Venues, categories and roles are the three ordering systems of your program. Colors, filters and the whole timetable grid are built from them.
The three systems compared
| Property | Venues | Categories | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers the question | Where does it take place? | What is it? | Who takes part? |
| Examples | Hall A, Room 2, Stage, Foyer | Talk, workshop, concert, reading | Author, host, band, DJ |
| Per session | exactly one venue | any number, one of them as badge | one per person |
| Own color | yes | yes (applies with color source “Category”) | no |
| Own image | yes (venue image) | no | no |
| Color inherits | to child venues | to child categories | – |
| Effect in the timetable | defines the columns | colors the cards (with category color) | – |
| Front-end filter | yes | yes | in the speaker directory (role) |
| Included out of the box | no | no | yes, about 25 roles |
Why venues matter most
No venues, no timetable – and no screens on site. Venues define the timetable columns, and only they can carry an image. Color and image are passed on automatically to all sessions in the room – which saves a lot of individual work later.
Adding a venue
- 1Open the menu
Events → Venues.
- 2Enter the name
e.g. “Hall A”. WordPress creates the slug itself. Under Parent venue you can assign rooms to a building, such as “Ground floor” or “Culture Hall”.
- 3Pick a color
It forms the left edge of every timetable card in this room and colors the column header. Choose clearly distinct colors – the timetable columns sit close together.
- 4Pick an image
It serves as fallback image for all sessions in this room and fills the background of the add-on’s room monitor.
- 5Add
“Add New Venue” – the venue appears in the list on the right at once.
A good venue image rescues every session nobody supplied an image for – and enhances the screens on site. The image fallback order is: own featured image → main event image → venue image → global placeholder.
A venue called “Hall A & B” cannot be filtered via shortcode parameter (venue="…") later, because WordPress stores such characters differently. Write “Hall A and B” – the front-end filter then works perfectly.
Color by venue or by category?
Under Settings → Design & Options → Color source you decide globally:
| Color source | Effect | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Venue color (default) | Cards, list rows, compact cards, ticker rows and timetable cards take their room’s color. | Events spread over many rooms – the hue tells guests where something takes place. |
| Category color | The same elements take the color of the primary category; the category filter shows color swatches. | Programs organized by content – talk, workshop and concert stand apart at a glance. |
It is either-or. Always venue-colored are the timetable column headers, the hall plan highlight and the color dots in the venue filter. Category badges always use the primary color. Very light colors are fine: the text color adapts automatically.
Adding categories
Under Events → Categories, just like a venue: enter a name, optionally a color (only effective with color source “Category”) and a description (only for your own overview in the admin). The category is available at once in every edit screen and as a front-end filter.
Three rules for good categories
- 1Less is more
Categories are a filter for your guests, not a filing system. Five to ten are enough; offering twenty forces every visitor into a decision they cannot make.
- 2Choose a primary category
A session may belong to several categories, but only one appears as the badge on the card – set in the “Primary category (badge)” box. Without a choice, the system takes the alphabetically first, which is rarely the most meaningful.
- 3Let colors inherit
Child categories under a parent need no color of their own – they take the parent’s. A color on the child takes precedence; white counts as “no color”. The same applies to venues. The hierarchy only affects color, not filters or display.
Roles: already prepared
On the very first start, the plugin creates about 25 common roles: speaker, artist, host, DJ, workshop leader and many more.
- If a role is missing, add it like a category. In the “Persons / roles” box, the “Manage / Add” link leads straight here.
- If a name does not fit, rename it – all assigned sessions take over the change at once.
- Plural: Every role has a plural field (“Authors”). It becomes the heading above a speaker list; without it, the role name is used. An “s” is deliberately not added automatically.
- Roles you don’t need may be deleted. Sessions remain; only the role information disappears.
Rename, merge, tidy up
| Task | How to |
|---|---|
| Rename | Change the name of a venue, category or role – it changes everywhere, all assignments remain. |
| Delete | Deleting a venue does not delete sessions. They only lose their venue – and drop out of the timetable. |
| Merge | In the Master Editor, filter by the old category, select all, assign the new one via bulk action, then delete the old one. |
Authors may also create and maintain venues, categories and roles – no administrator rights needed. See User roles.