How to Import External Calendars to AddEvent how-to

Why Use a Subscription Calendar?

Managing and sharing events can be a challenge, especially when schedules change or updates get made. A subscription calendar makes this process simple by allowing users to subscribe to one calendar and automatically receive your updated events and event details. Instead of manually tracking event details or relying on multiple platforms, organizations can keep everything in sync effortlessly.

With AddEvent, you can create a single, centralized calendar for all of your scheduled events. Whether you’re coordinating company-wide meetings, industry conferences, recurring webinars, or community events, your audience stays informed with minimal effort on your and their parts.

For businesses managing multiple clients—such as event hosts, agencies, or service providers—a subscription calendar is the perfect tool. You can:

• Use one main calendar to track all booked events across different clients, giving you a clear overview of your schedule each month.
• Easily share event details using links and digital collateral, making it simple for clients to distribute invitations to their guests. This allows you to share a calendar of events.
• Maintain a single source of truth even when clients use their own RSVP or event management systems, ensuring all upcoming events are accessible and up to date.

When Should You Use a Subscription Calendar?

A subscription calendar is perfect when you have multiple events that need to be easily accessible to your audience. Here are some key use cases:

• Companies managing internal or external event schedules – Keep employees, partners, and clients updated on important meetings, training sessions, and company-wide events.
• Event hosts and agencies – Track and manage all client events in one calendar while ensuring each client has easy access to their specific event details.
• Community and nonprofit organizations – Share fundraisers, volunteer opportunities, and local gatherings with your audience in just a few clicks.
• Education and sports teams – Provide students, parents, staff, and fans with schedules for classes, games, practices, or extracurricular activities.

By using a subscription calendar, businesses and organizations can streamline event management, get organized, and ensure people always have access to the latest event information—without the hassle of constant manual updates.

Importing an External Calendar

If you already manage an event schedule in another system—such as Google Calendar, Outlook, or another platform—you don’t need to start from scratch. AddEvent allows you to import your external calendar, keeping all your events in one place and allowing your users to subscribe and stay up to date without the need to recreate events in AddEvent.

This is particularly useful if you have multiple calendars and need a single source of truth. By importing your existing calendar, you maintain control over your events in your external calendar while making them easily accessible and visible through AddEvent.

Subscription Calendar vs. Embedded Calendar

Both subscription and embedded calendars offer value, but they serve different purposes:

• Subscription Calendars: Best when you want users to add your events to their own calendars and receive automatic updates. Perfect for ongoing events where schedules might change or new events that have yet to be added to the calendar
• Embedded Calendars: Ideal for displaying an event schedule on your website, allowing visitors to view upcoming events without subscribing. This works well for public-facing event listings.

How to Import Your Calendar:

1. Get Your External Calendar URL – If you’re using Google Calendar, Outlook, or another calendar service, export your events as an .ICS file or obtain a public calendar URL. The calendar must be in a valid iCalendar format (.ics). When the URL has been added, the system will run a check to examine if the calendar feed is valid or needs additional information.
2. Create a Calendar on AddEvent – Sign in to AddEvent, navigate to calendars, and create a new calendar. If you already have a calendar in AddEvent, go to the Edit Calendar page to import into your existing calendar.
3. Import the External Calendar – Under “Import events from an external calendar” Click “add external calendar” and add the URL to the external calendar you want to import.

**Note, imported calendar events are not editable and will need to be edited in your source calendar.**

4. Embed Your Calendar – Use AddEvent’s calendar embed feature to integrate your website calendar on any webpage, making it easy for users to see upcoming events. From more detailed information on how to embed your calendar you can go here.
5. Share Calendar – Share the calendar subscription link, allowing users to stay updated with all future event additions. This ensures they always have the latest events added to their personal calendars.

Example Subscription Calendar experience shown above.

By using a subscription calendar, you reduce the time and effort needed to keep everybody informed. Instead of relying on emails or website updates, your events appear directly in their personal calendars—where they already plan their daily lives. We suggest using embeddable calendars in addition to subscription calendars as it gives your attendees an easy to find updated event calendar if they don’t want to subscribe to your calendar. This increases engagement, attendance, and overall satisfaction with your events.

Ready to simplify event management? Try AddEvent’s subscription calendar today and ensure your audience never misses an important event.