Localist Event Management and Calendaring

Recommended by many of our peer institutions, Localist is an event technology tool specializing in online campus calendaring systems. Accessed via events.yale.edu, Localist enables your team to easily publish, manage, and promote your unit’s public events to the main Yale University campus calendar, amplifying audience interest and engagement with the following key features and benefits: 

• Public calendaring 

• Built-in RSVP, ticketing, and payment systems through TouchNet integration 

• Event performance metrics and insights 

• Digital promotion options 

• Seamless integration into Yale’s branding and design standards 

• Intuitive and user-friendly interface 

Yale is scheduled to launch Localist university-wide in September 2025, replacing Bedework as Yale’s primary event platform. 

Although you can use Localist before the September launch, there are some risks to be aware of: 

• Bedework will remain Yale’s primary calendar until September 2025; therefore, the Yale community may not see events you add through Localist. 

• You would no longer use Bedework to approve or suggest your events, and other units still using Bedework would be unable to suggest their events to you. 

• The two systems will be out of sync, likely confusing your audience. 

However, if your group does not depend on the main university calendar for your events, using Localist before the September launch should not be as risky.  

Creating your events locally on the new YaleSites platform is also an option, but these events will only live on your site and will not stream through the Localist platform at events.yale.edu. 

Yes, Bedework will be unavailable in September 2025. The main university events calendar currently at calendar.yale.edu will redirect to Localist at events.yale.edu. As campus units will be using Localist at that time, events can no longer be added to the Bedework calendar after launch. 

There is no need for your team to manually migrate any of your unit’s existing events to Localist; events uploaded to Bedework between now and launch will automatically feed into Localist. 

There is no cost to campus units for using the main university calendar through Localist (otherwise known as the university’s instance). We anticipate most units will benefit from using the university instance.  

Some larger campus units may wish to purchase their own individual instance, which would still feed into the main university instance. Reach out to Yale-ITS if you would like to know more about this option. 

Any unit on campus who wishes to use Localist to house and promote their events can sign up for the platform. Each unit will have designated admins who have backend access to Localist. Only admins can post, edit, review, approve, and publish events to the public calendar. 

A user without admin access can log in with their Yale NetID to create a profile and submit an event for admin review. They cannot approve, review, or edit any events. 

Beginning late spring through the fall, YaleSites and the Yale Office of Public Affairs & Communications (OPAC) will host a series of trainings, demos, and office hours for you to learn Localist, ask questions, get the support you need, and feel ready for launch. Soon, Localist training documentation and editorial best practices for your events will also be available for you to reference at any time. 

Yale OPAC will continue its oversight role, making strategic decisions around the main calendar and ensuring editorial best practices are followed throughout. As OPAC’s point person, Courtney McCarroll (courtney.mccarroll@yale.edu) will monitor event submissions to ensure these editorial best practices are followed and correspond with unit calendar owners as necessary.

Upcoming community outreach will inform current Bedework users about the Localist rollout and how to prepare. Yale-ITS will also update these FAQs as additional community input is collected, along with uploading training documentation and editorial best practices to the YaleSites informational website.  

If you have any technical support questions or access requests, please contact Yale Sites at calendar.support@yale.edu.