Google Calendar Event Trigger: Automate Workflows Before Meetings Start

Overview

The Google Calendar Event Trigger is AskElephant's powerful automation tool that connects your Google Calendar to intelligent workflows. Unlike standard triggers that activate during or after events, this unique trigger can start workflows up to 3 hours before your meeting begins. This proactive approach enables advanced meeting preparation, attendee research, and automated notifications—transforming how your team prepares for important conversations.

Getting Started with Google Calendar Triggers

To set up your Google Calendar trigger, create a new workflow and select "Start with trigger." Navigate to the Google section in the left sidebar and choose "On Calendar Event Started."

Once selected, you'll see the trigger interface on the right side of your screen, which includes:

• A basic description of the trigger's functionality
• Configuration options for customizing the trigger name
• Two main tabs: Configuration and Outputs

Key Configuration Options

Offset: Control When Your Workflow Starts

The offset setting is what makes this trigger unique. It allows you to specify how many minutes before your meeting the workflow should begin—up to 180 minutes (3 hours) in advance.

Why this matters: While most triggers activate at specific moments or when meetings start, the offset feature gives you preparation time. You can research attendees, pull relevant data, or send reminders well before anyone joins the call.

Groups and People: Define Who Gets Automated Workflows

Control exactly who this automation applies to using two targeting options:

• Groups: Select pre-existing workspace groups (like your revenue team or developers) that should have this workflow run for their meetings
• People: Choose specific individuals from your workspace who should benefit from this automation

Exclude People: Protect Sensitive Meetings

Use the "Exclude People" setting to prevent workflows from running for specific individuals. This is particularly important for executives, managers conducting one-on-ones, or anyone handling confidential meetings where automated data sharing might not be appropriate.

Available Output Variables

The Google Calendar trigger provides comprehensive meeting data through output variables that you can reference in subsequent workflow nodes:

Meeting Information

• Calendar Event Title: The meeting's subject line
• Calendar Event Description: Details from the meeting description
• Calendar Event: Complete event data
• Calendar Event Link: Clickable link to view the event in AskElephant

People Data

• Primary Internal Contact: The meeting host from your organization
• Internal Attendees: List of all attendees from your company domain
• External Attendees: List of attendees from outside your organization
• All Attendees: Complete attendee list with corresponding email variables

Company Information

• Company: Primary company associated with the meeting
• Company Name, Description, Domain: Detailed company data
• All Companies: List of all companies represented in the meeting

Customization and Management

• Rename your trigger by clicking the pencil icon for easier identification.
• Delete a trigger anytime by selecting the three-dot menu.

Practical Use Case Examples

Advanced Meeting Preparation

Create workflows that automatically research your meeting attendees before you meet. Pull LinkedIn profiles, company information, or previous meeting notes to give you context and talking points. This preparation happens automatically in the background while you focus on other priorities.

Sales Team Intelligence

For sales professionals, integrate CRM data to surface prospect pain points and account history before important calls. This gives you time to review customer context and prepare personalized responses that resonate with their specific situation.

Team Notifications

Pair the calendar trigger with Slack messaging nodes to automatically notify your team about upcoming meetings. Send reminders up to 3 hours in advance, ensuring everyone is prepared and aware of important conversations.

Meeting Documentation

Set up workflows to automatically compile previous meeting summaries, action items, or relevant documents, giving you and your team instant access to context that matters for the upcoming discussion.

Business Impact

Using Google Calendar triggers can help your team:

• Prepare proactively for meetings and build stronger client relationships
• Surface key insights about attendees, companies, and context before conversations start
• Keep your team aligned and informed about every meeting, boosting overall preparedness
• Reduce manual effort in meeting research, reminders, and documentation
• React instantly to important meeting changes or updates

Next Steps

Ready to transform your meeting preparation? Start by identifying one recurring meeting type that would benefit from advance preparation. Create your first Google Calendar trigger workflow, set an appropriate offset time, and begin automating the research and preparation that currently takes manual effort.

Have questions about implementing calendar triggers? Connect with the Herd in our community forum for tips, examples, and best practices from other AskElephant users.