Calendar invites

What is an ICS file extension?

Calendar invitations, or .ics files, are calendar files saved in a universal calendar format used by several email and calendar programs, including Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Calendar. It allows users to share the event information on the web and over email.

How are the calendar invites sent to event participants?

You can add a calendar invitation to the emails you sent out from the platform. By adding these files to your emails, the event participants will be able to add the event and the activities information to their own calendar.

How do I enable the ICS file on the confirmation email?

To enable a calendar invite to be automatically attached to the confirmation emails, go to Settings > Tools > Edit > enable .ics file on confirmation email and select End.

ics file confirmation email tools

How do I send a calendar invite for my event activities?

This option will generate an invite .ics file containing all activities as separate events blocks for your calendar, which is useful for multi-day events and events that may run for several weeks. Go to Settings > Tools > Edit > enable .ics file with activity list.

If your event is open for a few days, we recommend enabling the .ics file with activity list. Otherwise, it will block people's calendars for the duration of the days.
ics file with activity list

Google Calendar automatic link is not supported. You must download the attached .ics file and import it into your GCal. It works out of the box for any other calendar app. Check this page to learn how to import events to your Google Calendar.
invite.ics in confirmation email

What information does an ICS file contain? Where in the platform it is collected?

Event information

Displayed when the .ics file with activity list tool is inactivated. All the information below will be collected from your Event Details page:

  1. Event start date and time - This information will be displayed in GMT time, and converted to the participants' time zone when imported to their calendar client, allowing global participants to sync their agendas with your event starting date and time.
  2. Event end date and time - Converted to GMT time.
  3. Location: Event address (for in-person and hybrid events - for online events the text Link in the description will be displayed)
  4. Summary: Event name.
  5. Description: Virtual Lobby magic link and event general description.
Event general description ics calendar

Activities information

Displayed when the .ics file with activity list tool is activated. The information below will be repeated for each activity in your event's agenda, being collected from your Event Details and your Activities Details page:

  1. Activity start date and time - This information will be displayed in GMT time, and converted to the participants' time zone when imported to their calendar client, allowing global participants to sync their agendas with your activities' starting dates and times.
  2. Activity end date and time - Converted to GMT time.
  3. Location: Event address (for in-person and hybrid events - for online events the text Link in the description will be displayed)
  4. Summary: Event name and Activity name.
  5. Description: Direct link to activity room and activity description.
Activity description ics calendar

At the moment, it is not possible to change the .ics file content directly, it will always contain the information collected from the platform.

How do I add a calendar invite for specific activities?

To add a calendar invite for specific activities to your emails you need to add a typograph box first. After you have added the box, in the left side menu under Text contents you can click on Activities and then choose the activity from the dropdown menu.

Calendar invite for specific activities

This is how the content will look like in the email creator. Please note that the activity time zone is displayed between the activity starting and ending time and its name.

How ics looks in the email creator

This is what the attendee will see when they receive the email and click on the link, which will enable them to add the invite directly to their calendars in their respective time zones.

Link to the calendar
If you are having trouble importing your .ics file into your calendar application, you can open the file in any text editor to view the information it contains. For example, you can see the event's start and end times (including time zone) listed in the file's DTSTART and DTEND lines. Opening a .ics file in a text editor is not the best way to view an event's details, but it does allow you to view the information without a calendar application.

How do I convert an ICS file to a CSV file?

If you need to import a calendar event into Microsoft Excel or another spreadsheet program, you can convert your .ics file to a .csv file. To do so, use a free online ICS to CSV converter, such as IndigoBlue's free .ics to .csv converter.

You can also add a .ics file to your activities files tab, letting participants access future events related to the activity they are attending. For more info, please check this article.


How Did We Do?