diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 9ee41fe..54f03a2 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -523,6 +523,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "event_sink_canister",
  "ic_principal",
  "serde",
+ "serde_json",
  "test-case",
 ]
 
@@ -1939,9 +1940,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "serde_json"
-version = "1.0.113"
+version = "1.0.114"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "69801b70b1c3dac963ecb03a364ba0ceda9cf60c71cfe475e99864759c8b8a79"
+checksum = "c5f09b1bd632ef549eaa9f60a1f8de742bdbc698e6cee2095fc84dde5f549ae0"
 dependencies = [
  "itoa",
  "ryu",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index e119413..1aeaf17 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ rand = "0.8.5"
 rmp-serde = "1.1.2"
 serde = "1.0.196"
 serde_bytes = "0.11.14"
+serde_json = "1.0.114"
 test-case = "3.3.1"
 tokio = "1.36.0"
 tokio-util = "0.7.10"
diff --git a/rs/canister/api/src/lib.rs b/rs/canister/api/src/lib.rs
index b12e064..bb0512b 100644
--- a/rs/canister/api/src/lib.rs
+++ b/rs/canister/api/src/lib.rs
@@ -11,16 +11,6 @@ pub use updates::*;
 
 pub type TimestampMillis = u64;
 
-#[derive(CandidType, Serialize, Deserialize, Clone, Debug)]
-pub struct Event {
-    pub name: String,
-    pub timestamp: TimestampMillis,
-    pub user: Option<String>,
-    pub source: Option<String>,
-    #[serde(with = "serde_bytes")]
-    pub payload: Vec<u8>,
-}
-
 #[derive(CandidType, Serialize, Deserialize, Clone, Debug)]
 pub struct IdempotentEvent {
     pub idempotency_key: u128,
diff --git a/rs/client/Cargo.toml b/rs/client/Cargo.toml
index d6dcbb6..588213f 100644
--- a/rs/client/Cargo.toml
+++ b/rs/client/Cargo.toml
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ edition = "2021"
 ic_principal.workspace = true
 event_sink_canister.path = "../canister/api"
 serde.workspace = true
+serde_json.workspace = true
+serde_json.optional = true
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 test-case.workspace = true
+
+[features]
+json = ["serde_json"]
diff --git a/rs/client/src/lib.rs b/rs/client/src/lib.rs
index fbef814..258e2d4 100644
--- a/rs/client/src/lib.rs
+++ b/rs/client/src/lib.rs
@@ -39,7 +39,73 @@ struct ClientInner<R> {
     total_events_flushed: u64,
 }
 
-pub use event_sink_canister::Event;
+pub struct Event {
+    name: String,
+    timestamp: TimestampMillis,
+    user: Option<String>,
+    source: Option<String>,
+    payload: Vec<u8>,
+}
+
+pub struct EventBuilder {
+    name: String,
+    timestamp: TimestampMillis,
+    user: Option<String>,
+    source: Option<String>,
+    payload: Vec<u8>,
+}
+
+impl EventBuilder {
+    pub fn new(name: impl Into<String>, timestamp: TimestampMillis) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            name: name.into(),
+            timestamp,
+            user: None,
+            source: None,
+            payload: Vec::new(),
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn with_user(mut self, user: impl Into<String>) -> Self {
+        self.user = Some(user.into());
+        self
+    }
+
+    pub fn with_maybe_user(mut self, user: Option<impl Into<String>>) -> Self {
+        self.user = user.map(|u| u.into());
+        self
+    }
+
+    pub fn with_source(mut self, source: impl Into<String>) -> Self {
+        self.source = Some(source.into());
+        self
+    }
+
+    pub fn with_maybe_source(mut self, source: Option<impl Into<String>>) -> Self {
+        self.source = source.map(|u| u.into());
+        self
+    }
+
+    pub fn with_payload(mut self, payload: Vec<u8>) -> Self {
+        self.payload = payload;
+        self
+    }
+
+    #[cfg(feature = "json")]
+    pub fn with_json_payload<P: Serialize>(self, payload: &P) -> Self {
+        self.with_payload(serde_json::to_vec(payload).unwrap())
+    }
+
+    pub fn build(self) -> Event {
+        Event {
+            name: self.name,
+            timestamp: self.timestamp,
+            user: self.user,
+            source: self.source,
+            payload: self.payload,
+        }
+    }
+}
 
 pub trait Runtime {
     fn schedule_flush<F: FnOnce() + Send + 'static>(&mut self, delay: Duration, callback: F);
@@ -177,7 +243,7 @@ impl<R: Runtime + Send + 'static> Client<R> {
         self.process_events(guard, true);
     }
 
-    pub fn flush_batch(&self) {
+    fn flush_batch(&self) {
         let guard = self.inner.try_lock().unwrap();
         self.flush_batch_within_lock(guard);
     }
diff --git a/rs/client/src/tests.rs b/rs/client/src/tests.rs
index 64f31e4..c73baab 100644
--- a/rs/client/src/tests.rs
+++ b/rs/client/src/tests.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-use crate::{ClientBuilder, FlushOutcome, Runtime};
-use event_sink_canister::{Event, IdempotentEvent, TimestampMillis};
+use crate::{ClientBuilder, EventBuilder, FlushOutcome, Runtime};
+use event_sink_canister::{IdempotentEvent, TimestampMillis};
 use ic_principal::Principal;
 use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex, MutexGuard};
 use std::thread;
@@ -16,13 +16,7 @@ fn batch_flushed_when_max_batch_size_reached(flush_synchronously: bool) {
 
     for i in 0..10 {
         for _ in 0..5 {
-            client.push(Event {
-                name: i.to_string(),
-                timestamp: 0,
-                user: None,
-                source: None,
-                payload: Vec::new(),
-            });
+            client.push(EventBuilder::new(i.to_string(), 0).build());
         }
         thread::sleep(Duration::from_millis(10));
         assert_eq!(client.info().events_pending, 0);
@@ -41,13 +35,7 @@ fn batch_flushed_when_flush_delay_reached(flush_synchronously: bool) {
 
     for i in 0..10 {
         for _ in 0..5 {
-            client.push(Event {
-                name: i.to_string(),
-                timestamp: 0,
-                user: None,
-                source: None,
-                payload: Vec::new(),
-            })
+            client.push(EventBuilder::new(i.to_string(), 0).build());
         }
         runtime.inner().timestamp += 4999;
         runtime.tick();