The Events Calendar

The Events Calendar – Community Events turns an ordinary event calendar into a shared publishing channel. Visitors and community members can submit their own events through the website, giving local portals, organisations and membership sites a way to collect listings without entering every item themselves. The product is designed to work with The Events Calendar core plugin, so submissions sit within an existing calendar rather than creating a separate event system.

Community submissions

The main attraction is the change in who supplies calendar content. Instead of relying entirely on an administrator to gather event details and enter them manually, a community member can contribute an event directly. That suits sites covering neighbourhood activities, club programmes or member-led events, where the people organising an activity are also the best source of its basic listing information.

This approach also gives the calendar a broader remit. A local community site can collect events from several organisers, while an organisation can let its members contribute to a shared schedule. The value is less about adding another calendar view and more about creating a route for event information to arrive from the people who own it.

Editorial control

Open submissions need supervision, and Community Events keeps the site owner in that role. Its integration with The Events Calendar includes publishing controls for managing what reaches the public calendar. That provides a useful middle ground: visitors contribute the material, while the site operator retains responsibility for the published event list.

• Visitors and community members submit events directly through the website.
• Site owners retain publishing control over submitted listings.
• Submitted events feed into The Events Calendar rather than a separate calendar product.
• Organisers can participate in building a shared event directory.

The distinction between submission and publication matters for any site that wants participation without giving up editorial oversight. It also gives administrators a clear reason to review entries before they become part of the calendar users rely on.

Ticketing connections

Community Events goes beyond collecting free event listings by supporting ticketing workflows through Event Tickets Plus and WooCommerce. Community organisers can use those integrations to sell tickets, while the site operator benefits from fee collection and split payment capabilities. That creates a commercial layer for a calendar built from third-party submissions.

The arrangement is particularly relevant to sites that want event organisers to generate revenue rather than simply advertise activities. Ticket sales, fee collection and payment splitting bring more operational value than a submission-only calendar, although the ticketing functions are tied to the named integrations rather than presented as a standalone booking system.

What to weigh

The first trade-off is administrative. User submissions reduce manual data entry, but they also create a review queue and a continuing need for editorial judgement. The publishing controls help with that responsibility; they do not remove the work of checking which community events belong on the calendar.

The second trade-off is the product stack. The core calendar plugin is part of the intended setup, and ticket sales rely on Event Tickets Plus and WooCommerce. Sites that only need a simple internal calendar may find that broader ecosystem unnecessary, while sites pursuing community ticketing will need to account for those connected components in their operating plan.

Who it suits

Community Events is a good fit for a WordPress site whose calendar depends on contributions from many organisers. It makes the most sense for local portals, membership platforms and organisations that want a shared event schedule with an approval step. The ticketing connections strengthen the case for sites that also need community organisers to sell tickets and share proceeds.

It is less compelling for a calendar maintained by one small editorial team with little outside participation. Its strengths are collaborative submissions, controlled publication and connected event sales, so the product earns its place when those three needs exist together.