Kicking off 2026 with something new 👀

Hey! Happy Friday 🙂

This is our first send of 2026, so I wanted to start the year by sharing something new I’ve been working on behind the scenes.

Some of you may have already stumbled across this on the site, but every subscriber now has a personal dashboard and profile. You don’t need a password or anything fancy, just the email you already use to receive these newsletters.

You can check yours out here:

Over the last few months, I’ve been building this with one goal in mind. I want What’s Happenin’ to be more than just a newsletter. I want it to feel like a community that actually gives back to the people who support it.

Moving forward, whenever you interact with What’s Happenin’ such as clicking on events, using the restaurant finder, playing games, or referring friends, you’ll earn points. You can see all the ways to earn points directly inside your dashboard.

Your profile will also start recommending events and places based on what you’ve shown interest in before. The goal here is simple. Less noise, more things you actually care about.

Now for the fun part. Perks.

We’ll be rolling out perks in a few different ways:

• Some will be available directly from your dashboard

• Some will live inside our Insider Hub

• Some will be things you can redeem using the points you earn
  

The Insider Hub is just one level deeper. You’ll find the button inside your dashboard, and it’s where we’ll put our best perks and point redemptions over time.

If you want a quick walkthrough of how everything works, I put together a short video here:

From the outside this may look simple, but there’s a lot happening under the hood. If you notice anything that feels off or broken, please let me know. I’m building this for you, and feedback is how it gets better.

One last thing. I went back and retroactively updated everyone’s profiles, so if you’ve been around since late 2024, your points are already there waiting for you. I’ll be adding ways to redeem them soon.