Event Organizers: Drupal Event Platform makes major strides in 2023

The Drupal Event Platform (DEP) committee within the Drupal Event Organizers Working Group (EOWG) is working to reduce the time and resources it takes to create an event website site through the creation of a flexible and customizable website starter kit for event organizers. In this post, we'll update you on our massive 1.0 stable release. Check out our latest demo video too.

In its current form, the Event Platform is a collection of modules:

• event_platform

  • Installs all the submodules, except event_platform_olivero. Provides no code or configuration of its own

• event_platform_details

  • Creates a config_page entity to store details about the event, such as name, year, description, and so on. It also provides two custom blocks that leverage data from the config_page: a CTA block intended for the header, and a copyright block intended for the footer

• event_platform_job_listings

  • Creates a content type for job listings and a view to display them. By design the job listings are associated with sponsors (so this module depends on event_platform_sponsors) and job listings are displayed according to the level of sponsor that posted them

• event_platform_olivero

  • Installs all the other submodules, and places the blocks into the intended regions of the Olivero theme

• event_platform_scheduler

  • Provides a dedicated scheduler interface for drag-and-drop assignment of sessions (and potentially other content types) to rooms and time slots. Filters can be added to help organize sessions based on common audience, category, and so on. This module also provides a tool to quickly bulk generate time slots for scheduling

• event_platform_sessions

  • Creates a content type for sessions and a variety of taxonomy vocabularies and views to help manage them. Also creates Speaker and Session Moderator roles. Using the Registration Role module, the Speaker role is automatically assigned to new registrants. Workbench Email templates use tokens to send out emails whenever sessions are submitted, accepted, or rejected.

• event_platform_speakers

  • Creates a content type for featured speakers and a view to display them

• event_platform_sponsors

  • Creates a content type for sponsors and a view to display them, grouped by sponsor level (platinum, gold, etc)

Heard enough? Want to get started?

An event organizing team can use the Event Platform in at least three different ways:

1. With a fresh install of Drupal, they can install the event_platform_olivero submodule to install all the submodules and place the available blocks in the intended places

2. If using a custom theme, they can install the main module to activate all submodules but not place any blocks

3. If they only want to use some of the capabilities provided by the Event Platform, they can selectively install one or more submodules

Further instructions for getting started, managing sessions, creating schedules, and more are in the Event Platform User Guide.

Future Considerations

• The long term vision for the Event Platform is for it to be a set of recipes, potentially with some associated contrib modules. As an interim step, we are considering using Features to help with maintenance

• Drupal camps and conferences commonly have an ability to flag sessions, and then view these flagged sessions in a “My Schedule” view. A similar capability could be provided as a submodule

• Many camps also have Birds-of-a-Feather or BOF sessions, meant to encourage peer-to-peer discussion. A new submodule could simplify adding these for camps that want to include this type of session

• Eventually Workbench Email may be replaced by the ECA and Easy Email modules, to allow for more sophisticated, custom logic around when and how emails should be sent. This could also include sending an email once a session is scheduled, to ask the session author to confirm they can present at the chosen time

• Commonly camps run over several years (hopefully indefinitely!) but don’t want to rebuild or reset their site every year. The plan is to provide an Event entity, so that each year the camp could create a new entity, effectively resetting the site, while potentially still allowing content from previous years to be accessed

Get involved

• Check for updates on the initiative page.
• Install the project and dive into the issue queue.
• Join #event-organizers on Drupal Slack.
• If your event ends up using the Event Platform, let us know.

The EOWG would like to thank Martin Anderson-Clutz (mandclu) for his incredible commitment to moving this project forward.