Everything Launched in Fall 2024

Stanza exists to let creators keep their biggest fans in the know about their upcoming events, in the simplest way possible—through their calendars.

For new folks joining us, don’t forget to check out:

• New Guide: How to launch a calendar on Stanza
• July 2024 product updates

Listening and Evolving

It’s been a few months since our last post, and we’ve been busy. The first half of 2024 marked a significant milestone with Stanza's platform relaunch—a transition we're incredibly proud of.

Now, we're shifting gears to deeply listen to feedback from both creators and subscribers to shape our product roadmap going forward. Some of you may remember that our guiding pillars for product are: Grok, Trust & Discover.

Much of feedback from subscribers fell into the Trust bucket:

⇨ Subscribing to a calendar is as simple as we say it is and

⇨ After subscribing, their calendar will be reliably updated

While on the creator side, the feedback fell into the Grok bucket:

⇨ Why do calendar management experiences differ for automated and manual creators?

⇨ What's the most effective way to build and launch a calendar on Stanza?

We’ve been made a number of strides on all of the above. Let’s get into it.

Gaps in the Subscription Experience

As much as we want “Add to Calendar” on Stanza to be a 1-click experience — choose the calendar to add and 💥, the events appear in your calendar — today’s calendar’s landscape isn’t quite that simple.

There’s a platform puzzle where different calendar apps come with their own set of frustrations, with some of them being:

1. Google Calendar’s Mobile Limitations Mobile users can't create new calendar subscriptions. You can show or hide existing calendars, but subscribing? Desktop only. [source]
2. Outlook's Sync Struggle The latest Outlook release forces users to subscribe through web interface (OWA) and manually sync across different apps. [source].
3. The Silent Update Problem Calendar apps refresh silently in the background, leaving users wondering: When was my last update? Are these events current?

Our promise is simplicity first for both creators and subscribers. Our approach? Tackle each calendar app systematically, starting with our most used calendar app — Google Calendar. Apple & Outlook are next.

⇨ Build vs buy Calendar integrations might seem straightforward at first glance. But the reality? It’s a complex rabbit hole of platform-specific challenges, cross-platform incompatibilities and a constantly shifting calendar app landscape.

Know a creator who is considering Add to Calendar? Tell them about Stanza!

🎉 Introducing Reminders & Google Connect

The default Google Calendar subscription process requires users to subscribe on desktop and manually sync on mobile. With 70% of Stanza traffic originating from mobile devices, this workaround is cumbersome to say the least.

To bridge the gap, we now make it easy for subscribers to set a calendar reminder to sync on desktop.

While this solution solves the problem, it still falls short of the experience we ultimately want subscribers to have: add and 💥 the events appear in your calendar. So, the search continued for a better solution…

… and Google Connect was born. We've crafted a solution that uses Google Calendar's APIs to add or remove calendars in the background—an approach that lets us sidestep mobile restrictions.

For subscribers, it's magic in motion. Add events to your Google Calendar on iOS and Android exactly as you would on desktop—no extra steps, no friction. Now your calendar becomes an extension of your events, not a barrier to them.

As a bonus, subscribers can now see exactly when their Google Calendar last refreshed, and force refresh it if needed. Watch the video below for a quick demo:

⇨ Enabled by default: Reminders & Google Connect are enabled by default for all creators on the platform.

⇨ Google Connect is a Stanza+ feature. There is added cost and infrastructure associated with integrating with Google Calendar’s APIs. With this model, subscribers who value the ease of Google Connect can upgrade for it and there is no additional cost for creators.

💬 New Help Center: Support Reimagined

We’re also learning that subscribers need an easy-to-use resource to bridge the subscription experience gaps that product simply can’t. Our previous approach of using this blog to also address troubleshooting questions wasn’t cutting it. Finding solutions was taking too long.

Last month, we launched a completely redesigned Help Center—not just another support page, but a purpose-built resource designed to solve subscribers' most pressing questions. Here’s what we improved:

• Dedicated troubleshooting articles by calendar app and device
• AI-search - ask questions to be directed to relevant posts
• Linking relevant Help Center posts as part of the subscription process

⇨ First stop is the Help Center: If you have subscribers writing in with issues, point them to the Help Center as a place to find resources to resolve their issue.

⇨ Submit a ticket: If the issue is still unresolved, the Help Center includes instructions on how to submit a support ticket. Subscribers can also click on the “Report” link in the top navigation drop down to submit a ticket.

✎ Editing Events: Now Available for All Creators

For context: Automated calendars connect directly with your API, automatically populating events in real-time. It's our turnkey solution for creators seeking a fully managed calendar service. Previously, updating calendars or events required working through your tech team to modify the API.

We've simplified this process entirely.

Manual creators will continue to update events in your calendar app of choice, and those changes will automatically appear on Stanza and your subscribers’ calendars.

Direct Event Management

• Edit events directly from your Stanza dashboard
• Changes sync automatically to public pages and subscriber calendars
• Control over titles, dates, locations, descriptions, and custom links

How it Works

1. Access Event Editor Find the new “Update Event” icon on the bottom right of every event tile on your Profile Page.

2. Make Your Changes Open the Edit Event modal to modify: title, dates, location, description and even add links that turn into icons on your Stanza page.

3. Automatic Updates Changes appear automatically on your public page and in subscriber calendars (note: update timing may vary by calendar app)

What’s Next

We’re building even more powerful features:

• Bulk editing for large event sets (100+ events)
• Create new events vs. just updating existing ones

Not seeing the Update Event button on your Profile Page? If you’re an Automated Creator with an active subscription, please email us at founders@stanza.co and we’ll take a look.

📋 Calendar Launch Checklist

We’ve built a straightforward checklist based on the successes creators have had with growing subscribers:

• Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht - +2.9K subscribers
• The Nottingham Panthers - +2K subscribers

Focus on these essentials, and you’ll be well on your way to building a robust subscriber base.

That’s it for this month! Keep an eye out for more product emails.

On Stanza, anyone can create, discover and share event calendars. Getting started is easy. Set up your calendar in just a few minutes.