Event information is notoriously difficult to find and indeed to maintain. This site provides a database of world events which is searchable by time and by place. When looking at this Web site I was in need of information about events taking place in Paris on the weekend 12/13 May.
There are two modes of search; the first is a general approach where I could stipulate one of three time instances which are “Today” , “Tomorrow” and “This Weekend”. None of these was suitable as I was planning further in advance. Another approach can be to choose a “place” from an interactive map of the world containing three main sections: North America, Europe and Australasia. On choosing Europe I was presented with a list of European countries. Having then chosen France I was presented with all the events taking place in the current month. Short entries are displayed in an easy‐to‐read fashion giving the absolute dates of the event and also the location. Most helpfully there is a link to further information ‐ which supplements the short entry with more detail such as a contact telephone number, and of course there is a hyperlink to the event’s Web site.
On browsing the list I was pleased to note the following event information :
Retrospective on Roberto Rossellini
Paris; The Louvre is presenting an integral retrospective of the work of filmmaker Roberto Rossellini. The event will look at the history of cinema with more than 80 films, including masterpieces such as Rome, Stromboli and Jeanne d’Arc au Bucher. For more details, contact: 01 4020 5186 http://www.louvre.fr/
6 April 2001 to the 16 May 2001.
There is an advanced search feature that is impressive in its high level of indexing, given the volatile nature of event information. In the Advanced search section it is possible to search by start date, finish date, postcode/zipcode, country and search word, quite a powerful array. I tested the search word facility by inputting the word “Louvre” and the Rossellini event mentioned above was among those records returned. I then input “Roberto Rossellini” and got the single Louvre event returned; however, inputting only “Rossellini” alone returned nothing. I then input “film” and got a list of film events worldwide; I refined this to include only France based events and the Rossellini event was retrieved along with information about the Festival International du Film de Cannes.
The overall design of this site is good with an uncluttered focus on the search facility. There is one banner advertisement across the top of the main page but this is in no way intrusive. There is an event of the day feature which suggests a particular event ‐ the Jutland Carnival when I visited. Another useful feature is the inclusion of events that take place on the Internet ‐ virtual events.
The information is collected and maintained by CPL Group who, according to the site itself, have a number of years’ experience in collecting this type of information. It is possible also to obtain free of charge the listings for inclusion on a third party site by following a very simple process.
The main strength of this site is the thoroughness of its indexing and the ease with which it can retrieve tricky information from across the globe. It is free to use.
