Event Buffet

Calendar Page
Map Page

Inspiration

We've felt the evident divide in opportunities available to different demographics and wanted to combat that by making them more accessible. Currently, event planning organizations require organizations to invest a massive amount of time and resources to compile their events into a database. Also, with COVID-19 making events less accessible via word of mouth, we felt inspired to address this issue by having a website that can scrape that data, streamlining the user and organizer experience.

What it does

Our website searches the internet for free events and puts the link to all of them on a calendar. The user can filter by organization, type of event, time, and whether the event is in person or virtual.

How we built it

We used Qoom to easily collaborate with each other on our code in real time. By using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, we could effectively create and style our website. To embed the calendar, we found a web service called Team Up, and to embed the map we used Google API. For our slide deck we used Canva to emphasize our research and highlight our solution.

Challenges we ran into

In order to create markers for our map, it was necessary to learn how the Google API framework functions, including learning the process by which API keys can be constructed. Furthermore, an issue resulted from our using multiple languages or frameworks, sometimes within one file, while dynamically considering how this would impact the project as a whole.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of getting our map to work, especially in a way that could integrate with our calendar. We had to research how to use Google API functions and how to add links to the markers that would take the user to more information about the event. We also faced a lot of difficulty getting a calendar that was embedded properly into our website and could filter in the way we envisioned, so finally writing code that works was gratifying.

What we learned

We learned how to use Google Cloud APIs, including the creation of API keys, as well as how to utilize HTML in an efficient manner with the integration of Bootstrap. We also learned how to write a mission statement that effectively answers what we aim to accomplish with our website.

What's next for Event Buffet

Creating a scraper function that parses the Internet for free events, adding new filters for clients to peruse their intended subcategories with ease, and implementing our own calendar to avoid relying on other products. We also intend to include a manner in which the clients can add their own calendars to confirm any conflicts of interest with timing and to facilitate scheduling.