If you are running an event website or want to start a WordPress-powered website with booking services, you need a managed WordPress hosting that doesn’t disappoint and a solid plugin that provides all the required features.
We are going to focus on the plugin in this article, though. Keeping in mind the plugin’s user-friendly environment in this kind of project (event or booking website), I believe the Modern Events Calendar (MEC) plugin, both Lite and Pro versions, is what you need.
MEC is an easy-to-use plugin that you can publish events easily to your WordPress website and create categories for the events. Modern Events Calendar has an attractive and modern frontend that the users can use effectively for their benefit. Also, if the site owner wishes, they can integrate it with a lot of third-party tools.
MEC is available in both Free and Pro versions, and upgrading to the paid version unlocks several useful features. However, most users find that the free version delivers enough to fulfill their basic event management requirements.
However, if you want access to features like reminders, location directions, a ticketing system, a weather module, and an online booking system (to name a few), upgrading to Modern Events Calendar Pro unlocks all these features plus many more.
Let’s take a quick look at the key features of the plugin.
Shortcode Generator
This WordPress event calendar uses the “Shortcode Generator System” to show events and add other options to your website. For instance, you can use yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, and even hourly calendars in different views, including Calendar View, Slider View, Time table, Carousel, List, Mansory, and Map View. The interesting point is that all these views come with multiple selectable styles.
The Booking System
The Modern Events Calendar booking system, available in the Pro version, is one of the best booking systems available on the WordPress platform. The idea is to provide you with the event attendees’ contact information to deliver event information directly to the visitors.
Once an attendee books an event, you can set up notifications to be sent to the attendees to inform them about the event’s status and confirmation of the booking.
You can personalize the booking and registration forms easily by adding or removing the fields. For example, you can set speakers for an event and then show the speakers as a sidebar widget or add multiple organizers for an event.
The other good point about MEC booking system is the user profile feature. Using this shortcode, each user will see the list of events he or she has booked.
Ticket Variations
This option enables the users to choose related options and include them in their final reservation while booking an event. This is an excellent way of setting up and bundling side events, for instance, adding a meal option for an event or including a session or a pre-sale for a book.
It’s worth mentioning you can enable this option for individual events. This adds another layer of customization to event management.
Coupons for any event are a great way of increasing sales. MEC allows you to add and coupons for your events to allow attendees to avail discounts through these coupons while booking their seats.
Besides this, you will be able to set taxes and fees for your events so that the generated invoices reflect these additional charges.
Personalized Events
MEC offers several options for personalizing the events. Events can be categorized using tags, categories and, labels. Additionally, each event can be further classified based on the location and speaker(s). Finally, all this information can be presented in an easily-scannable QR code. Every event listing can be made more informative by adding the local time and weather using the Modern Events Calendar Local Time and Local Weather module.
Frontend Submission
In the Modern Events Calendar website, admins can let users create and add events to the official event calendar. This option is available only to registered and logged-in users.
You can adjust what details can be included in the user-generated event submission form. In addition to the basic event information, this form allows users to add Related Links, Cost, Featured Image, Event Categories, Event Labels, Event Color, Event Tags, Event Location, Event Organizer, Hourly Schedule, Booking Options, and Fees/Taxes Options, etc.
Import and Export Modules
MEC offers a full complement of import and export options. You can import any .xml or .ics files into MEC or directly import data from Google Calendar, Facebook, Meetup, and even third-party plugins, including The Event Calendar, Calendarize it, EventOn, Events Schedule WP Plugin.
Export options are the same, and you can export MEC data to any. ical, .csv, .xml, .json. In addition to these popular formats, you can export information to Excel files, Google Event Calendar, or Facebook.
To Conclude
Modern Events Calendar is a smoothly working plugin by Webnus experts. The good thing is that MEC is compatible with most SEO plugins. Similarly, the plugin is also compatible with most popular WordPress cache plugins.
So, if you already have or are planning to launch an event management WordPress-powered business, MEC is the perfect fit for your business plans.
Note: This article was published in collaboration with Webnus.
Mansoor Ahmed Khan
Been in content marketing since 2014, and I still get a kick out of creating stories that resonate with the target audience and drive results. At Cloudways by DigitalOcean (a leading cloud hosting company, btw!), I lead a dream team of content creators. Together, we brainstorm, write, and churn out awesome content across all the channels: blogs, social media, emails, you name it! You can reach out to me at [email protected].
