KW-Network

Inspiration

Finding events across Laurier and Waterloo is difficult. Usually you have to sort through multiple different sites and resources to look for specific things you might want to go to. Existing sites are usually always missing something you might need. We found that there wasnt a specific site that aggregated all the information we wanted across the city, but instead there were sites that did this for specific areas like luma for tech events or nest and uwaterloo for student run events/club events.

We wanted to combine this all within a singular index while still giving attribution to the student run clubs and sites that the events are sourced from.

What it does

KW-Network acts as a massive events index across the two cities. We pull in events from a multitude of sites and resources including Laurier Nest, WUSA, wat2do, luma and eventbrite. We then aggregate all of the events within our site and allow users to filter and sort by the dates they want.

How we built it

We used python scripts to scrape events and next.js/typescript for the front-end. We follow a host -> source -> result architecture where the host (kw-network) is linked to a source (laurier nest) and that source gives the user the registration information.

Challenges we ran into

• Scraping doesnt always work/it takes multiple runs to find what works.

• UI/UX design is key for something thats discovery based.

• Finding existing links to pull from.

• Coming up with a way that makes us not "just another events site"

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Over 200 events
• Fully filtered fully working
• Clean UI/UX ## What we learned
• How to design a discovery platform that acts as a source and not a direct competitor from the systems level
• Front-end Design
• Backend data analysis ## What's next for KW-Network
• Adding more sources and expanding networks. Direct integration with clubs and other event platforms
• Calendar or reminders

Built With

• next.js
• node.js
• python
• typescript