Last night a curious crowd gathered at The Valley to get an early look at what Michael Ammaturo is building for our area. His project, VerYorkachusetts (VYAC), is a regional calendar designed to shine a light on local events and get more people to them.
I’m pretty excited about this. I mean, who wants to doomscroll Facebook for an hour to maybe find something fun to do? After last night, I’m feeling confident that VYAC has the potential to be a good solution for event seekers and organizers.
If you’re more of a video person, check out the highlights:
How Do Events Get Listed?
A company or organization gets whitelisted either by adding itself or through a recommendation from a community member. The idea is that anyone can contribute. Very grassroots.
On VYAC, host calendars and webpages are linked so their events can be displayed to users automatically. Event information is kept clean and simple. If an event seeker is interested in learning more, the original source is linked whenever possible.
And just to show how powerful this is, early in the talk Michael showed our event on VYAC. My mind was blown. Our event was up there, and I didn’t do anything.
How Do You Use It?
To get the most out of the calendar, you’ll want to sign up and pick a plan. There is a free option, and the paid tiers seem reasonably priced for what they offer.
You can filter events by category, town, and distance. VYAC can curate a personal feed based on your event habits. You can save events and get reminders, too.
Why VYAC?
During the event, someone asked why VerYorkachusetts is a better fit for this role than, say, a business chamber or library. I liked Michael’s response. VYAC’s sole mission is to show local events without being bound by borders and get people to them. Many organizations aim to have their own events listed in various places, but they are not set up to host, fund, and build the shared infrastructure behind a regional calendar.
What’s Next?
VYAC is expected to officially launch by the end of August. You can try it out now by heading over to the VerYorkachusetts site.
As for The Valley, you can join the newsletter, follow us on social media, and now find our events on VYAC to stay in the loop.
Thank you to everyone who joined us last night!
Until next time,
Charlie Dill
The Valley Hub