Teamwork Makes The Dreamwork
– By Josh Warburton –
Like anyone else, I sometimes find myself too close to a subject to maintain complete objectivity. This holds true for my association with The Independent, whether in print or on our website. When people inquire about my occupation, sharing my involvement with the paper often elicits nods of recognition, given its widespread readership. However, for those unfamiliar with our publication, a cursory description as “a source for arts and entertainment coverage in the southern Utah region” feels somewhat lackluster. While accurate, it fails to convey the depth of our commitment and the unique essence that defines The Independent.
In the realm of print, our team invests countless hours in the weeks preceding our deadlines, engaged in a diligent quest for upcoming events. This entails reaching out to our valued clients and contacts, soliciting event submissions, and endeavoring to unearth hidden gems on the horizon. We actively seek press releases from various entities and encourage them to contribute to our dynamic online calendar at SUindependent.com. These listings go live immediately and feed into a vast network of interconnected calendars spanning the nation.
Let’s delve into the intricacies of our online calendar. Powered by a robust calendar engine, it offers a plethora of sophisticated search features and convenient options for saving content, a feature I personally find valuable, adding listings to my Google calendar. The entries you find there are meticulously curated, a result of collaborative efforts by businesses, organizations, and our dedicated staff. Additionally, our calendar aggregates data from over 80 source calendars, predominantly provided by the entities organizing events. This amalgamation affords us the most comprehensive and expansive calendar in the region. To event organizers, I extend a warm invitation to explore our calendar. If your event is not already featured, you can effortlessly submit it for free, with the option to consider our paid alternatives for increased visibility. By dedicating a minimal amount of time to create a free listing, you can connect with our substantial online audience actively seeking exciting local activities.
This online resource serves as the foundational source for our esteemed print calendar, a monthly labor of love. Our Office Manager, Nikki, invests uncountable hours meticulously researching, composing, assembling, editing, and organizing our print calendar, drawing from online submissions and external sources. Following this, our Editor, James McFadden, contributes additional hours to fine-tune and refine the content before it undergoes layout adjustments executed by myself or our skilled Graphic Designer, Josh Segovia. The culmination of these efforts is a multi-page calendar, graced with dozens and, at times, hundreds of individual event listings. This comprehensive compilation spans the entire month, often extending into the first weekend of the subsequent month.
Allow me to provide a few pointers for the most effective utilization of this resource. Start by perusing the initial section, which features events spanning multiple days, allowing you to easily locate specific dates or event types of interest. If you have a particular day of the week in mind, navigate to the “Events by Day” section. Finally, investigate individual dates to uncover the events scheduled for that day. This structured organization maximizes the wealth of information within the confines of our print format, where space is a cherished commodity.
Collectively, all of us at The Independent fervently hope that you will not only peruse our calendar but also contribute to its growth by submitting events and sharing this invaluable resource within our community. We extend our warmest wishes as you embark on a journey to discover your next local adventure within the pages of our beloved publication. Happy reading.
