[Plugin: The Events Calendar] Display Events List (for noobs)

I’m having trouble doing some very basic things to get this thing up and running.I wish there was a guide that assumed the user had little or no knowledge of php. I guess that part is my problem though. Any help here would be greatly appreciated. Here’s what I’ve got and what I’m trying to accomplish:

An ‘Events’ page (with custom template)
Three ‘Events’ child pages (each to display events by category)

– First I’d like to display an ascending list of ALL upcoming events (on the Events page)
– Second, I would like to display a list of upcoming events by category (for each of the child pages)

I haven’t figured out how to display any events so far. If it helps, here’s a look at my page template that I am starting from:

<?php
/**
 * Template Name: Events
 *
 * If you want to set up an alternate blog page, just use this template for your page.
 * This template shows your latest posts.
 * @link http://themehybrid.com/themes/hybrid/page-templates/blog
 *
 * @package Hybrid
 * @subpackage Template
 */

get_header(); ?>

    <div id="content" class="hfeed content">

        <?php hybrid_before_content(); // Before content hook ?>

        <?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

            <div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="<?php hybrid_entry_class(); ?>">

                <?php hybrid_before_entry(); // Before entry hook ?>

                <div class="entry-content">
                    <?php the_content(); ?>
                    <?php wp_link_pages( array( 'before' => '<p class="page-links pages">' . __( 'Pages:', 'hybrid' ), 'after' => '</p>' ) ); ?>
                </div><!-- .entry-content -->

                <?php hybrid_after_entry(); // After entry hook ?>

            </div><!-- .hentry -->

            <?php hybrid_after_singular(); // After singular hook ?>

            <?php comments_template( '/comments.php', true ); ?>

            <?php endwhile; ?>

        <?php else: ?>

            <p class="no-data">
                <?php _e( 'Apologies, but no results were found.', 'hybrid' ); ?>
            </p><!-- .no-data -->

        <?php endif; ?>

        <?php hybrid_after_content(); // After content hook ?>

    </div><!-- .content .hfeed -->

        <?php if($post->post_parent)
        $children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->post_parent."&echo=0"); else
        $children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->ID."&echo=0");

        if ($children && is_page()) { ?>
        <div id="event-menu">
        <ul id="subnav">
        <?php echo $children; ?>
        </ul>
        </div>
        <?php } else { ?>
        <?php } ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Thanks in advance…

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/the-events-calendar/