Spotlight gives you the ability to custom sort and prioritize events based on 18+ parameters, so you can control which events appear first in different areas of the CitySpark platform.

Use Spotlight to:

Once you set up a Spotlight and enable scheduling, our system will run it regularly for you, applying your Spotlight score to all new events on an ongoing basis, letting you focus on other things.

Set up a Spotlight and let it do the work for you!

To set up a Spotlight:

Once selected, a box will appear with several options. Select Spotlight.

Fill in the AI Workflow Name and make sure the correct calendar is selected if you have multiple calendars under your account. You can also apply it to your whole account if that is appropriate by clicking on "Enable Account Level Workflow."

You can filter the events at this step if needed, but we recommend pulling in all events and using the next step to set up rules for prioritizing your events. To pull in the next 500 upcoming events, select Run: Get Events.

If you want to give all events of a certain type, such as sports or concerts, the same priority, you can use the Get Events filters to pull in only those specific events. You can then use the Base Priority (in the spotlight step) to apply the same priority to all of those events at once.

Once all of the content has loaded, select Next Step. This will take you to the Spotlight page, where you can set up how your events will be prioritized.

The Base Priority sets the starting score for every event before your Spotlight rules are applied.

In most cases, you can leave the Base Priority set to 0. If you used Get Events to filter for specific events and want to give all of those events the same starting priority, you can set the Base Priority here. The system will once applied, update the score for each event.

For example, if you filtered for sports, setting the Base Priority to 200 will give every event in your filtered list a starting priority score of 200. This allows you to prioritize all sports events above all other events at once without individual rules. You can then use individual rules to further fine-tune the results.

There is a system-wide Spotlight score, as determined by CitySpark, already applied to every event. When you create your own Spotlight score, that is used instead. Your own platform-wide Spotlight score is your "default" Spotlight. If you want more than one, each additional one is called a Named Spotlight to differentiate it from your default. In most cases, you will not need more than one, and should leave the named sort set to "default".

Upon selecting Named Sort, a dropdown will appear where you can select + Add Named Spotlight and enter a name for the specific Spotlight you are setting up. This allows you to create and manage multiple Spotlights for different purposes.

Generate Rules with AI allows you to use AI to create the initial set of rules for how you want your events prioritized. Use the Priority Description box to provide a prompt describing how you want to prioritize your events.

For example:

“Make festivals and outdoor events the highest priority, followed by seasonal events. Give additional points to free or cheap events. Secondarily, bump up performing arts. Events with three or fewer occurrences are preferred over recurring events. Boost any Editor's Picks as well.”

Select Generate rules with AI. The AI will use your description to create priority rules for the events pulled into the Spotlight.

Once the rules are generated, you’ll find them directly underneath the Description box.

You can edit, turn off, or delete any of the generated rules. You can also add additional rules by selecting + Add Rule at the top of the list.

Caution: Re-running the AI prompt will erase any rule changes you have made.

Review the resulting Spotlight scores on your events in the preview below. You can turn individual rules on or off to see how it will affect your results.

You can change any part of a rule as needed. Select the fields within a rule to see the available options and make your changes. You can also adjust the Boost number. Note that negative numbers will Drop the score.

As you make changes, the event scores in the preview at the bottom of the page will update in real time so you can see how your rules affect event prioritization.

Select the On toggle to turn off a rule. When a rule is turned off, it will no longer be used when calculating event priority.

Select the trash can icon to remove a rule from the page completely.

Scroll down to the Preview section to see the top 50 events and how they are prioritized.

Your Spotlight score will not be applied to your events until you click Run: Spotlight. Each time you run it, the new score will replace the previous score.

Warning: Make sure you scroll to the top of the page and save the AI Workflow before leaving the page. If you leave without saving, the Spotlight and any rules you created will not be saved.

You can come back at any time to edit your workflow. Go to View AI Workflows, located directly above Create AI Workflows, and select the AI workflow you would like to edit or manually run.

To have the workflow run automatically on a schedule, select the Enable Scheduling toggle.

Your default Spotlight sort will now be available in your calendar, widgets, and Reverse Publish. To use different sorts for each of these, you can set up Named Spotlight sorts as noted above.

If you have any questions or need help setting up your Spotlights, reach out to support@cityspark.com.