Does your company need a website that’s able to schedule and display conferences, meetings, concerts, or other kinds of events to your users? If your business is powered by WordPress, you’re in luck. Not only is there a diverse and educated community of designers and WordPress developers from across the globe ready to offer advice and guidance, but there’s also a handy dandy set of plugins to help ensure your event’s success.
What Is a Calendar Plugin?
As you know, “plugin” is shorthand for code that contains a set of function commands. Because WordPress is open source, there’s an enormous array of plugin options for that can be added seamlessly to a WordPress site. As you already know, by using plugins in your web design you can maximize functionality and ensure SEO optimization of your site, which can help your business rank higher in search results.
For those companies that are event driven or require a calendar to communicate special events to their audiences, a calendar plugin is a tool you need to advertise and manage your events online successfully. By incorporating an event calendar into your web design, you can drive users to your site and attendees to your event.
Careful of the Cost
As with all of WordPress’s plugin options, the features and functionality of each plugin can vary immensely, as can the cost. Although there are thousands of free plugins for you to sift through, you may have to pay to get exactly the plugin you need.
As with any purchase, your due diligence is required, and you may want to do your research before paying for a premium feature or plugin that you may not need. If you’re stuck on deciding how to best move forward with your WordPress site, it may be a good idea to consult with a professional WordPress designer or web development team.
Event Calendar Plugins
As the name implies, event calendars can be used to advertise and organize events of all sizes. From small family gatherings to large events like conferences, concerts, parties, and more. The simplest event calendar plugins can be used to communicate to others that an event is happening by highlighting what the event is about, where it will be located, and when the event will be held.
More developed plugins, will not only allow attendees to confirm their attendance or interest, but some also allow you to charge for the event through your website via PayPal or another payment portal. When it comes to design, the calendar can be featured on an event page on your WordPress site or into a post or widget area.
Sugar Events Lite Calendar
A simple, event management plugin, Sugar Events Lite allows you to create events and display to your website’s visitors by using a simple, “short-code” calendar. It’s not only easy to use, but the plugin has built in support for other WordPress plugins like Gravity Forms and Ninja Forms. If you’re willing to pay $18 for the pro version of the plugin, you’ll also be able to create recurring events, event categories, and the creation of calendar widgets.
My Calendar
One of the most useful—and free—calendar plugins, is called My Calendar. Not only does this free tool allow you to create events and display them on pages, posts or widgets, the coding for My Calendar also allows you to add a host of additional information about your events. Because the plugin also allows you to modify the template and style of your calendar, areas of your calendar can also be restricted to certain users. You can also integrate this plugin with WP to Twitter, which will allow you to send event updates to your Twitter followers as well.
With My Calendar you can add and control:
- Event descriptions
- Event images
- Event categories
- Event host/s
- Event date, start time, and location
- Display location and event information on a map
- Style and template of calendar
- Calendar access
Google Events Calendar
Of course, no list of Calendars would be complete without at least a mention of the omnipresent Google Calendar. If you already use a Google calendar to schedule your business’s events, this free plugin is an easy way to retrieve data from your upcoming Google Calendar events and display them on your WordPress site. Bear in mind that you can also change the number of events and the period the events are being retrieved for. Due to the simplicity of this plugin’s design, your display options are limited to a standard calendar grid or a simple list format.
CalPress
If your business is event-driven, you need a powerful tool on your side. CalPress IS that tool. This dynamic event management plugin allows you to enter your event information using a custom post type that can be displayed using one of four different calendar view options. Users can publish calendars in monthly, weekly, daily, and list format and, because the plugin allows for seamless social media integration, you can make sure that your audience knows about your event across every platform.
CalPress also comes with an interactive slider and fully configurable sidebar widget to help drive your events from every page on your site. For those who purchase CalPress Pro for $39, you also get access to features like user created events, recurring events, and the option to add contact information to your calendar events.
Work with Experts Who Know WordPress inside and out
At Mvestor Media, we have a team of WordPress developers and experts that are ready to build your website so you can keep growing your business. Check out our portfolio of happy clients or connect with us today to learn more about how our web wizards can help.
