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MultiStage Event Planner – Multi-Track Conference & Congress Schedule

MultiStage Event Planner – Multi-Track Conference & Congress Schedule

Description

MultiStage Event Planner turns your WordPress site into the program page of a professional conference, congress or trade fair. It renders a multi-track schedule grid — stages side by side, time on the left, every session exactly where it belongs — the format attendees expect from a serious event program.

Generic event calendars list one thing after another. Multi-track programs don’t work that way: your visitors need to see what runs where, at the same time. That is what this plugin does, natively in WordPress — no external platform, no per-attendee fees, no iframe embeds.

MultiStage Event Planner powers the congress program of BIM World MUNICH, an industry congress with multiple parallel stages.

The multi-track schedule grid

  • Parallel stages/tracks displayed side by side in one timetable — as many as your program needs
  • Day tabs — one labeled, localized tab per event day, so multi-day programs are one tap apart
  • Sticky toolbar — date, day tabs, search and filters stay visible while visitors scroll long programs
  • Color-coded session types (keynote, panel, workshop, …) your attendees learn in seconds
  • Session details in a modal: times, description, stage, tags and linked speakers
  • Responsive — on phones the grid scrolls horizontally with an always-visible scroll bar; single-stage days automatically use the full width

Speaker profiles

Every session links its speakers. One click opens the profile: square-cropped photo, role and company, bio, and every session the speaker appears in. Speakers are a custom post type — maintained like any other WordPress content.

Search & filters

Let visitors search across session titles, descriptions, speakers and tags, and filter the grid by tag — the schedule updates in place.

Session videos (Gold)

Attach a YouTube, Vimeo or HTML5 video to a session. Visitors see a play icon in the grid and watch the recording directly in the session modal — ideal for hybrid events and post-event content.

Built for

  • Congress and conference programs with parallel tracks
  • Trade fair stage programs and side events
  • Summits, expos, corporate events and festivals
  • Agencies building event sites for clients

How it works

Create your fair, stages, session types and sessions in wp-admin, then place the schedule anywhere with a shortcode:

[msepStages fair="123" display_search="true" display_filter="true" hide_empty_stages="true"]
  • hide_empty_stages — show only stages that have sessions on the selected day
  • display_search / display_filter — toggle the search box and tag filter
  • display_video / display_print — video icons and print view (Gold)

Privacy

The schedule renders entirely from your WordPress database. The plugin sends no attendee data to external services.

Website & demo: multistage-event-planner.com

Development

This plugin includes both compiled and source files:
– Original source files are available in the ‘resources/scripts’ and ‘resources/styles’ directories
– Compiled assets are in the ‘dist’ directory
– The build process uses Bud.js (based on webpack) for compilation

Screenshots

Blocks

This plugin provides 1 block.

  • Stages Vertical View

Installation

  1. In wp-admin go to Plugins Add New, search for MultiStage Event Planner, install and activate it.
  2. Create a Fair (your event) with its date range.
  3. Create Stages and Event Types (session categories with colors).
  4. Add Events (sessions) with times, a stage, a type and optional speakers.
  5. Place the schedule on any page with [msepStages fair="YOUR_FAIR_ID"].

Requires WordPress 5.6+ and PHP 8.0+.

FAQ

How many parallel stages/tracks can I display?

There is no fixed limit. Stages render side by side; on narrow screens the grid scrolls horizontally with a synced scroll bar, and days with a single active stage automatically use the full width.

Does it support multi-day events?

Yes. The schedule shows one labeled day tab per event day (localized weekday + date). Multi-day congresses are the primary use case.

Can I manage speakers with photos and bios?

Yes. Speakers (presenters) are a custom post type with photo, role, company and bio. Sessions link one or more speakers with a role (speaker, moderator, instructor, …), and the speaker profile lists all of their sessions.

Does it work with my theme and page builder?

The schedule is placed via shortcode, so it works in the classic editor, the block editor and page builders that render shortcodes. It ships with its own styles and inherits your theme’s fonts.

Can sessions have videos?

With the Gold plan, sessions with a video URL (YouTube, Vimeo or HTML5) show a play icon in the grid and embed the video in the session modal.

Does the plugin send data to external services?

The public schedule renders entirely from your WordPress database — visitors are not tracked and no attendee data leaves your site. (Videos load from YouTube/Vimeo only when a visitor plays them.) The plugin uses the Freemius SDK for licensing; usage tracking is opt-in and admin-side only.

Is it translated?

English and German (de_DE) are included, and all front-end labels are translatable.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“MultiStage Event Planner – Multi-Track Conference & Congress Schedule” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

1.4.2

  • Removing all presenters from an event and saving now clears them; previously the removed presenters stayed in the database and reappeared

1.4.1

  • Session video icon in the schedule returned HTTP 401 for logged-out visitors (the /video endpoint required an editor capability); it now uses the same same-origin check as the event modal, so public visitors can play videos

1.4.0

  • Day tabs above the calendar: one labeled, localized tab per event day (weekday + date) — switching days no longer hides behind the arrows
  • Sticky calendar header: date, search, filter, arrows, day tabs and scroll bar stay visible while scrolling through long programs
  • Horizontal scroll bar above the schedule grid, always visible and synced both ways with the table — scroll right from anywhere
  • New hide_empty_stages="true" shortcode attribute: show only stages that have events on the selected day
  • Video play icon on schedule events with a video URL (Gold, display_video="true" shortcode attribute)
  • Video from the event’s video-URL field now embeds in the event detail modal (Gold)
  • The “Load Video” button on single event pages is now functional (Gold)
  • Square presenter photo size (400×400, cropped from the top so heads stay visible) used in the presenter modal — regenerate thumbnails for existing uploads
  • Video/audio no longer keeps playing in the background after closing a modal (Vimeo, YouTube, HTML5)
  • Filter tags are sorted alphabetically regardless of the database collation
  • Search now also matches tag names, the event details text and the short title, and no longer breaks on presenters without a last name
  • Presenter photos in the modal no longer crop half the head off on landscape uploads
  • Tested up to WordPress 7.0
  • Developer tooling: wp-env dev environment, consolidated CI (Pint, Jest, Playwright), release pipeline to Freemius + wordpress.org, one-time Pint format pass

1.3.4

  • Translation loading now uses the WordPress-native mechanism (no explicit text domain loading)

1.3.3

  • Removed explicit text domain loading to address wordpress.org review feedback

1.3.2

  • Declared Freemius org-compliant mode for the wordpress.org build

1.3.1

  • Added German translation (de_DE)
  • Fixed text domain loading
  • Presenter backend improvements

Full changelog: https://github.com/plattenbrand/pb-event-calendar/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md