What platform best supports a centralized community events calendar for all ages?

[BrandonRM]

I'm a volunteer for our local community center, and we're trying to create a centralized, easy-to-update community events calendar on our website to replace the scattered flyers and Facebook posts. We want it to be useful for residents of all ages and include everything from library story times to farmers markets and town hall meetings. For others who have managed similar projects, what software or platforms have you found most user-friendly for both organizers to submit events and for the public to browse? How do you handle verification to avoid spam, encourage local groups to consistently contribute, and promote the calendar so people actually use it as their go-to resource? Is a simple Google Calendar embed sufficient, or are there better dedicated tools?

[ZoeyIM]

Good plan. Start simple: embed a Google Calendar on your site and set up a public ICS feed for local groups to subscribe. Then add a lightweight submission form (Name, Organization, Email, Event Title, Start/End, Location, Description, Category). Use an admin queue to approve events before they go live. For spam, enable CAPTCHA on the submission form, require email verification, and limit how many events a single organizer can submit per week.

[Sofia_W]

Consider a more robust calendar platform early on if you expect many organizations to contribute. WordPress + The Events Calendar (Pro or free) with Frontend Submissions works well. It gives you a clean frontend form, moderation, categories, recurring events, and iCal export. It also supports automatic imports from ICS feeds.