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Hi. We are moving our website to WordPress within a month, and I’m considering my options in regards to our Events Calendar.
You can see our current implementation at
We are a network of radio stations, and each listening area has a community events calendar. Basically, we have 19 different calendars, and they are all mixed into one master calendar. In the right hand column people can select their listening area, search, etc.
At any given time, we have about 1000 events.
We also have three levels of events — Community, Featured, and Highlighted. You can see how the Featured and Highlighted get more exposure.
We do accept user-submitted events that are then either approved or deleted by a moderator.
Currently, we are using the Trumba Calendar service.
It’s pretty good, but I think things could be cleaner.
Here are main problems with Trumba:
1. TimeZones. The Trumba system relies on timezones, and since we are in 4 different time zones, it gets very confusing — people have to select their own time zone in order to see the correct times. Times could easily just be in local times and people shouldn’t have to worry about that.
2. Not Responsive Design / Mobile Friendly.
3. Expensive. There is a monthly fee.
Let me know if you think Event Calendar Pro / Community Events could meet our needs (can it handle 1000+ events, is there a way to “highlight” certain events, is there a way to filter/sort by radio station, etc). Trumba is a fairly expensive monthly fee, so I would definitely be interested in an alternative.
Thanks!
Kerry Graham
Hey Kerry. Thanks for the note here, and for your interest in finding out if the plugin is a good fit.
I checked out your site there and at face value, it does look like what you’re going for would be possible. The biggest concern I have is about the Community/Featured/Highlighted distinction. Out of the box our plugin doesn’t ascribe different “weights” to different content types. But if it’s just a matter of categorization, and the categories are pulled into the appropriate locations on the frontend automatically, it’s probably not a concern. It also would be fairly easy to color-code given event categories using this free addon: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/the-events-calendar-category-colors/.
User-submitted events could definitely be handled with Community Events. It allows you as the admin to control what gets published via an admin setting, and can totally hold submissions as PENDING if you want it to. As for the event count, our users routinely have 1000+ events without impact.
On the Trumba comparison, I should note a few things:
* The Events Calendar handles time zones by just relying on the overall WordPress time zone settings per site. This is a pretty standard WP approach unfortunately; time zones are site-wide, not based on the viewer’s location.
* Our plugin is NOT fully responsive at this time. Most of the views look pretty good on a tablet and cell phone, but on the smaller end of that spectrum (phones) the grid/calendar view does look off.
* No monthly fee on our end. You pay your $50 (for a personal license) and that grants you access to support and updates for a year from there. Keep in mind that the plugin doesn’t stop working, should you decide not to renew your license. But you’d no longer have access to support or updates.I believe I covered all your points here. But if I missed something or if any of this requires elaboration, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Thanks for the thorough reply. I will investigate things further!
Glad to be of service, Kerry. If you have other questions here or need anything else please do reach out. Happy to provide any follow-ups that’d help you make an informed decision.
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