Hi. You could do a Template Override for /wp-content/plugins/the-events-calendar-community-events/src/views/community/modules/taxonomy.php and add a check within the “foreach” like “if 17 === $term->term_id then continue”
This isn’t how the code would look exactly, but the logic is there for you, depending on what the term ID is for the category term you’re looking to exclude.
Also, note that we do have a built-in Featured Events functionality that may be of interest to you.
Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions on this topic.