Pictou County community events website launches

PICTOU, N.S. — The deCoste Performing Arts Centre has launched a new website/service aimed at providing a one-stop shop to find out about community events.

“We are likely the most frequent producer of events with more than 100 shows/ events each year,” said deCoste executive director Troy Greencorn. “We needed this service so badly, we searched the continent to find a solution, and brought it to Pictou County. Technology can help us all to co-operatively market our events and pool our audiences.”

He said when he first moved to the county six years ago, he and his wife had trouble finding a central source of information.

“We often missed great events. Who has time to check a dozen websites and Facebook pages?” states Greencorn.

WhatsUp-PictouCounty.com employs a tool called Gatherboard to gather and display event listings. A basic listing is free. Any public event is eligible, as long as it meets three criteria: 1) it is open to the public (not private or member only); 2) it is targeted to Pictou County residents or visitors to the area; and 3) it is in good taste. From yard sales to major concerts and sporting events, all events are welcome.

It takes about five minutes to upload an event, and the team tries hard to approve events within two hours. A Facebook page is also up and running and events are shared regularly to this page.

“The site/service is very user-fuelled. If you want to list an event, you do it yourself. Our initial roles were to find and deploy the technology, then to market the service and get it up to scale,” Greencorn said. “We are thrilled with how it has developed over this first month.”

He said there is an advertising layer that they hope to launch in the next two weeks.

Event organizers and businesses will have opportunities to advertise to users of the site and app.

The website address is http:// whatsup-pictoucounty.com.