Create a calendar event QR code

Events get missed because adding them is fiddly. Somebody reads a date off a poster, fully intends to put it in their calendar, and never does. A code like this carries the event itself as an iCalendar block, so a scan brings up the add-event screen with the title, the times, the place and any notes already in position, one confirmation away from being saved and one notification away from being remembered.

Setting up the event

• Write a title that reads well on its own, since it will sit in a list beside a dozen unrelated entries.
• Enter the start and end in your own local time. They are converted to UTC inside the code, which is what stops the event drifting by an hour for somebody in another country.
• The end time has to be later than the start time.
• Put a plain address or a room name in the location field, whichever the calendar app should display.
• Use the notes for what people need on the day itself, such as a door code, a gate to use or where to park.

Where these go

Gig and theatre posters, with the code printed under the date. Conference programmes, one code per session, so a delegate builds a schedule by scanning as they walk the floor. School newsletters for parents evenings and sports days. Wedding invitations, where the save-the-date is the whole point of the card. Shop windows advertising a one-off sale. The useful outcome in each case is not a website visit but an entry in a calendar, at a specific hour, on a specific day.

The event text is assembled and encoded in this browser tab. No calendar is connected, no invitation is sent to anyone and nothing about the event is uploaded, so the only copies that exist are the image you download and whatever your guests choose to save.