kids ottawa and gatineau family event calendar - frequently asked questions

If you do not find the answer to your question about using our add events system below, please at email us.

General Questions

How secure is your site?
Why does my event have to be approved before going on the calendar?

Sign in Questions

Why do I need a user profile to use the system?
Will you share my user profile information with other companies?
My username is my email address. What do I do if my email address changes?

Add Event Questions

What kind of events can I add to the kids ottawa and gatineau family event calendar?
Can I add my organization's courses for children or parents to the calendar?
Do I have to pay to add my events?
What information can I include in an event listing?
Where will my featured listings appear on the calendar?
If I add an event as a basic listing, can I upgrade it to a featured event later?
Can I add an event if all details are not yet finalized?
Can I put an event in more than one category?
Can I list my event in French?
Can I add an event that has already started?
Can I add events that are held by another organization?

How do I add an event:

that has many sub-events that are part of a larger event.
that occurs over a period of a few days, weeks or months, but does not take place every day of the week.
that happens on different days of the week on different weeks.
that is a regularly occurring ongoing event.
that happens more than once during the day.
that has different costs for different visitors.

Day Camp Listing Questions

How do I add a day camp for March Break, Summer or Holiday Break?
What if we offer day camps on more than one week?
What if we offer a one or two-day day camp more than once during the same week?

General Questions

How secure is your site?

To provide an appropriate level of security for our site, we require event listers to create a user profile, including password. For event listers paying for a featured listing, we provide secure pages to process this transaction and we don't store any sensitive information on our site, such as credit card information.

Why does my event have to be approved before going on the calendar?

To ensure that events are appropriate for our family event calendar and are entered correctly, the team at kids ottawa and gatineau will review your event and approve it within 48 hours from submission.

Sign in Questions

Why do I need a user profile to use the system?

It makes using the kids ottawa and gatineau family event calendar system faster and easier. With a user profile stored in the system, you can easily and quickly sign in without re-entering your user information. Once you are signed in, you can see the events that you have already listed and modify or delete them if necessary, and you may add new events.

Will you share my user profile information with other companies?

No. The user profile information that you provide will be used solely for the purposes of the kids ottawa and gatineau family event calendar system administration and communication. Your information will not be shared with any other organization.

My username is my email address. What do I do if my email address changes?

If you have changed your email address, simply sign in to the system with your old email address, and then select Change Profile to change your email address. If you can't remember the email address you used for your username, send us an with your name, organization and phone number and we'll send it to you.

Add Event Questions

What kind of events can I add to the kids ottawa and gatineau family event calendar?

The kids ottawa and gatineau family event calendar is for events, day camps and happenings for babies, kids, parents and families in the National Capital Region and surrounding area, and is designed to accommodate most kinds of event time frame formations (one day and weekend events, events that happen over the course of several days, weeks or months, events that happen once, twice or more times a week over one or more weeks, and events that are part of a larger 'main' event).

Can I add my organization's courses for children or parents to the calendar?

The calendar is not designed to accommodate courses or activities that run over several weeks and require advance registration. One day events or activities that require advance registration may be added.

Do I have to pay to add my events?

A basic event listing is free. For a more prominent presence on the calendar, you can upgrade a basic listing to featured status (our special introductory offer is just $45.00). A featured listing is bigger and, bolder, includes a graphic image, and will be placed at the top of the daily Browse Events pages. See next question for details.

What information can I include in an event listing?

A basic event listing includes the event name (and if applicable the name of the larger event of which it is a part), date, time, cost, age range, language, location, host organization, telephone, website (hyperlinked) and a 25-word description. A featured event listing includes all the basic listing details plus a bigger bolder event name, a graphic image, and a 75-word description. It is placed at the top of the daily Browse Events pages and will be included in an issue of our newsletter. See sample calendar page for examples of basic and featured listings.

Where will my featured listings appear on the calendar?

On the daily Browse Events pages regular featured listings will appear alphabetically by category and event name at the top of listings, and day camp featured listings will appear alphabetically by category and event name at the top of the day camp listings; on the Browse Events category pages, where every day of the month is displayed, featured listings will appear on the first day of the event, and an abridged version of the listing will appear on subsequent days that the event takes place.

If I add an event as a basic listing, can I upgrade it to a featured event later?

Yes. You can upgrade an event at any time. Your featured event will be posted to the site once it is approved and payment is made.

Can I add an event if all details are not yet finalized?

Yes. The system requires you to enter certain basic information, such as event name, address, date and location. So you could enter the event initially with this basic information and then update it later.

Can I put an event in more than one category?

No. When adding an event, you can select only one category. If you are having trouble choosing a category or if you have a suggestion for a new category, please let us know by sending us an email.

Can I list my event in French?

You may list your event in either English or French. Within each listing there is a field for the language of the event. Please note that while your listing will display in the language entered, the pages on the site are currently in English only.

Can I add an event that has already started?

Yes. You can add an event that has already started, providing it is still going on. The listing will tell browsers when the event started and when it ends.

Can I add events that are held by another organization?

No. Events must be added by someone from the organization that is hosting or organizing it. If you know about an upcoming event that is held by another organization that you think should be added to kids ottawa and gatineau family event calendar and that is held by another organization, email us and we will contact the organizers with an invitation to add it.

How do I add an event:

that has many sub-events that are part of a larger event.

You can add the whole main event as one listing and include information about sub-events within the listing description, or you can enter each sub-event as an individual event listing. Within an event listing there is a place for the event name and for the name of the 'main' event of which it is a part. For example, if the movie Jungle Book was playing at the Children's Movie Festival, "Jungle Book" would be the event name and "Children's Movie Festival" would be the main event name. The Children's Movie Festival could be listed as one event that mentions in the description all the movies that are playing during the festival, or each movie could be listed separately as an event.

that occurs over a period of a few days, weeks or months, but does not take place every day of the week.

You can enter a start date and end date for your event, and then select the specific days of the week on which it takes place. Your event will be displayed on the calendar only on the days during which it takes place. For example, if you have an event that happens every Tuesday and Thursday in January, enter 01/01/2007 as the start date, 01/31/2007 as the end date, and select "Tuesday" and "Thursday" in the days of the week section.

that happens on different days of the week on different weeks.

If your event does not happen consistently on the same days of the week, you may need to add it more than once. For example, if your event happens every weekend in October (every Saturday and Sunday), but also on the Thanksgiving Monday, you would add it once with a start date of 10/01/07 and an end date of 10/31/07 and select Saturday and Sunday as the days of the week. You would then add the event a second time as a single day event with a start date of 10/08/07 and an end date of 10/08/07 (Thanksgiving Monday). The event would be displayed on all of the Saturdays and Sundays of the month of October, plus Thanksgiving Monday. If you have upgraded the event to featured status and are paying for the first event listing, please put a comment in the payment screen noting that there will be a second listing that belongs to this first one. We will mark the second listing as paid, so that you will not be charged twice.

that is a regularly occurring ongoing event.

You can add an ongoing event for a period as long as one year. For example, if you offer a regular preschooler activity every Friday morning throughout the year, you can enter a start date of 01/01/2007, an end date of 12/31/07, and select "Friday" under days of the week.

that happens more than once during the day.

You may enter the event time in whatever descriptive manner you feel is appropriate. Please include am or pm. For example, if your event is at 11 in the morning and 1 and 3 in the afternoon, you can enter that in the time field as "11:00am, 1:00pm and 3:00pm".

that has different costs for different visitors.

You may enter the cost in whatever descriptive manner you feel is appropriate. For example, if there are different prices for adults, kids and seniors, you could enter it as "Adults $10, Kids $5, Seniors $8". Please do not use non-punctuation characters such as a slash in your description.

Day Camp Listing Questions

How do I add a day camp for March Break, Summer or Holiday Break?

Adding your day camp is like adding any other event (choose one of the March Break, Summer or Holiday Break day camp categories). For simplicity of display, we will list multi-day camps on the first day of the camp only. There will be a message to browsers on the Browse Events page to indicate that camps are displayed this way. Your camp listing will show the start and end date as you entered them.

What if we offer day camps on more than one week?

If you offer the same March Break day camps on different weeks, to accommodate the different March Break weeks in Ottawa and Gatineau, please add a separate listing for each camp session.

What if we offer a one or two-day day camp more than once during the same week?

Please add a separate listing for each camp session.