event_steps.rb

module EventsHelper
  def create_events(events_table)
    events_table.map_headers! {|header| header.is_a?(Symbol) ? header : header.gsub(/\s/,'_').to_sym }
  
    system_time = TimeService.now

    events_table.hashes.each do |event|
      event[:name] ||= "Event #{system_time.strftime("%H:%M:%S")}"
      event[:enabled] ||= true
      event[:time] ||= system_time
      Event.queue(data)
    end

    Event.create
  end
end

World(EventsHelper)

#
# Create the following type of event statement
# with the data specified in the table
#
Given /^(?:I create )?the following events:$/ do |events|
  create_events(events)
end

#
# Recently Logged in event
#
Given /^(?:I create )?an event, named '([^']*)', that a customer has logged in within the last (\d+) minutes?$/ do |name,recency|
  data = [ [ 'name', 'type', 'how recent (in minutes)' ], [ name, 'Recent Communication' recency ]]
  create_events Cucumber::Ast::Table.new(data)
end

#
# Purchase event
#
Given /^(?:I create )?an event, named '([^']*)', that a customer has purchased '([^']*)' within the last (\d+)\s?(?:-|to)?\s?(\d+) days?$/ do |name,product_name,start_day,end_day|
  data = [ [ 'name', 'type', 'product name', 'start day', 'end day' ], [ name, 'Product Purchase', product_name, start_day, end_day ]]
  create_events Cucumber::Ast::Table.new(data)
end

#
# ... more events ... 
#

This is great. Thanks for taking the refactor further.

I think this would be a great example to share on the Cucumber Wiki.

1. Multiple similar steps
2. Refactor steps to the collector step
3. Refactor out the helper

I think that if we showed the first version with the redundancy within the step definitions, then my step at refactoring, then your final refactoring step (a beautiful bow),