Life's a Beach | Expat Life in Playa del Carmen

It seems more and more people are finding their way to our Riviera Maya Events Calendar since we first rolled it out on our website in October of 2011. While getting off to a slow start, traffic to the calendar has quadrupled in the past year and we are getting really good feedback from people....lots of nice compliments and some good constructive criticism, which I am hoping to address with this update.

As the calendar has gotten more well-known, more and more organizations and businesses have contacted us to place their events on our schedule. For the past two years we posted them all.  As you can imagine, trying to keep up with and post the schedule for every yoga-zumba-salsa-fitness class from every studio and gym without prejudice was quite a feat. Ultimately trying to include everything made the calendar a little overwhelming and hard to read for the user.

In order to keep the calendar easy to read, we have decided to more clearly define the parameters of the calendar and define the kinds of events we will post. To make the submission process clearer, we have created a guideline for events that we will be able to publish which you can find below.

• Music Events - Music Festivals, Concerts, Live Bands, DJ's, Music Festivals
• Food/Wine Events - Food Festivals, Wine Tastings, Wine Pairing Dinners, Ladies Night, All-You-Can-Eat BBQs, Restaurant/Bar Openings
  
• Gardening/Agriculture - Gardening Workshops, Homesteading,
• Markets/Bazaars - Farmers Markets, Organic Markets, Tianguis, Tag Sales, Eco-Fairs
  
• Art/Theatre/Dance Events - Live Theatre, Opera, Dance and other Live Performances, Art Exhibitions, Photography Contests, FREE Art Classes, FREE Dance Classes, Community Zumba Classes, Auditions, Special Workshops or Master Classes,
• Sports/Yoga - Marathons, 5K Races, Triathlons, Cycling, Golf Tournaments, Tennis Tournaments, Rugby, Soccer, Polo and other Equestrian Events, Televised Sporting Events, Yoga Retreats, Teacher Training, Special Master Classes, Wellness Retreats, SUP Yoga, Meditation
• Fundraisers/Charitable Events - All kinds welcome
• Holidays - Official Holidays, Religious and Cultural Festivals
• Misc. - Church Services, AA Meetings, Rotary Meetings, Misc. Events and Classes

Even after removing all the recurring classes from the calendar, we were still left with quite a few events to display and limited space on the webpage on which they need to appear. Using the default "Month View" can still be a little overwhelming and, as you can see on the screenshot above, not every event is visible on each day

You now have the option to view the calendar in a 5 or 7-day "Week View"

Or, try the view I prefer... the 7-day "Day View".

One of the biggest improvements is the new "Suggest an Event" button giving you, as an event organizer, the option for submitting your own events! Just click the button, fill in your event and contact information and submit. Your event will automatically be published to the calendar!

Of course, you can always submit an event via email and I will be happy to publish it myself! If you have a one-time or recurring event that you would like us to include on the events calendar or if you have any comments or suggestions to make the calendar better, feel free to send me a message at Michele[at]BuyPlaya.com.

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Michele Kinnon and her husband Rob are the owners of BuyPlaya Real Estate Advisors and FurnitureMEX, both based in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Michele is a member of Rotary Club of Playa del Carmen Seaside and participated on the founding committee for Taste of Playa, the Riviera Maya's largest and longest running culinary festival. She also blogs, writes local interest articles and administrates the Riviera Maya Events Calendar. Michele and Rob have lived in Playa del Carmen with their two children since 2004. Follow her updates on Google+.