Creating Events

To create a new event, click the Create Event button in the top navigation bar or on the Events page. This opens the event editor.

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Event type

The first field is Event Type. This determines the sign-up format for your event — it controls how slots are structured, what the sign-up flow looks like for attendees, and pre-populates your sign-up form with sensible default fields.

Type	Best for	Sign-up format
Standard	General events, meetings, gatherings	Global slot count, simple sign-up
Appointment	One-on-one meetings, consultations, time-slot bookings	One person per specific date and time
Volunteer Shift	Volunteer work parties, service days, staffed shifts	Multiple people per date/time range
Bring an Item	Potlucks, supply drives, contribution sign-ups	Item label with optional quantity

Selecting an event type also automatically configures the Sign-up Format section below and pre-fills the sign-up form with appropriate default fields. You can customize both at any time.

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Color theme

Choose a Color Theme to give your event page a distinct look. The color you pick is applied to your event’s public sign-up page and to the event card in your dashboard.

Default

Red

Orange

Amber

Yellow

Lime

Green

Emerald

Teal

Cyan

Sky

Blue

Indigo

Violet

Rose

Purple

Fuchsia

Pink

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Show attendees publicly

The Show attendees publicly toggle lets you display a list of signed-up attendees on your event’s public page. It is off by default — attendee information is never shown publicly unless you turn this on.

When enabled:

• Standard events — a paginated list appears below the event details showing how many people are attending and their first names (e.g. “12 people attending”)
• Slot-based events — attendees are grouped by slot, with a first-name list under each slot card
• Pagination shows 5 names per page; navigation buttons are hidden when there are 5 or fewer attendees

Note

Only first names are shown. No email addresses, last names, or other form responses are ever exposed on the public page.

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Cover image

Click the image search field to search for a cover photo from Unsplash, a free high-quality photo library. Type any keyword and browse the results — click a photo to select it as your event’s cover image.

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Title

Give your event a clear, descriptive title. This is one of the first thing attendees will see.

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Short description

Write a one or two sentence teaser for your event. This is shown on event cards in your dashboard.

Tip

Keep it under 125 characters for best results. Village will let you know if you go over.

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Description

The description is the full body of your event page. The rich text editor supports:

• Bold, italic, and underlined text
• Hyperlinks
• Numbered lists and bullet lists
• Headings and paragraphs

Tip

Write as much detail as attendees need: what to bring, where to meet, what to expect, and so on.

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Date and time

Select your event’s start date and time using the date-time picker. You can also set an optional end time if your event has a defined duration.

Tip

Village stores your event in your local timezone automatically.

Note

For Appointment and Volunteer Shift events, the date field is hidden — the event date is automatically set to the earliest slot you create in the Sign-up Format section below.

Sign-up format

How sign-ups are structured depends on the event type you selected above.

Standard

A simple global slot count. Set the maximum number of people who can sign up. When all slots are filled, the sign-up form closes automatically.

• Each cancellation or removal returns that slot to the available count
• Your plan determines the maximum number of slots per event (see Account & Plans)

Appointment

Build a list of specific date-and-time slots, each holding one person. Attendees choose from the available times when signing up.

For each slot you can set:

• Date and time — the specific appointment time
• Label — optional label (e.g. “Morning session”, “Dr. Smith”)
• Capacity — fixed at 1 per slot

Volunteer Shift

Build a list of shifts, each with a date, start time, end time, and capacity. Multiple people can sign up for the same shift.

For each shift you can set:

• Label — the shift name (e.g. “Setup Crew”, “Registration Table”)
• Start and end time — the shift window
• Capacity — how many people can fill this shift

Bring an Item

Build a list of items for attendees to claim. Each item has a label and a quantity.

For each item you can set:

• Label — what the item is (e.g. “Pasta salad”, “Folding chairs”)
• Capacity — how many of this item are needed

Tip

Use the Add Slot button to add as many slots, shifts, or items as you need. You can reorder, edit, or delete them at any time before or after publishing.

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Sign-up form

Below the slot count is the Sign-Up Form Builder, where you define what information you collect from attendees. See Sign-Up Form Builder for a full walkthrough.

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Saving your event

When you’re ready, you have two options at the bottom of the form:

Save as Draft

Clicking Save as Draft saves your event privately. Draft events:

• Are not visible to anyone except you
• Cannot receive sign-ups
• Show a yellow Draft badge on the event card in your dashboard
• Can be published at any time with one click

Use drafts when you want to prepare an event before it goes live.

Publish

Clicking Publish makes your event live immediately and provides a shareable sign-up link.

Tip

You can also submit the form using the keyboard shortcut ⌘ + Enter (Mac) or Ctrl + Enter (Windows/Linux).

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Publishing a draft later

When you open a draft event, a banner appears at the top of the page with a Publish Event button. Clicking it transitions the event from draft to live instantly — no need to open the edit form.

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Free plan limits

If you’re on the Free plan, you can have up to 3 published events at a time. If you’ve reached that limit:

• You can still save new events as drafts
• You can delete or cancel an existing event to free up a slot
• You can upgrade your plan to publish unlimited events