Answers to 22 practical questions from everyday event work – from how things look on the website to programme maintenance, import and live operation. Specific symptoms with cause and fix are listed under Troubleshooting.
Website & display
1. The single session page shows "404 Not Found".
Navigate to Settings → Permalinks in WordPress and click "Save Changes" once. This rebuilds the URL rewrite rules and is required whenever the event URL slug has been changed in the plugin options.
2. My colour changes are not showing in the browser.
Clear your browser cache with Ctrl + F5 (Mac: Cmd + Shift + R) and purge the caches of your optimization plugins (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed, Autoptimize, W3 Total Cache).
3. Why are some rooms not shown in the timetable?
The timetable hides rooms that have no sessions on the selected day to save horizontal space. Set hide_empty_venues="false" on the shortcode to keep all rooms visible.
4. Why can a tile in the timetable not be clicked?
The click action for that session is set to "No Link", or no target URL was provided. The mouse pointer intentionally remains a standard arrow to prevent accidental clicks.
5. The ticket button is missing.
Three conditions must be met: 1. a ticket URL is saved on the session, 2. the global switch under "Design & Options" is turned on, and 3. the icon visibility field on the session is not set to "hide icon".
6. A venue with "&" in its name cannot be filtered by shortcode parameter.
venue="Hall A & B" fails because WordPress stores such special characters encoded. Use the filter in the front end, or rename the venue to "Hall A and B" under Venues.7. Can I customise the templates further?
Yes. Your web agency can copy the template file single-event.php into your theme (into the subfolder your-theme/convention-schedule-planner/) and design it freely. The plugin then loads your version instead. The same applies to the add-on's room monitor: monitor-view.php belongs in your-theme/convention-schedule-room-monitor/.
Maintaining the programme
8. How do I cancel a session without deleting it?
Turn on the switch "Event is cancelled" in the session (card "Event data"). The entry stays visible and is marked everywhere: "Cancelled" and red highlighting in the calendar, list and compact card, in the live ticker and on the room monitor. Nobody ends up in front of an empty room wondering what happened.
You can change the word "Cancelled" under Settings → Text & Labels, e.g. to "Called off". More under Cancelled & replacement.
9. Can I create recurring sessions?
No, there is deliberately no rule like "every Monday", because convention programmes are unique. Create recurring items individually – or import them all at once from a spreadsheet via CSV import.
10. Do I have to enter an end time?
It isn't mandatory, but strongly recommended. The end time sets the height of the timetable tile and the switch from "Live" to "ended". Without it, the live ticker and room monitor assume one hour – a two-hour concert then disappears from the display in the middle of the second act.
11. A moderator should not get a speaker page of their own.
Set the speaker's visibility to "Within Events Only". The record still pre-fills name and role in the sessions, but gets no page of its own, is never linked and doesn't appear in the speaker directory. More under Creating speakers.
12. The Master Editor reports "Access denied 403" or doesn't save.
Usually a security plugin (e.g. Wordfence) or the server firewall blocks the request because a lot of data is sent at once. Check the firewall rules or save fewer rows at once.
If the menu item is missing entirely, the role is the reason: the Master Editor is available to editors and administrators, not authors. See Master Editor.
Import & data
13. After the import the programme exists twice.
The titles differed slightly (a single space is enough), or the file carried a different event_id than the existing session. Safest: export the existing data, keep the IDs in the spreadsheet and upload the file again.
14. Excel shows garbled characters instead of accents after import or export.
The file isn't UTF-8. In Excel, explicitly save as "CSV UTF-8 (comma delimited)" – the variant "CSV (delimiter separated)" destroys special characters. The import doesn't accept .xlsx files.
15. Can I clear a field by import?
No, and that's intentional: empty cells and missing columns never change anything. This lets you upload a slimmed-down spreadsheet with just a few columns without losing descriptions or images. Clear a field in the edit screen or in the Master Editor.
16. Images are missing after the import.
Either CSV import: images is switched off, or your server doesn't allow outgoing connections and therefore can't fetch the images. Add the images via the media library or the Master Editor instead.
17. Can a convention app or partner website use our programme?
Yes, through the public interface under Settings → API. It is read-only; nobody can change data through it. Switch it on, choose the data scope and create a separate key for each partner – the app sees changes in the calendar with its next request. See API tab.
Guests & live operation
18. An attendee's bookmarked favourites have disappeared.
For privacy reasons, favourites live purely in the attendee's browser (localStorage) without an account. If browser data is cleared or the device changes, the list is empty. Attendees use the built-in QR code transfer to move bookmarks to their phone.
19. Can the calendar entry remind my guests before the start?
Yes. With "Save Date", guests add a session to Outlook, Apple or Google Calendar. If you set an iCal alarm (minutes before start) under Settings → Design & Options, every entry includes a reminder. More under iCal export.
20. A programme item is missing from the live ticker or room monitor.
Almost always the date or start time is missing, or the session lies outside the configured preload window ("Live Ticker & Monitor" card). Also note: the ticker only includes items assigned to a main event.
21. The ticker or room monitor freezes or shows outdated times.
Displays keep counting locally and should never freeze. If they do, a caching plugin is probably combining scripts. Exclude ec-live.js and ecrm-monitor.js from combining and minification.
22. A red notice appears instead of a room monitor.
Only logged-in editors see this notice: the add-on Room Monitor & Kiosk Hub is not active. Public visitors see nothing in this place.