Solstice Media’s culture-focused CityMag wanted to grow their existing events guide for Adelaide into a larger, digital calendar. However they did not want journalists spending hours turning press releases into event listings, as it would take away from in-depth reporting. The team aimed to automate the extraction of key information from media releases and other sources to streamline the creation of event descriptions. This would allow them to have a more complete guide without reducing important investigative work.

Solstice developed "Evan," an AI-powered event listing assistant using Google AI Studio. Evan reduced the time spent producing one event listing from 15 minutes to 5 minutes. The team is now working to integrate Evan with their WordPress CMS. In February 2025, Evan helped publish 37 events. While Evan still requires a human check, 90% of his work is mistake-free.

Interestingly, the team developed a real fondness for their creation, despite his “bad habits”. Evan is now a fully fledged character and his animated avatar appears at the bottom of all events listings that he helps create.