The Customer
The City of Macomb is a small but vibrant community in western Illinois. As home to Western Illinois University, Macomb serves as a regional hub with a rich mix of local businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations. The city’s Marketing & Downtown Development team, led by Director Savannah Ballard, was focused on strengthening community engagement and making it easier for residents and visitors to discover local events and activities.
The Challenges
Prior to implementing ‘with’, Macomb faced several common municipal challenges:
- Scattered Event Information: With 85+ local organizations running separate calendars, social pages, and websites, residents had no central place to find out what was happening in their community.
- Manual Coordination Burden: City staff had no scalable way to aggregate events from dozens of independent organizations without creating significant administrative overhead.
- Low Discoverability: Community organizations — especially smaller nonprofits and local businesses — struggled to get visibility for their events beyond their own networks.
- No Unified Registration: Programs like swimming lessons and holiday events required separate sign-up processes, creating friction for residents.
“We have been very pleased with the community engagement the calendar has generated so far. With the spring and summer event seasons right around the corner, new events are being added daily.” –Savannah Ballard, Marketing & Downtown Development Director, City of Macomb
The Solution
In spring 2025, the City of Macomb implemented the ‘with’ Community Calendar — an automated, centralized hub designed for community-wide participation.
- Self-Service Event Submission: 81 local organizations upload their own events directly to the platform, creating a self-sustaining community ecosystem without burdening city staff.
- Automated Data Integration: 4 community partners automatically sync events daily via API integration, ensuring the calendar stays current with zero manual effort.
- One Destination for Discovery: Residents gained access to a single calendar showcasing all community happenings — from local business events to nonprofit fundraisers.
- Built-in Registration & Ticketing: The city expanded the platform to handle summer swimming lesson registration at Glenwood Pool and ticket sales for Dickens on the Square holiday attractions.
The Results
The results were significant — both in hard numbers and community value:
| 61,500+
Event Page Views |
1,942
Events Listed |
85
Organizations |
10-15h
Saved Weekly |
- Community-Driven Model: 81 organizations self-manage their listings — the city built a platform the community runs on its own.
- Expanded Beyond Events: Registration, ticketing, and resident notifications turned the calendar into a full community engagement hub.
- Automated Integrations: 4 API-connected partners keep events flowing without manual data entry.
- Official Recognition: The city was so pleased with the results that they published an official media release to promote the calendar’s success.
- Estimated 10–15 Hours Saved Weekly: By enabling 81 organizations to self-manage their listings and automating data syncs via API, city staff eliminated the manual bottleneck of collecting, verifying, and publishing events on behalf of dozens of community partners.
Reduced Marketing Spend: With a centralized, high-traffic discovery hub, the city and its partners rely less on paid ads and separate promotional efforts to drive event attendance. Unify and optimize all city events without extra tools, steep learning curves, or IT headaches.
