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How To Post Your Events on VisitAustin.org

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For all Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment (AACME) grantees, it is a contractual requirement of your grant agreement to post all funded activities on the specialized site: https://www.austintexas.org/things-to-do/arts/submit-event/

Please use the link above to post your events. Events posted at the above specialized landing page are reported back to AACME every 2 months, so that we can track events and deliverables. 

We encourage any of the department’s Cultural Center Event Producers, as well as all artists who have Art in Public Places commissions to post any cultural and creative exhibitions and/or performances on the site, too. 

This document is a step-by-step guide to help you post an event to Visit Austin to begin reaching the 3.3  million visitors who use the Visit Austin site.

PLEASE NOTE: any field with an * is a required field, those without an * can be skipped if you don’t have a  response for the question. 

This page does not have any translation to non-English languages. We recommend using an online translator service, such as deepl.

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Through our partnership with Visit Austin and Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment (AACME), we bolster our collective efforts promoting the creative and cultural community in Austin to audiences near and far.

Visit.Austin.org is the top search site for tourists planning their trips to Austin, as it is a  robust search engine optimized to reach more than 3.3 million visitors annually. 

The platform will point visitors to cultural and creative events posted by AACME’s grantees, AACME’s Art In Public Places commissioned artists, and the Cultural Centers.VisitAustin.org is the official destination marketing organization for The City of Austin. Our partnership provides our grantees with a custom event submission page, at no cost. 

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After you submit each event: 

    • It can take up to 5 business days for the event to be approved and displayed on the Visit Austin calendar. 
    • If you have questions about your submission please contact Visit Austin directly. (website@austintexas.org)
    • Want to submit more events? Please use the same link: https://www.austintexas.org/things-to-do/arts/submit-event/ 
    • If you have any feedback about your experience with the Visit Austin platform, reach out to Peggy.Ellithorpe@AustinTexas.gov
    • You can also contact your corresponding AACME Staff if you have any questions. See the staff list on the next page for contact details.

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Cultural Arts Division

Peggy Ellithorpe

Cultural Funding Specialist (Elevate + Thrive Grants)

Peggy.Ellithorpe@AustinTexas.gov

Anne-Marie McKaskle-Davis

Cultural Funding Specialist Senior (Nexus + Elevate Grants)

Annemarie.McKaskle@AustinTexas.Gov

Jesús Pantel

Cultural Funding Supervisor (Elevate Grant)

Jesus.Pantel@AustinTexas.Gov

Jesus Varela

Cultural Funding Specialist (Thrive + Elevate Grants)

Jesus.Varela@AustinTexas.gov

Maya Williams-Britton

Cultural Funding Specialist (Nexus + Elevate Grants)

Maya.Williams-Britton@AustinTexas.Gov

Heritage Tourism Division 

Melissa Alvarado

Division Manager  (Heritage Preservation Grant)

Melissa.Alvarado@AustinTexas.Gov

Kristina Koufos

Project Coordinator (Heritage Preservation Grant)

kristina.koufos@austintexas.gov

Music and Entertainment Division

Greg Gonzalez

Program Manager I   (Live Music Fund Grant) 

Greg.Gonzalez@AustinTexas.Gov

Kimberly McCarson 

Program Manager II   (Live Music Fund Grant) 

Kimberly.McCarson@AustinTexas.Gov

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Make sure you are on the right page

Use our link to submit events. Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment Grantees have a prioritized special listing page on Visit Austin.

The header should say Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment GRANTEE EVENTS” at the top.

Go directly to our event submission page on Visit Austin. (https://www.austintexas.org/things-to-do/arts/submit-event)

You MUST post your event using the link above so that AACME can track the submissions with Visit Austin.

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Review the steps to submit your event

Read the information provided above the submission form.

It outlines the timeline for the approval of your post and information on what you should have prepared to successfully complete your event submission.

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Contact Info (not posted)

Enter your contact information. This information is NOT public.  Name, Email, and Phone: This should be the main contact for the grant project.  

IF you are fiscally sponsored, please put the lead contact for the sponsored project - Do not put the Fiscal Sponsor’s contact information in this section. Use your own contact information. 

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Grant/Commission Category

Select the correct grant/opportunity in the drop down box. If you are not sure which to select, go back to page 5 to find AACME Staff to contact about which dropdown most applies to you.

If you are funded through more than one grant or opportunity, choose the one that applies to the event you are submitting.

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District Number / Extraterritorial Jurisdiction of Venue

If you do not know your venue’s district, please use the City’s Council District Map:  https://maps.austintexas.gov/GIS/CouncilDistrictMap/

If your event is streaming/online, indicate the streaming location, which must be within the 10-Council Districts or ETJ of Austin. 

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Title and Event Categories

These sections are REQUIRED. Event Information will contain the PUBLIC information about your event. 

For Event Category you can select all that apply. To select more than  one category hold the Ctrl button on your keyboard and then select the appropriate categories. These categories  help Visit Austin align your event with their searchable categories for the end-users of the website. Choose as many as apply! 

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Comments

The comments section is for internal only. It serves as a place to leave a message for the Visit Austin staff who review all event submissions.

If there is any information that you want the Visit Austin moderator to know, please indicate it in this box.

It is NOT publicly visible.

You can pull down in the corner to write and see more of your text box.

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Primary Category

For Primary Category, select one that best fits the event you are posting.

This field helps the Visit Austin staff best align your event with their website and searchable categories used by tourists to find local events.

This field is required.

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Host Organization

If the event is a collaboration, list the collaborating  organization. 

This section is NOT your event venue. It is not required that you have any co-hosts.

If your Host isn’t listed, see the next page.

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Other Host Organization

If your Host Organization was not listed in the dropdown field above, use this field to type the host organization’s name. This section is NOT your event venue. It is not required that you have any co-hosts.

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Select A Venue

Select your event venue from the dropdown list. It auto-populate the location and address  information below. 

If your event is streaming/online, you can skip these fields, they are not mandatory fields.

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Add Venue Location

If your venue is not listed please select “–Choose One--” and then complete the fields below to add location information for the venue.

If your event is streaming/online, you can skip these fields, they are not mandatory fields.

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Admission

If your event requires a ticket or cost to attend, please enter that amount.

Separate categories of tickets with a semicolon.

Example:, $5 for kids; $18 for adults; $15 for veterans

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Email, Phone, and Event Website

Provide the BEST contact for your event for the public. If you are offering admission to your events and self-managing all attendees - Indicate the full contact information for the team member(s) responsible for answering participant or registrant questions. If the venue is managing admissions, list the appropriate contact(s).If there is a box office at your venue, enter the box office contact information.

These fields are not mandatory. If your event is free, but if you take donations, you can list that in these fields.

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Start Time and End Time

Enter start and end times only! You’ll list event date(s) in a different section below. 

The fields will only allow you to list ONE start time and ONE end time for each listing. 

Pro-tip: These fields are not required. You may leave them blank. If you have multiple showings of the same event  on the same day, you can just include various show times in the Event Description field just below the start and end time fields.

IF you are streaming or offering your event as a live online event, please indicate times that the streaming event(s) begin/end, if  applicable.

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Upload Images Part I

Add images to your event listing by clicking on the red UPLOAD IMAGES  button. A pop-up window will open, allowing you to select one or more images from your computer to add them to your event listing. 

IMPORTANT: Image format matters. Include a horizontal (landscape) image. Images with 3:2 ratio  and at least 900x600 pixels are highly preferred. 

Don't forget to place the City of Austin logo on your web images when possible. There are several versions of the logo in the Contractor Library. Choose the style that best suits your graphic design. Remember to include department’s Publicity Statement: “This project is supported in part by Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment.” If you need the publicity statement in another language, the Marketing Requirements contains translations for Spanish, Vietnamese, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, French, Korean, Arabic and Hindi. 

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Upload Images Part 2

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Upload Images Part 3

Once uploaded, you will see the images listed below the UPLOAD IMAGES button on the Visit Austin site. You can delete images from this list by selecting the trash can icon. You cannot change the order the images so make sure you select them in the order you want them to show up in your listing.

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Event Description

This is a REQUIRED section. Create a summary description of your event. Make the description exciting and interesting to a public audience. This is your opportunity to get people interested in your event! You can also list a schedule of events here for clarity.

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General - Choosing a Start time

General - This is the final section for your event listing. It is where you will share public information about your event date(s).

Start: This is a required field. Choose the date that your event starts. If your event occurs on only one day, choose that date. If your event occurs on multiple days, choose the very FIRST date of your event.

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General - Event Occurrence(s) Part 1

If your event occurs on more than one date, you will use this section to select the days that best fit your event.

For example, if your event is DAILY you should select the DAILY drop down box, then select the option that best fits. See the following pages for a few examples

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General - Event Occurrence(s) Part 2

If you have multiple showings of the same event on the same day, consider using the WEEKLY option.

For example, if there are performances Thursdays through Sundays, every week for a month, then you can select only the days of the week that the performances will run, and duration.

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General - Event Occurrence(s) Part 3

Another Example- Monthly

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General - Event Occurrence(s) Part 4

Another Example- Custom

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General - Event Occurrence(s) Part 5

For repeating recurrence options (DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY), you MUST select an end to the range. At the base of the screen select either END AFTER _(#)_ OCCURRENCES (for a number of events) or select END ON _(DATE)_.

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Submit

Make sure you click the box next to “I’m not a robot” and complete the required security task. Then click on the Red SUBMIT MY EVENT button at the bottom of the page. You did it!

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Next Steps

After you submit your event:

  • It can take up to 5 business days for the event to be approved and displayed on the Visit Austin calendar. Keep an eye out for any emails seeking clarification from Visit Austin staff in your email inbox.
  • If you have questions about your submission, or need to update it, please contact Visit Austin directly: website@austintexas.org
  • Want to submit more events? Please use the same link: https://www.austintexas.org/things-to-do/arts/submit-event/
  • If you have any feedback about your experience with the Visit Austin platform, reach out to AACME staff as indicated on Slide 5.

Thank you for posting your events!