SUTD's DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission, Event Approval, and Event Publishing Automation Process

This Github repository is mainly for the planning committee and Office of Student Activities (OSA) of Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)'s DiscoverSUTD, an annual event of SUTD that spans for the first 4 weeks after every matriculation day each year for new SUTD students to the school (who are also termed as 'freshies'). The goal of this Github repository is to document on how to use this DiscoverSUTD event proposal submission, event approval and event publishing, automation process, created by me (Goh Jet Wei's Github account), for future year's planning committee of SUTD DiscoverSUTD to use to significantly reduce the amount of administrative work during the planning process of future DiscoverSUTD events.

This SUTD's DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission, Event Approval, and Event Publishing Automation Process is currently deployed and is running.

Background on SUTD's DiscoverSUTD

The SUTD's DiscoverSUTD event consists of a series of mandatory events organised by SUTD school leaders and introductory sessions organised by clubs and interest groups in SUTD that 'freshies' can sign up and participate in.

As part of the DiscoverSUTD planning committee in 2024, I have created this DiscoverSUTD automation process using Zapier (a software that allows developers to automate workflows) that aims to automate the process of event proposal submissions by clubs and interest groups, event approval by the SUTD'S Office of Student Activities (OSA), and event publishing to the general SUTD student body.

Why this SUTD's DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission, Event Approval, and Event Publishing Automation Process helps?

Prior to my batch of DiscoverSUTD planning committee in 2024, there was no existing automation process for the event proposal submissions by clubs and interest groups, event approval by the SUTD'S Office of Student Activities (OSA), and event publishing to the general SUTD student body, making the planning process for past DiscoverSUTD events a very manual process, such as:

1. Getting event proposal submissions form from clubs and interest groups via Tally form
2. Manually inputting the event details into Google sheets for the OSA to approve/disapprove
3. Manually inputting the details of the approved events into a Notion calender to publish the approved event details to the general SUTD student body

But with this SUTD's DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission, Event Approval, and Event Publishing Automation Process using Zapier, this entire process becomes automated that requires minimal manual work, that requires just 1 SUTD's DiscoverSUTD planning committee member to manage!

How to use this SUTD's DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission, Event Approval, and Event Publishing Automation Process?

Here's the important part. Using this automation process requires some knowledge of Zapier and Notion's calender for debugging purposes. Also if edits are made on the Tally form, Google Sheet or Notion's calender, corresponding edits on Zapier's zaps must be made as well, which require some knowledge in how Zapier works.

Here are the important links:

• Event Proposal Submission by clubs and interest groups Tally form: https://tally.so/r/n9qB0E

• Event Approval/Disapproval (by OSA) Database/Google Sheets: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19HqnLRRmdiZY0t3JtomK-DJ5lB5C2w9WwQqat5UyV4E/edit?gid=1411928349#gid=1411928349 (there are multiple sheets in this Google Sheets, titled 'All Events 2024', 'All Events 2025', etc. and 'Approved Events')

• Event Publishing Notion Calender to the general SUTD student body: https://www.notion.so/discoversutd/DSUTD2024-8b5b48bb985b4e9abf1979ca635ea890
  (this link will be shared to the general SUTD student body, so they know when are the approved events during DiscoverSUTD)

• Zapier Automation workflow:

  • https://zapier.com/editor/244057241/published (titled: 'ROOT DSUTD (updating approved events from Google Sheets to Notion')
  • https://zapier.com/editor/240537822/published (titled: 'ROOT DSUTD (updating Tally form details to Google sheet) (session 1)')
  • https://zapier.com/editor/245337155/published (titled: 'ROOT DSUTD (updating Tally form details to Google sheet) (session 2)')
  • https://zapier.com/editor/245424613/published (titled: 'ROOT DSUTD (updating Tally form details to Google sheet) (session 3)')
  • https://zapier.com/editor/245425407/published (titled: 'ROOT DSUTD (updating Tally form details to Google sheet) (session 4)')
    (where you can view how the automation process between the Tally form, Google Sheets and Notion, is done. Only I have access to this DiscoverSUTD Zapier Automation workflow, I did not give access for this to the SUTD's DisoverSUTD email)

In order to use this SUTD's DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission, Event Approval, and Event Publishing Automation Process, and to access the following important links, you need to have access to the SUTD's DiscoverSUTD email. For security reasons, I will not be sharing the login details here. If you are a SUTD DiscoverSUTD planning committee member, you need to check with the SUTD's OSA for the login details for the SUTD's DiscoverSUTD email!

Here's how to use the SUTD's DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission, Event Approval, and Event Publishing Automation Process, step by step:

SUTD_D.1.MP4

The video shows a demonstration of how the 'SUTD's DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission, Event Approval, and Event Publishing Automation Process' looks like. Done by me using OBS Studio software for screen recording and VideoPad Video Editor (by NCH Software) for video editing. There is no audio in this demonstration video.

• Step 1: Send a mass email to the SUTD interest groups and clubs, with this DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission by clubs and interest groups Tally form link
  

• Step 2: Whenever a SUTD interest groups and clubs submit an event proposal, the event details will be automatically added to the 'All Events' sheet in the DiscoverSUTD Event Database/Google Sheets for Event Approval/Disapproval by OSA -> via

• Step 3: (To be done by SUTD OSA) There is a column in the 'All Events' sheet in the DiscoverSUTD Event Database/Google Sheets for Event Approval/Disapproval by OSA with the header 'Approved/Not approved', which SUTD OSA will select either the option 'Approved' or 'Not approved' after vetting through the event proposal details. There is also another column in the 'All Events' sheet in the DiscoverSUTD Event Database/Google Sheets for Event Approval/Disapproval by OSA with the header 'Reason (if Not Approved)', which SUTD OSA can put a reasoning for not approving a particular event proposal.

• Step 4: (To be done by a DiscoverSUTD planning committee member) Once OSA has finished vetting through all the event proposals in the 'All Events' sheet in the DiscoverSUTD Event Database/Google Sheets for Event Approval/Disapproval by OSA, a DiscoverSUTD planning committee member will need to manually transfer the event details of the approved events to the other 'Approved Events' sheet in the DiscoverSUTD Event Database/Google Sheets for Event Approval/Disapproval by OSA.

  IMPORTANT NOTES FOR STEP 4:

  • Zapier is designed to detect new rows in Google Sheets, but it's important to understand that Zapier detects new rows based on their addition to the sheet, not on their content. Deleting and re-entering data in the same row won't trigger the automation process because Zapier tracks rows by their unique IDs, which don't change when you modify the content. BASICALLY, PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY ROWS ONCE IT IS ADDED INTO THE GOOGLE SHEETS! YOU CAN JUST ERASE THAT UPLOADED EVENT IN THE DiscoverSUTD Event Publishing Notion Calender to the general SUTD student body AS DELETING AND RE-ENTERING DATA IN THE SAME ROW WON'T TRIGGER THE AUTOMATION PROCESS!

  • ALSO, PLEASE BE VERY SURE WHEN YOU ADD AN APPROVED EVENT IN THE 'APPROVED EVENTS' SHEET AS ONCE THE EVENT DETAILS OF AN APPROVED EVENT IS ADDED, ITS DETAILS WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY UPDATED TO THE NOTION CALENDER (ITS A NON-REVERSIBLE PROCESS, AND YOU MIGHT NEED TO MODIFY THAT APPROVED EVENT MANUALLY IN THE DiscoverSUTD Event Publishing Notion Calender to the general SUTD student body LINK IF YOU WANT TO MAKE ANY CHANGES!

• Step 5: Once the event details of the approved events are transferred to the 'Approved Events sheet in the DiscoverSUTD Event Database/Google Sheets for Event Approval/Disapproval by OSA, the event details (including the date, time, location, sign up form, etc.) will be automatically updated to this DiscoverSUTD Event Publishing Notion Calender to the general SUTD student body link (this uploading process might take 3 to 15 minutes)
  -> via

• Step 6: Send another mass email to the general SUTD student body, with this DiscoverSUTD Event Publishing Notion Calender to the general SUTD student body link to publicise the available club and interest group events that will be happening all around SUTD during DiscoverSUTD to the general SUTD student body!

• Step 7: Once DiscoverSUTD is over, please remember to erase all the data in the 'All Events' sheet of the DiscoverSUTD Event Database/Google Sheets for Event Approval/Disapproval by OSA, and the DiscoverSUTD Event Publishing Notion Calender to the general SUTD student body's database (Please leave the 'Approved Events' sheet of the DiscoverSUTD Event Database/Google Sheets for Event Approval/Disapproval by OSA as it is!!). This step is to reset the entire DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission, Event Approval, and Event Publishing Automation Process for the next year of DiscoverSUTD planning committee to use!

  You may choose to make a copy of the 2 sheets of the DiscoverSUTD Event Database/Google Sheets for Event Approval/Disapproval by OSA, and the DiscoverSUTD Event Publishing Notion Calender to the general SUTD student body's database if you wish to save a copy. But remember not to modify the original 2 sheets of the DiscoverSUTD Event Database/Google Sheets for Event Approval/Disapproval by OSA, and the DiscoverSUTD Event Publishing Notion Calender to the general SUTD student body's database or it may mess up the entire automation process!

If there is any queries on this SUTD's DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission, Event Approval, and Event Publishing Automation Process, feel free to reach out to me :)

Limitations of the DiscoverSUTD Event Proposal Submission Event Approval and Event Publishing Automation Process

• When I did the Zapier, I was on the free plan (I didn't want to pay for subscription), which has a limit of maximum 2 zap chains. Hence, the design of the automation process had to work around the limit of maximum 2 zap chains, by leveraging the unlimited amount of zaps that can be published (which explains why I had 5 zap links for this automation process)

• The free plan of Zapier also has a limit of 100 tasks per zap, which I forgot to factor in until one day when the number of tasks (which is the number of Tally form event proposals received) exceeded 100, causing the automation process to fail and some of the event proposals to not be updated in the Google sheets, which was shown as 'Task Failed: Exceeded Number of Tasks' in the zaps in Zapier. Hence, I had to manually input these event proposals that the automation process missed in the Google sheets which was an exhausting task. (So remember to keep track of the number of tasks/event proposals that are being submitted! Make sure they don't exceed 100 tasks per zap!)

  Fortunately, even with the free plan the limit of 100 tasks per zap resets every month, so for my case, when the number of tasks/event proposals exceeded the number of tasks per month, I just had to keep manually updating the event proposals until the next reset until the limit of 100 tasks per zap resets and the automation process to work again...

  Here is Zapier's task run limit per zap depending on the subscription plan you have. As of the last update I checked:

  - **Free Plan**: 100 tasks per month
  - **Starter Plan**: 750 tasks per month
  - **Professional Plan**: 2,000 tasks per month
  - **Team Plan**: 50,000 tasks per month
  - **Company Plan**: 100,000 tasks per month
  

  These limits are subject to change, so I recommend checking Zapier's official website here: https://zapier.com/pricing?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=gaw-row-nua-evr-search_brand_alldev_prospecting_long-tail_d2-ads&utm_term=zapier%20plans&utm_content=9066672&utm_ads_campaign_id=20557914454&utm_ads_adset_id=148745687490&utm_ads_ad_id=673971565677&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwz7C2BhDkARIsAA_SZKZzYN3tgB8lokB0A7jICgdcD-mXzIyIQQKR3FNVFIzg8cPc7ygOAPwaAv14EALw_wcB (Zapier's pricing and rates) for the most up-to-date information.