Effortless Guide to Display Upcoming Events in WordPress

Whether you’re running a local business, a community organization, or a personal blog, showcasing upcoming events through WordPress offers numerous advantages.

This approach can enhance awareness of your activities and drive higher participation rates. Additionally, providing easy online access to essential event details enhances the overall user experience.

At CanadaCreate and our affiliated brands, we frequently showcase upcoming events on our platforms. For instance, we’ve highlighted events such as webinars, workshops, and interviews with industry experts. Promoting these events has significantly improved our visibility and encouraged user sign-ups.

In this article, we will guide you on how to effectively display upcoming events in WordPress.

Why Should You Showcase Upcoming Events on Your WordPress Website?

You can feature a variety of online events on your WordPress site, including conferences, workshops, webinars, concerts, interviews, Facebook events, and more.

However, if your events are not easily visible to users, you may struggle to achieve optimal attendance rates. A well-structured event display can greatly enhance the number of attendees.

When visitors can easily find and learn about your events, they are more likely to participate. A clear and informative presentation serves as a virtual invitation, encouraging visitors to register or plan to attend.

For instance, at CanadaCreate, we highlighted our upcoming free workshop on growing email lists through a dedicated blog post.

By showcasing upcoming events, you also provide visitors with a reason to return to your site regularly. They can stay updated on future events, fostering engagement and prompting them to check back for new information.

Therefore, it can be beneficial to display upcoming in-person events on your WordPress site. In this case, you could offer essential details such as ticket information and directions to the event.

With that in mind, let’s explore a simple method to use WordPress for displaying upcoming events. Here’s what we will cover in this article:

Creating Events and Calendars in WordPress

The simplest way to set up calendars and showcase upcoming events in WordPress is by using Sugar Calendar. We believe it is the top event plugin for WordPress. We have thoroughly tested it while writing our review of Sugar Calendar.

Sugar Calendar provides all the essential features to create multiple calendars, define start and end times for your events, sell tickets online, set up recurring events, sync with Google Calendar, integrate with form plugins, and much more.

First, you need to install and activate the Sugar Calendar plugin. If you require assistance, please refer to our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After activation, navigate to theCalendar » Settingspage in the WordPress dashboard and enter your license key in the ‘License Key’ field.

You can locate the key in your Sugar Calendar account area. After entering the key, simply click the ‘Verify Key’ button.

Once that is complete, the next step is to create a new calendar. Sugar Calendar will automatically add a default calendar to your site, but you may want to create a more customized option.

To begin, navigate to SugarCalendar » Calendars in the WordPress admin dashboard and click the ‘+ Add Calendar’ button.

Next, enter a name for your calendar at the top and choose a slug.

You can also select a parent calendar, add a description, and pick a color to distinguish between different calendars.

Once you’re finished, click the ‘Add New Calendar’ button.

You can repeat this process to add as many calendars as you need to your WordPress site. For more information, check out our guide on creating a simple event calendar.

Now, you can add events to your site and display them on the calendar. Start by going to Sugar Calendar »Events from the WordPress admin panel and click on the ‘Add New Event’ button.

Then, enter a name for your new event at the top.

From there, you can set the start and end date and time under the ‘Duration’ tab.

If the event is recurring, switch to the ‘Recurrence’ tab to select the frequency of the event. For more details, refer to our tutorial on displaying recurring events in WordPress.

You can include a location for in-person events, provide a link to display event details on another page, or redirect users to a different page. Sugar Calendar also allows you to sell event tickets online, enabling you to generate revenue (more details are available in our bonus section).

After completing the setup, the next step is to choose the calendar where your upcoming events will be displayed.

Once you have made your selections, click the ‘Publish’ button to finalize your changes.

How to Display Upcoming Events in WordPress

Now that you have created a calendar and added events, it’s time to showcase them on your WordPress website.

To begin, you can either create a new page or edit an existing one. In the content editor, click the ‘+’ icon and search for Sugar Calendar blocks. You will find two options: ‘Events Calendar’ and ‘Events List.’

To display upcoming events on a page, select the ‘Events List’ block. This will present a list of all the events scheduled for that month.

Here’s a preview of how upcoming events appeared on the demo site. You can switch the view from list to grid or plain, adjust the week, and apply filters to see various events.

Alternatively, if you prefer to display upcoming events in a calendar format, select the ‘Events Calendar’ block.

You will now see a preview of the calendar in the content editor. Go ahead and publish the page, then visit your site to view upcoming events in a calendar format.

It’s that easy!

Bonus: Generate Income Online with Upcoming Events

Now that you know how to create and display upcoming events in WordPress, you can take it a step further and monetize your site. Let’s explore a few strategies to achieve that.

1. Host Members-Only Events in WordPress

If you operate a membership site or provide subscription-based services, you can restrict access to certain events. This ensures that only members can view and register for these events.

Members-only events also enhance your connection with your audience, fostering a sense of community and belonging among members.

There are various methods to limit access to events. You can use MemberPress to secure content for subscribers or opt for a free plugin like Paid Memberships Pro.

For more information, please refer to our guide on how to host members-only events in WordPress.

2. Sell Tickets for Upcoming Events

Another straightforward way to earn money online through events is by selling tickets for them.

This feature provides convenience for customers, allowing them to purchase event tickets anytime and from anywhere. It also enables you to reach a broader audience beyond your local community, potentially tapping into a global market.

Sugar Calendar is one of the top WordPress plugins for event ticketing. By using it, you can easily set ticket prices for your events and sell them online.

It includes an Event Ticketing addon that lets users buy tickets directly from the event page using their debit or credit cards.

There are various other methods to sell tickets online as well. You can find comprehensive details in our guide on how to sell event tickets using WordPress.

We hope this article has helped you understand how to display upcoming events using WordPress. You might also want to check out our guide on adding event schema in WordPress and hosting virtual events in WordPress.

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