Submitting events to the List? Check this out first!
January 17, 2025
We’re very excited to have launched The List–Ottawa’s Queerest Calendar. We’re even more excited that you’re part of the project! If you or someone you know is organizing an event, sports team, or any kind of community program by and for the queer community, this is the place to post it.
You can access the List by clicking on “see full calendar” under the “Events Calendar” section on the main webpage. To submit an event, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the blue submission drop-down labelled “Add an event to the list.”
TERMINOLOGY
PLEASE NOTE: The events on The List include those organized by other organizations, groups, and people (i.e. they aren’t all MAX events). We will do our best to only include events that are by or for members of our community, but we aren’t responsible for—and can’t make any guarantees about—non-MAX events. If a submission appears harmful to our community, we might follow up with the person who submitted it to get further clarification or simply not publish it.
We also recognize that language is ever-changing and imperfect. The language MAX uses is flexible and tailored to our audience which includes people with specific lived experiences and needs. We use a variety of terms and acronyms as convenient, though imperfect shorthand, including the word queer as an umbrella term for all who identify as members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Language and values change from person to person, and so you may find a range of terms being used in the community events.
COMMUNITY GUIDELINES
We reserve the right to decline or edit your event listing if it does not align with our community values.
All event postings must cater to the 2SLGBTQ+ population within Ottawa and the surrounding region—Renfrew, Lanark, Prescott, Russell, Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, as well as Gatineau and the Outaouais. If you’re unsure about your region, send us an email. This could include having a notably queer organizer, venue, or audience. Virtual events whose organizers are beyond our region may still be published if they are accessible to the 2SLGBTQ+ community in our catchment.
The List will not feature partisan, discriminatory, or unreputable events. We will also decline events with messaging against the work MAX does, including but not limited to harm reduction, substance use health, and sexual health. We may reach out after receiving a submission to verify the legitimacy and safety of the event prior to publishing it.
FILLING OUT FIELDS
- Event Title
- Event description – please include the following:
- A brief description about what people can expect to happen at the event
- Special guests: you may wish to include performers, catering companies, or any other additional parties involved in the event in the description. You can also link their social media or websites if you’d like.
- Accessibility information: Is the venue wheelchair accessible? If the event is not on the ground floor, is there an elevator? Does the venue have all-inclusive gender washrooms? Will there be flashing lights? If there is food being offered, is it allergy-friendly? Will you be providing accessibility aids for those with hearing impairments? Is it a masked event, and if so, will you be providing masks? If there are loud noises, will you be providing ear plugs?
- Restrictions: is this event tailored for a specific community or age group? Are there age restrictions to your programming (e.g., 19+)?
- Pricing: see event cost below for what should be included about pricing in this field
- PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE: the event’s date or time (these are separate fields)
- Event date and time
- Note: an “All day event” means your event begins at 12 a.m. and ends at 11:59 p.m. If this is not accurate to your event, please do not select this option.
- If you’re submitting an event or community program being held on a regular basis, you may wish to add them all at once. For this, please fill out the first event’s date and time, then click on “schedule multiple events.” Please select what kind of recurrence it is from the “Happens” drop down (once, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly), then input how often the event is held from the “every” drop down. Please include an “end date” if you know of one, or have an idea when the program may change or end; otherwise, the event will be scheduled until 2030.
- You may also wish to include an exception to the regular programming. To do this, click on “add exception,” and select from the “not” drop down how often the event is cancelled. Then fill out the specific dates from the prompts below.
- Note: the “multiple events” function only accommodates events that run consistently at the same time. For example, if you have a weekly event on Mondays from 5-8 p.m. and Thursdays from 5:30-9 p.m., you’ll need to submit two different event forms.
- Event image
- THIS IS NOT A REQUIRED FIELD
- You may include an image as a .jpg, .png, or .gif under 32 MB in size.
- If your event appears on the Weekly Digest, we will contact you for a 1080 x 1080 image to include.
- Note: we reserve the right to remove the image from the submission before publishing it if it violates our community guidelines.
- Event categories
- THIS IS NOT A REQUIRED FIELD
- All our events are categorized before being published, however, we will decide which category/ies are the best fit before the event is published
- You may choose which categories your event best fits but note that we might change these before it’s published
- Event tags
- THIS IS NOT A REQUIRED FIELD
- You may include as many tags as you’d like, however you may only choose from what is already in the database
- Virtual event
- If your event is virtual or hybrid, you may select “configure virtual event”
- Please include whether the event is virtual or hybrid, the link to the meeting
- Display: please only select the “linked button” option. Embedding the video for your event into our system will likely result in it slowing down your guest’s computers and limiting their access to the event.
- Please select whether you’d like the link to be made visible 15 minutes before the event begins or when the event is published
- Please ensure the “show to” option is selected for “everyone” since our website is public and users cannot log in to it
- Please ensure both options for the “virtual event label” are selected
- Event status
- Please leave this as “scheduled”
- If your event is canceled, postponed, or moved online, you may send us an email to thelist@maxottawa.ca and we will update it accordingly
- Venue details
- Find your venue in our database by searching it or scrolling through the drop down.
- If your venue is not already in our system, you may type its name in the search bar and click enter. Please fill in the address, city, country, province, postal code, phone, and website fields. If the venue does not have a phone number or website, you may leave these fields blank.
- Note: only one venue can be submitted. If your event is happening across more than one venue, please include its information in the event description field above.
- Organizer details
- Find your organizer in our database by searching it or scrolling through the drop down.
- If your organizer is not in our system, you may type its name in the search bar and click enter. Please fill in at least one of the point of contact fields (phone number, website, or email). You may link their social media as the website if that is where the organizer is most active
- Note: only one organizer can be submitted. If there is more than one organizer that you would like on the event posting, you may include their information in the description field above
- Event website
- If your event requires online registration or advanced ticket purchases, include the URL in this field
- If there is no online registration or tickets but you’d like to include a link to your organization’s website or the event posting on a different platform, you may also include the URL in this field
- Event cost
- Free events: please enter 0
- PWYC or sliding scale events: please indicate the price range in this field and any additional details about recommended amounts in the description field.
- Pay by donation: please indicate the recommended amount in this field and any additional information, like who the donations are going to, in the description field above.
- Ticket prices with additional fees: please include the full ticket price with tax and additional service charges. You don’t need to provide a price breakdown, but if you’d like to, please include it in the description field above.
- Different ticket options: please indicate the price range in this field. Indicate what each ticket offers (e.g., services/opportunities/seating) in the description field above.
We will be notified once your event is submitted and will do our best to publish it. We reserve the right to accept or decline the event and make changes to the posting based on our community guidelines. If you require any changes to be made to the event after its submission or publication or are concerned about changes made to your event listing, please contact us at thelist@maxottawa.ca.