The Wizards EventLink Calendar is one of the most important pieces of your Wizards Play Network (WPN) membership toolkit. It allows you to inform allocation planning. It gives you a direct way to share what is working in your community. And it connects to the Store & Event Locator, making it a great method to advertise to new players!

While it's always a smart idea to have The Definitive Guide to Wizards EventLink bookmarked for easy reference, below we'll talk about ways to make sure you are getting the most out of this essential tool.

Be accurate.

The most obvious example of how accurate event reporting directly helps your store is Prerelease. Your prize-supported allocation for each Prerelease is determined from attendance data of previous Prereleases. When you record each Prerelease kit sold as an attendance number, you affect your next allocation for prize-supported Prerelease kits.

Selecting accurate event parameters in EventLink ensures players using the Store & Event Locator know exactly what to expect when they show up to the event at your store. Plus, accurate parameters mean the Store & Event Locator's search filters function correctly. After all, you want to avoid players expecting a Booster Draft when you're really running Standard format.

Not only is it important to record your events with accurate numbers, but it’s important to report your events on time. Events that are not submitted on time will auto-report from your calendar after two weeks. However, player information is scrubbed after a few days. If you need to record standings for a league, make sure you do so before the data is deleted.

Get descriptive.

One of the easiest ways you can advertise to players is using the Store & Event Locator—the good news is, events you schedule through Wizards EventLink will show up there automatically.

With that in mind there are some suggestions to help you maximize your impact:

• Use full words when naming your events. (e.g. "Friday Night Magic" instead of "FNM")
• Use whole dollar amounts when listing pricing.
• Include full prizing details in your descriptions—and be as specific as possible. While “prizes are based on attendance” may be true, it does little to entice a player to attend.
• If you have an online sign-up form, make sure to put the link in the event description.
• If the event is taking place at one of your approved venues instead of your flagship store location, make sure you select that alternate venue when scheduling, and advertise that clearly!

Always report open play.

Any time folks are playing Magic in your store, you can record that as an event to count toward your WPN play metrics. Simply create an unpublished Player List Only open play event and add people as they come along. This maximizes your metrics and informs us of your community’s promo needs.

Please note, you only need to schedule and report one of these casual play events per format, per day. For example, if you have a couple players come in and sit down for casual Commander play, schedule a player list only Commander event and enroll the players. You can keep this event open throughout the day and add additional players as they play.

You are also welcome to encourage players to sign up themselves using a displayed event code in your play space, or incentivize them through random promo pack giveaways at various intervals.

Track player engagement.

Tracking community engagement, especially during open play, can help inform you about your community’s availability and may even help you decide to turn one of your open play events into a recurring custom event.

If your regular Commander players are having fun playing Sealed Deck format at a Prerelease, tell them about the other casual or competitive events you have already scheduled for the rest of the season, such as a casual Sealed league.

Or your numbers might show that your biggest open play event is on Thursday; that could be a good time to also host a beginner’s Standard event. Any event or format can be as casual or competitive as you choose. Keep an ear out for what new players are interested in so you can find creative ways to expand your in-store formats.

Use Wizards EventLink for your in-store event strategy.

Wizards EventLink can not only help you keep track of Swiss pairing matchups during events, it keeps your event dates organized and remains the primary space for you to advertise your upcoming events to your community.

Use EventLink to tap into every new Magic: The Gathering season to plan out fun and unique events that fit the theme of the season. Then get those events on your Eventlink Calendar early and talk them up at your open play events so that you can continue to build interest and grow your community!