved and not yet published. The builder saves each change on its own and the top bar shows Saved, so you can leave at any point and come back later. Only the owner and admins can open a draft, and members do not see it on Calendar.
- 1
Open the Drafts tab
On Calendar, select Drafts next to Upcoming and Past. Each draft shows its title, a Draft badge, the start date, and how many sessions it has.
- 2
Select Continue
Continue reopens the draft in the builder at the Schedule step.
- 3
Go to Review
Select Review and publish in the top bar, or select Review in the row of builder steps.
Read the Review checklist
The heading reads Ready to publish when nothing required is missing, and A few things to finish when something is. Each row has a short summary and an Edit button that opens the step where you change it.
- Details: the event title. The row is missing when the title is blank.
- Where: the venue, the online option, or both, such as Online in the Live room. The row is missing when an in-person or hybrid event has no venue, or when the event uses a meeting link and none is saved.
- Schedule: how many sessions over how many days, with the time zone. Breaks and canceled sessions are left out of the count. The row is missing when there is no session apart from breaks and canceled ones, or when a session has no end time, which it shows as Every session needs an end time.
- Access: who can attend, read back as a sentence such as Members and guests register free. This row is always ready.
- Session descriptions: listed under Worth a look when some sessions have no description yet. Its button reads Add.
Preview it as a member or a guest
The Preview panel sits beside the checklist, or below it on a narrow screen. Select Member or Guest above it to switch viewers. It shows the event page before anyone has registered, with the button and note that viewer gets, and nothing in it can be clicked.
Preview in the top bar opens the event page itself in a new tab, where a draft shows a Draft label.
- Member: Register, or Get a ticket when everyone buys a ticket. The note reads Free with your membership or Ticket for members too.
- Guest: Register when guests register free, or Get a ticket when guests buy one. The note repeats your access choice, such as Members and guests register free.
- Guest, on a page set to Only members: the preview reads Guests who open the link see this. Only members can view the page. Under it is the members-only notice guests get, with a See membership button.
- No button: that viewer has no way to sign up with the current settings, and the note reads Guests can't register for this event or Members can't register for this event yet. The guest note is expected on a members-only event with a link or public page.
Announce it in Community
Announce it in Community starts switched on, under When you publish. Publishing then posts to the Community feed under your name, with the event card attached. Turn the switch off to publish without a post, and members still get the new event notice.
The text box starts with a suggestion in this form: [Event title] is on the calendar for [start date]. You can register from the event card below. Until you type in the box, the suggestion follows changes to the title and dates. Edit it as you like, up to 5,000 characters. Your edited text is kept only while you stay in the builder, so if you leave before publishing, the box goes back to the suggestion.
Turn on Pin the announcement to keep the post at the top of Community until you unpin it. Pinning also sends members the same notification as pinning any other post.
Publish the event
Publishing puts the event on Calendar under Upcoming. Active members get a notification titled New event: followed by the event title, with the start time under it. The person who created the event does not get one.
If you announced it, the post is in Community with the event card, pinned if you chose Pin the announcement. Publishing and posting happen together, so if the post cannot be created, the event is not published either.
- 1
Check the heading
The Review heading reads Ready to publish when every required row is ready.
- 2
Select Publish event
The button reads Publishing… while Lockers saves any last change and checks the event again. If something fails, the message appears above the button and the event stays a draft.
- 3
See it published
The event page opens with a Published banner.
Review an event that is already published
Select Edit on the event page, then select Review in the top bar. This works for any event you can edit, including one-session events on any plan. The badge next to the title reads Published, and there is no Review and publish button.
The heading reads Published, with the line Here is what people see now. Anything you edit saves and updates the page. The panel under the checklist is titled It's live, and View the event page takes you back to the event. Each change goes live as soon as the top bar shows Saved. Review here has no announcement switch, so to tell people about a change, share the link or write a post in Community.
If it does not work
- Publish event is greyed out: a row is missing something, and the line under the button reads Finish the items above to publish. Select Edit on that row.
- Every session needs an end time. Open that session on the Schedule step, set Ends, and wait for Saved.
- A change did not save. Fix it above, then publish. The top bar shows Not saved, and the message under it names the problem, such as Give the session a title. Fix it, wait for Saved, and select Publish event again.
- Write the announcement, or turn it off. The announcement box is empty.
- The Access row and the preview disagree: an access change on the Settings step has an error and has not saved. Fix the ticket price or the page choice there.
- Choose access and page visibility settings that work together. The saved access choices no longer fit together. Choose who the event is for and who can see the page again on the Settings step.
- Connect a Stripe account that is ready to accept payments before selling an event. The event sells tickets and payments are not ready. Select Set up payments on the Settings step, finish setup, then publish again.
- This event already has an announcement. Edit that post instead. An earlier try already published and announced the event. Open the post in Community and choose Edit post from its menu.
- We could not publish this event. Check your connection, then select Publish event again.
- A member did not get the new event notice: notices go to active members of the community. Guests and ticket holders who are not members get none, and neither does the person who created the event.
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