When most people think "local," often they want to know about the future, not just the past or today. That's why a local event calendar can be a strong draw for any community news or engagement project. The catch is, most community calendars are pretty difficult to read, search and use on a mobile device -- which is a shame, because mobile users are especially likely to be looking for something to do!

Here are two tools that can help you create fairly mobile-friendly community calendars.

Google Calendar. This free, popular tool can be used to publicly share event listings -- including summaries, links, contact info, and more. Check out this example from Chicago. Here's what to do to make a mobile-friendly public Google Calendar:

1. Create a Google Calendar, and give editing access to anyone on your team who will be posting events.
2. Make your calendar public.
3. Create a webpage on your site where you'll embed the calendar in agenda (list-style) format -- which is the easiest format for users on smartphones and web-enabled feature phones. (Much easier than a grid layout, which requires pinching and zooming.)
4. Publicize the link to the embedded version of your calendar. This will ensure that mobile users will immediately access a version that's easiest for them to read and use.
5. Tell people that if they already use Google Calendar, they can directly subscribe to your calendar -- so your events will automatically show up in their calendar. Provide a link to your calendar address, and to instructions on how to subscribe to a Google Calendar.

Helios Calendar. This calendar software, which you install on your own web server, is not free -- but it's reasonably priced, highly functional, and very mobile-friendly and attractive. It includes features for public event submission, custom event categories and subcategories, and more. The HTML5 mobile theme offers flexible app-like usability delivered through the mobile web browser. (Check out their mobile demo on your smartphone or tablet.) $149 for a one-year license.