Overview

I manage an Airtable database that tracks events, and I’m trying to improve how we standardize location data. The goal is to standardize event locations so that we can reliably create maps and group events by location.

In an ideal world, I’d like the system to behave somewhat like Google Maps: a user could search for anything from a city to a specific street address, select the correct result, and then have the relevant location fields populated or linked automatically. I’m not sure what the best Airtable-native or automation-supported way to approximate that would be.

I’d appreciate advice on:

1. Whether this linked Locations table structure makes sense (see below)
2. How others handle standardized city/state/country data for events
3. Whether there is a practical way to integrate or mimic Google Maps-style location lookup in Airtable
4. Any recommended automations, scripts, extensions, or schema changes for this type of setup

Context

Right now, each event record includes the following location-related fields. All except Location are single-line text fields:

• Venue
• Street Address
• Postal Code
• City
• State/Region
• Country
• Location* (linked field)

The Location field is linked to a separate Locations table. When a Location is linked to an event, it overwrites the event’s City, Region, State, and Country fields with standardized data from the Locations table. However, the Venue, Street Address, and Postal Code fields remain untouched because they may be specific to the event venue rather than the broader location.

The Locations table is designed to help us group and map events consistently. Its primary field is a formula field that displays locations like this:

1. For U.S. locations : Displays as "City, State" (e.g., "Boston, Massachusetts")
2. For international locations : Displays as "City, Country" (e.g., "London, United Kingdom")
3. Fallbacks : If city is missing, it falls back to country, then region, then other, and finally defaults to "Unknown"

Field	Description
City	The city or town name
Region	A broader regional designation
State (US)	Links to a standardized list of U.S. states
Country	Links to a standardized list of countries
Continent	Lookup field; populated based on the country (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America)
Metro Area	Identifies major metropolitan areas (Greater D.C., Bay Area, Greater Boston, Greater NYC, Greater LA)
Other	Captures any additional location information that doesn't fit elsewhere
Domestic vs International	Automatically calculated based on the country - if the country is "United States of America," it's marked as  Domestic ; otherwise, it's  International .
Time Zone	AI-generated fields automatically determine the UTC Time Zone  and  Abbreviated Time Zone based on the location data.