Posts Tagged ‘activity description’

Capture the Public’s Eye: Uploading an Image to Accompany Your Activity

July 19th, 2011 by Culture Days

As we get closer and closer to the Culture Days event weekend (September 30, October 1 & 2) it’s time to start thinking about how you can maximize the visibility your activity  on the Culture Days web site! The site offers a wonderful opportunity to generate enthusiasm for your activity, particularly when you supplement your information with an eye-catching image. While uploading an image to accompany your activity is not a requirement, it will go a long way to enhance your activity listing on the web site.

Uploading an image to your activity is easy! Once your activity has been registered, log into the system and, head to the “My Culture Days Activity Page.” Click the “View My Culture Days Activities” button. You will then see a list of the activities you’ve registered. To the right of the activity(ies) you’ve registered, under the header “Actions”, you will see a series of options, including “Activity Image”. This link will take you to the Culture Days activity image upload screen. Follow the instructions on this page, taking special care to ensure that your image’s file size (in both “weight” – ie megabites, and “dimensions” ie pixels) falls within the system’s processable range. Here’s a list of some things to keep in mind:

  • it’s a good idea to keep your images well under 8MB in size; 1 – 3 MB is ideal – Before uploading your image, you can check its size by right-clicking on the image icon and choosing “properties” from the pop-up menu. (or if you’re on a Mac, click the image icon and hit “command + i”). If your image is too big, don’t worry! There are a number of free sites that specialize in resizing JPG and other files to suit your needs, most notably Shrinkpictures.
  • the ideal dimension for your image is 240 x 160 pixels – the maximum size you can upload is 1000 x 1000 pixels
  • horizontal (or “landscape”) images work much better than vertical (or “portrait”) images when displayed on the Culture Days web site

Once you have an appropriately sized image prepared, the rest is easy! Simply click on the “browse” button next to the “Your Activity Image” field and choose the file from its location on your computer. Don’t forget to give credit where credit is due in the “photo credit” field. Then press the “Upload & Process” button at the bottom of the page and you’re done!

Your activity will now be ready for prime time!

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Five tips to help you go from draft to live

June 30th, 2010 by Aubrey Reeves

Are you still in draft mode on the Culture Days website? When you click “publish” your activity will automatically appear online. Draft activities are not visible on the website.  Please publish so you can take full advantage of the upcoming marketing toolkits and the summer promotions being planned.  You can modify your details after you have published.

Tip #1 – Publish the basics, fill in the details later

Go ahead and publish your activity listing even if some of the smaller details still need to be worked out. The registration system continues to allow you full access to your account to edit activities and re-publish.

Example: Publish your workshop title and a short teaser description. You can add a longer description later.

Tip #2 – Keep your description short and sweet

Three to four compelling sentences are usually enough to convey all the essential information for a single activity. Since Culture Days website visitors will be browsing through many activities, they will want clear, essential information. Provide your website address where people can get more detailed information if they wish.

Example: Don’t include lengthy biographies, artist statements and the history of the art form.

Tip #3 –Don’t bundle multiple activities in one description

Combining several activities in one description can create a long and confusing listing. Create separate activities listings to maximize your exposure on the website.  After saving your first activity, you can click “New Activity” from the main “My Activities” page to add another activity.

Example: Your heritage site is hosting a guided walking tour and a hands-on demonstration. Create two activities within your account instead of just one.

Tip #4 – Get your activity on the map

Each activity listing includes a map function and the Culture Days website also features a map of Canada depicting all the activities across the country. Users can zoom into their region and city to see what is happening locally. Make sure you have correctly entered your full address and postal code for validation and confirm your location on the map.

Example: The public will be able to see on the map that your activity is within walking distance of several other activities.

Tip #5 – Include a picture

An eye-catching image can go a long way to attracting the casual website visitor to your activity and to set it apart from the crowd. If you don’t include a photo, the system uses a standard Culture Days image.

Example:  Use a photo of your iconic venue, a photo of similar activity in action or of a colourful artwork.

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Quick Tips on Writing Interesting and Informative Activity Descriptions

April 15th, 2010 by Culture Days

Written by Aubrey Reeves, Ontario Arts Council’s Culture Days Animator/Coordinator

Cet article est aussi disponible en français ici.

The activity description is your introduction to the general public visiting the Culture Days website. It needs to hook people in a few sentences with a compelling reason as to why they might want to attend your activity out of the possible hundreds of activities happening in your province. Here are some tips on how to write a great activity description.  These can also serve as guidelines for issues and logistics as you get started on planning your activity.

1) Think journalistically: provide who, what, where, when, why and how at the top of your description:

  • Who are the artists, presenters and collaborators?  Make sure you include the names of all the artists leading workshops, tours or talks once they are confirmed. Not only is it good recognition for their contribution, but visitors to the website might know of them and want to attend for that reason.
  • What is going on? If there are multiple activities happening at your location, don’t lump them all together. For instance: if there an open house, a hands-on workshop and a guest lecture all happening over the course of the weekend,  register each as a separate activity. After you save your first activity, you can click “New Activity” from the main “My Activities” page to add another activity.
  • Where your activity takes place is entered into the activity address box. While signage will be important on the weekend, please also indicate in the specific directions box if there are unusual directions to get to your activity. Nothing is more frustrating to a participant than poorly explained directions.
  • When activities occur (date, start time and end time) is selected using the calendar function after you enter the activity description. This means that you don’t need to include date and time in this description. However, an important detail to flag is whether or not people can drop-in to your activity or if it is important that people arrive on time to participate.
  • Why should the public want to attend your activity? Tell us what makes it unique and interesting.
  • How will the public engage? Avoid general words such as interact, participate, collaborate without qualifying in what way the public will get to do these things.  For instance, this is too general: “the public will interact with craft artists.” Tell us how the public will interact, such as: “the public can pick up a needle and a pair of scissors to be part of a community quilting bee.”

2) Try to keep your full description short and sweet. 3-4 compelling sentence is usually enough to convey all the essential information for a single activity. Visitors to the Culture Days website will want to get the vital information without having to read long descriptions, which brings me to my third point…

3) Provide a web address if you have one. Visitors to the Culture Days site can follow the link to your website to get background information about you or your group, your art form and your major career highlights.  You don’t need all that information in your activity description to make it compelling. This also provides you with a cross-marketing opportunity.

4) Avoid too many exclamation points!!!!! Yes, we know you are excited and we are too! But if you put an exclamation point after everything you write, the exclamation loses all meaning! Visitors to the Culture Days website will be reading many activity descriptions, not just yours. It is best to avoid exclamation overkill. Instead, use descriptive words to convey the excitement of your activity.

5)  Indicate if there is a target audience or preferred age group. Be clear that the craft studio is meant for kids, or the dance class is only for seniors if that is how you have conceived of your activity.

Just a bit of reassurance: You don’t need to know all these details right now.  When you register, you will see that your activity is indicated as DRAFT. If you hit the PUBLISH button, you are approving that the information is correct and ready to be viewed by the public. But don’t worry! Even after you publish, you can go back into your activity to make edits, so if details change, you can always adjust them and then re-publish. We encourage you to PUBLISH sooner than later, so that your activity can benefit from our marketing and promotions as early as possible.

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