Recommendation to receive and file a presentation on the implementation and launch of the City’s new public-facing calendar system.  (Citywide)
Thank you. We are going to move on to item 26, please. Report from City Manager Recommendation to receive and file a presentation on the implementation and launch of the city's new public facing calendar system citywide. Mr. Mayor. Members of the council, we do have a presentation on this. This is a really exciting development that we've been putting into place, and it's ready to go live about how to really show a lot of the great events and meetings and ways to engage with government. This has been a big priority for this Council, especially through the Strategic Communications Plan, and I'd like to turn it over to Kevin Lee to walk us through the presentation. Thank you, Mr. America, honorable mayor and city council members. I'm happy to be here today to share with you an update regarding the city's new public facing calendar system. That's a launch in just a couple of weeks. As you are aware, the city launched a five year strategic communications plan in March 2020, just days before standing up the Joint Information Center for the COVID 19 Response, which is still in operation today. During the pandemic response, we were able to accomplish many things in the communications plan, one of them being the city calendar system. Now, with things opening up, this is the perfect time to launch the calendar. In the communications plan. The calendar is under the strategic focus area of local public engagement, with a goal of making a more well informed community and an objective of increasing awareness of city priorities. Projects, programs, initiatives, services, events and meetings. The current calendar we are replacing has some challenges. It's a legacy based calendar that the city migrated into the CMS in 2017 with the update to the city's website. So while it served its purpose at the time, it has some limitations. For instance, it lacks advanced functionality and limited filtering options. It's not that dynamic, interactive or shareable, and you're not able to receive notifications. Jump forward to the new calendar and you'll see so many benefits and enhancements for the public. There is a simplified homepage access, which I will talk about in a moment. New options and features. It's user friendly, very intuitive and dynamic. There is a refined navigation, an integrated notification options and advanced filtering options as well. And let me touch on language language access as well. People will be able to use Google Translate throughout the calendar as a quick way to get information in any language. However, we will also add a standard in language message on event pages that lets the community know that if they need more information in their language, they can reach out to the staff contact. Also there is a feature that allows community members to note they will require onsite interpretation at a meeting. Further, we will now have the ability to add characters in other languages, such as command directly into the calendar, which was impossible before. And for a staff, this calendar really had a customized look. We were able to still keep the look in certain departments like library services and development services while integrating the back end. And it's easier for staff to maintain. For instance, you can now enter a multiday event really easily, which before you were not able to do so. As you may be aware, under the current Events tab on the city website, there are two calendars, a special events, one and a meetings and notices one. This isn't necessary and can be confusing. With the new system, there will just be one department. Calendars are automatically integrated into this master calendar on the. Homepage. And basic structure and event details are provided upfront for the convenience of our community. And you can now navigate the calendar from home page or access the full calendar by clicking more events. With the new calendar. There are there are several views, all depending on how each individual would like to view the calendar. The eye catching tile of you. What you see here is the default for desktop. However, there are three additional views people can choose. The month and list views are a bit more traditional. And then there's a map view as well that allows you to see events on where they fall within the city on a map. This view is default for mobile to ensure an optimized experience. With the new calendar. There are also several ways to search for events and meetings. You can search by calendar name, for example parks or libraries, event type, for example, career workshop, community meeting, or even age based types as well. You word search. This is self-explanatory. But I do want to note that these key words don't have to be put in the back end by staff. The calendar is actually searching the contents and then proximity by zip code. If someone wants to know what's going on nearby then. The event page will now be full of features. Obviously there will be an event description and image and contact information will be required in case the community has additional questions. You will also be able to share directly to your social media pages and place right into your personal calendar. There is also a shareable QR code for each event. There's also an RSVP option as well. And within that option, a calendar administrator can include an option for a community member to sign up to speak at the event if there is a Q&A session. Also notable is the notification features. You will now be able to subscribe to a calendar or an event and receive notifications via text or email when a new event is added or if an existing event has updates. If you're really into it, you can sign up to receive notifications regarding all events and meetings in the city that are on this calendar. You can also customize when you receive notifications. For instance, if you can get noticed, you can get notifications upon each new event, or you can receive notifications on all events added in a week . I want to call your attention to the fact that council members will be able to receive notifications when an event is added within your district. You'll likely already know that they are coming, but this can give you more details and also you'll be able to share these events as they pop up. Just some information on the administration. Oversight really falls in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications, which is my shop, and we'll make sure that the calendar is being used across the department and then also the Technology and Innovation Department. They'll be there to make sure that functioning properly, properly and for training. There are trained content authors in departments and legislative offices, and content is expected to be provided in full and follow the city calendar guidelines, which will be available on the city's intranet. What's next? We expect to launch the week of June 28. This gives departments time to populate their events on the new calendar. We will send out a press release. Social media across departments will integrate it into our Go Language newsletter, the city's on hold message, the city's homepage and all the this calendar is really intuitive. We are working on a how to video to help those along that might need a little extra information on how to use it. Before I close, I'd like to recognize Sal Rodriguez in the Technology and Innovation Department and Jonathan Garcia in our public affairs office for the excellent work they've done on this project. That concludes my presentation, and I'm here to respond to questions you may have. Thank you. I believe there is no we have no public comment for this item, so must go to the council. We have a motion by council and I'm going to second advisory. Richardson Councilman Mongo. Thank you so much. I have waited so long for this item to come back to council. When I first brought forward this idea to the city, it was unanimously supported but not funded, and it went in years where we continued to hear from the community. Request after request to know when things are and how to not schedule nonprofit fundraisers on top of citywide events, how to better coordinate resources, and to really have a central place where all postings were the unification of notification to constituents to be able to score. Subscribe to the things you want to know about. While we are in the infancy of rolling this out, the potential is endless. I want to thank Kevin for his relentless pursuit of this. The poor guy has had to have dozens of meetings with me going in and out of every component of this and what the public and the future with the public can see, how they can engage with it, and how they can really see what they want from the city through this process. I see this having endless potential in terms of not wanting it to be overcrowded, but to really be able to click on and click off anything. If you want to know when the Grand Prix is, every single Grand Prix for the next five years that we have a contract for should be on that calendar. Every Christmas parade, every event on piping, every event in uptown, every single thing could be here so that citywide resources are not stretched too far, but also so that nonprofits can coordinate better with us, so they can know when they can have access to a street fair or an event. And then furthermore, just the standardization of an ability to see when things are happening. When is enrollment for soccer? When is enrollment for our summer programs at the Nature Center? All of those dates are possible to be here in the future. It's just a matter of ensuring everything's in one place. Then, as a person who enters our city, as a young member of the community who's interested in work source opportunities, you can subscribe to those. Then, as you transition to a mom, you can look and sign up for the list related to enrollments for 3 to 5 year olds in Parks and Rec library. You don't have to go to the library website, then the Parks and Rec website and then the Nature Center website. It's all in one place for your convenience. I think this will really help constituents be more involved when we have citywide initiatives or policies, whether it's the land use element or short term rentals or any of those things, and community meetings are posted. You now can search for which community meeting makes the most sense to you and not rely upon council members individual emails. I often get calls I can't find the email that you sent out last month that had the date of the upcoming such and such meeting. Now there can always be a link to the citywide calendar that has all of these things. When bringing this item forward. I had a vision that really came to me through discussions with leaders in our city and leaders that continually struggled through an informal network where they would among themselves, whether it was a group of moms or a group of nonprofit leaders, work together to really keep their own calendar. And this will eliminate that. And it will also give instantaneous updates to anyone that subscribes to any particular event of a move. So when things change, when dates change, when things move, we'll be able to know and notify people appropriately. So I cannot tell you how excited I am for this. The future is endless. I love to see us get to a point where nonprofits who've gone through appropriate training and within certain limitations could also use the tool to engage the community on some of their more popular events, maybe even the convention center. Any convention that's open to the public. How great would it be if you're a Long Beach resident and you said, Hey, I didn't know we had the fishing convention. I'm into fishing. Not only did I sign up for the Fishing Derby at Eldorado Park, but I'm notified. Did you know of these other fishing events in our city? And then really take those warm leads for residents to be able to be involved in every aspect of our city. I really think this is a component of of the full integration of a 24 hour city hall. And I just cannot tell you how proud I am of our staff. It has not been an easy path, and I want to just say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I don't think you know how many people you're going to impact and their ability to be involved is just it's really, really life changing for for people, especially busy people and busy moms. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Allen. Yes. I also want to say thank you to Mr. Lee for your presentation. This is an exciting idea, and I too have wanted a city calendar for so long. My staff attended one of your training sessions and they really appreciated the simplicity and the ease of the platform. Having one centralized calendar that is searchable and compatible with social media and other platforms is something that is really going to resonate with the public. So I really liked when you talked about all the notification features. I think that is really great. I know I'm definitely going to appreciate it. It's just a great tool for people to know what's going on in the city and all the great events that are happening. So I do have a question. How are you going about just getting the word out that we have this tool now? Yes. County Council Member So when we launch in a couple of weeks here, the week of the 28th, we will be sending a press release out on social media as well across our city department. So we'll make sure that every department starts pushing this information out. We'll be integrating into our newsletter and things like our on hold message at the city. And then we will also be working with we have a email list of community groups will be pushing it out through there as well, which reaches a lot of people in the community. Thank you very much. Just great work. Thank you. I think I'd passed over a vice mayor Richardson, who had the second, actually. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And, you know, I mean, this is this is incredible. I hope folks I hope folks use it because it can be tremendously impactful. You know, it's a big it's a big deal to do an integrated calendar publicly. I mean, it will make all of our jobs a lot easier. And one of those things, we're a big city, but we're really not all that big. We're kind of a small town and everyone wants to support everyone's events across the whole city. This is one tool to help make it happen. Councilman Mongo I remember it has been a long time. I remember when you brought this forward and we all talked about how useful it would be. And I think it shows sometimes how long it may take to get something done, but is just as exciting when it finally happens . So thank you for your leadership in bringing this forward and bringing this forward. And and I look forward to making sure that our our, you know, all of our districts begin to engage with this citywide calendar so we can support each other's events. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Councilman. Sir. Thank you, Mayor. I also want to thank city staff Kevin and your team for working so hard on this and Councilmember Mongo for being such a strong advocate for a calendar that works for 24 hours and to be effective and efficient in the way that we coordinate our work. I am so excited about being able to subscribe to the calendar because I live like as Councilmember Mongo as a busy mom. I live off of my calendar. If I am, if it's not on my calendar, it's not in my you know, I'm not aware of what's happening or, you know, it's not on my radar to go to. So I appreciate so many of the features and function and are so excited that there will be an ability to access that in other languages as well, which is so crucial to ensuring that all members of our residents can access them and understand what's happening. And that I also have had a few of my staff already attend the training, which has been great so that, you know, I appreciate being on a council member coming in with this system set up so that we can best organize and also inform residents about this as well. So thank you so much. Thank you, counselor. Moms and dads. A huge thank you to to you, Kevin Lee. Mr. Kevin Lee, thank you so much. This is phenomenal. Thank you so much. Council member Mango for keeping added and pushing for something so amazing like this. Increasing the level of communication between our Long Beach community and our city is something that I am very, very passionate about. I think that tools like this and like this new calendar system offer us the amazing opportunity to do exactly that. And I know many of the residents have expressed interest in being more involved and receiving information about local events and volunteer opportunities. And I'm so happy that all of that information will will all be in this one place, in this calendar. So thank you. Thank you very much for your hard work, because I know it took a lot of hard work and a lot of years to actually develop something like this that we all can benefit from. But we are going to reap the benefits here on out and I'm just so excited. I can't wait for this to launch out and to launch and I am super excited to share this with all of my residents as well. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. Thank you. The comments of my colleagues reminded me of a small thing that happened along the way. This item started so long ago that it was not common for you to receive a note from, let's say, your favorite sports team or your favorite Netflix series or whatever, where when they send you the email, you can click on it and it literally adds it to your own calendar. And whether it's something where we say, I want to see all the volunteer opportunities for park cleanups at the park near me, or I want to see all the low income resident workshops that help me fill out the forms I need to get up my feet, whatever those things are. I just want to give an additional thank you that though the path has been long and a long path along the way, the continued support of staff to make adjustments so that by the time that it was released, it wasn't already antiquated and out of date. And so thank you for that. And I just can't wait to see all these things pop up on my calendar that I can subscribe and unsubscribe to in the bottom. I'm just so excited for the things that this can do for our community. Thank you. Thank you. There's a motion and a second members. Oh, actually, I understand you have an announcement about Councilman Price. Yes. All council members currently participating in the meeting are in the council chamber. I will stop the the roll call vote and proceed with voting via vote cast for the remaining items. Thank you. Members, please cast your votes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Next item, please.