By Editorial Staff | Reviewed by Syed Balkhi | October 21, 2024 | Reader Disclosure

Using WordPress to showcase upcoming events can be highly advantageous, whether you’re running a local business, a community group, or a personal blog.

This approach can raise awareness about your activities and lead to a greater level of involvement. Furthermore, when individuals can easily find all the necessary information about your events online, it enhances their overall experience.

At WPBeginner and our other brands, we consistently feature upcoming events on our websites. For instance, we highlight events such as webinars, workshops, interviews with industry experts, and more. Displaying these forthcoming events has been instrumental in improving our visibility and motivating user registration.

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

You have the opportunity to include various online events on your WordPress site. These events may range from conferences and workshops to webinars, concerts, interviews, and more.

However, if your events are not easily accessible to users, you may struggle to achieve optimal attendance rates. An effectively designed event display can greatly enhance the number of participants.

When visitors can effortlessly find and understand your events, they are more inclined to get involved. A clear and informative presentation serves as a virtual invitation, encouraging visitors to sign up or plan to attend.

At WPBeginner, we highlighted an upcoming free workshop focused on improving email list growth through a dedicated blog post.

By promoting future events, you offer visitors an incentive to revisit your site frequently. This keeps them updated on what’s coming up, fostering greater engagement and prompting them to return for the latest news.

Therefore, showcasing upcoming in-person events on your WordPress site is also beneficial. You could share crucial information such as ticket purchase options and directions to the venue.

Now, let’s explore a straightforward method to utilize WordPress for displaying upcoming events. This article will cover the following key points:

The simplest way to manage calendars and upcoming events in WordPress is through Sugar Calendar. We believe it is the best plugin available for events in WordPress. We extensively used and tested it when drafting our review of Sugar Calendar.

Sugar Calendar provides all the essential tools to create various calendars, define start and end times for events, sell tickets online, set up recurring events, sync with Google Calendar, integrate with form plugins, and many other features.

Note: For this tutorial, we will utilize the Pro version of Sugar Calendar because it includes advanced functionalities such as recurring events and online ticket sales. There is also a Lite version available that you can access for free.

To get started, you will 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 activating the plugin, navigate to the Calendar » Settings section in your WordPress dashboard and input your license key into the ‘License Key’ box.

This key can be located in your Sugar Calendar account area. Once you have entered the key, click the ‘Verify Key’ button to proceed.

Following this, the next step involves creating a new calendar. Although Sugar Calendar will automatically generate a calendar for your site, you may prefer to craft a more tailored option.

To begin, go to Sugar Calendar » Calendars in the WordPress admin area and select the ‘+ Add Calendar’ button.

Next, you will need to input a name for your calendar at the top and choose a slug.

You also have the option to select a parent calendar, provide a description, and pick a color to help distinguish between different calendars.

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

This process can be repeated to add as many calendars as you wish to your WordPress site. For further information, refer to our guide on how to create a simple event calendar.

Next, you can incorporate events into your site and display them on the calendar. To begin, navigate to Sugar Calendar » Events in the WordPress admin area and click on the ‘Add New Event’ button.

After this, you will need to provide a title for your new event at the top.

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

If your event takes place multiple times, you can head over to the ‘Recurrence’ tab to select how often the event will happen. For further information, refer to our guide on how to show recurring events in WordPress.

Additionally, you have the option to specify a location for in-person events, provide a link for presenting event details on another page, or direct users to a different page. Sugar Calendar also includes a feature to sell event tickets online, allowing you to generate revenue (this topic is elaborated further in our bonus section).

Once you’ve completed these steps, the next thing to do is choose the calendar that will showcase your upcoming events.

Afterward, simply click the ‘Publish’ button to finalize your work.

Now that you’ve set up a calendar and included events, it’s time to showcase them on your WordPress site.

To begin, you can either create a new page or modify an existing one. Once inside the content editor, simply click the ‘+’ icon and search for Sugar Calendar blocks. You will find two types of blocks available: ‘Events Calendar’ and ‘Events List.’

If you want to showcase upcoming events on your page, choose the ‘Events List’ block. This will present a list of all the forthcoming events for that month.

Here’s a glimpse of what the upcoming events looked like on the demo site. You have the flexibility to switch the view from list to grid or plain, adjust the week, and apply filters to explore various events.

<pConversely, if your preference is to display upcoming events in a calendar format, you should select the ‘Events Calendar’ block.

You’ll now get a glimpse of the calendar within the content editor. Feel free to publish your page and check your site to view the upcoming events displayed in a calendar format.

It’s as easy as that!

With your newfound knowledge of creating and displaying upcoming events in WordPress, you can take the next step towards monetizing your site. Let’s explore a few strategies you can implement.

1. Host Exclusive Events for Members in WordPress

If you operate a membership platform or provide subscription services, you can easily restrict access to various events. This ensures that only members can both view and sign up for these events.

Hosting events exclusive to members also enhances the bond you share with your audience. It fosters a feeling of community and belonging among your members.

There are multiple methods to limit access to your events. For instance, you can utilize MemberPress to secure content for your subscribers or opt for a free alternative like Paid Memberships Pro.

For additional insights, check out our guide on how to organize events reserved for members within WordPress.

2. Sell Tickets for Upcoming Events

Another straightforward approach to generating income online through events is by offering ticket sales.

This method provides customers with the convenience of purchasing tickets for events at any time and from anywhere. It also allows you to reach a broader audience beyond your local area, potentially accessing a global market.

Sugar Calendar is among the top event ticketing plugins available for WordPress. Utilizing it enables you to set ticket prices for your events and sell them online.

Additionally, there is an Event Ticketing addon that enables users to buy tickets directly from the event page using their debit or credit cards.

There are various other methods for selling tickets online as well. You can discover all the specifics in our comprehensive guide on how to sell event tickets using WordPress.

We trust that this article has assisted you in learning how to utilize WordPress to display upcoming events. You might also be interested in our guide on how to add event schema in WordPress and how to host virtual events in WordPress.

If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook.

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