Event management plugin

Event management plugin

by Sara Arjona Téllez -
Number of replies: 6

Dear all,

This year, Amaia and I helped organise the MoodleMoot Spain in Valencia.

Just like with MoodleMoot DACH, a dedicated Moodle site for the event was used (https://moodlemoot.es/). We needed a way to manage presentation and workshop submissions, but we couldn't find a suitable plugin. We ended up using the Database activity module, which required a very manual process:

  • Exporting data to a spreadsheet.
  • Reviewing proposals in the spreadsheet.
  • Manually updating the status (approved/rejected) back in the Moodle database.

🥵 This manual workaround is clunky/inefficient, and we know other MoodleMoot events face similar challenges.

💡 This experience led us to believe there's a real need for a dedicated plugin. 
It would streamline the entire submission and review process and, ideally, could also help organisers build the event program by pulling accepted proposals directly into a schedule.

💬 What are your thoughts on this? Amaia and I will be mentoring at DevCamp, but we'd still love to help with the design/development of this plugin in our spare time (as many of you know, we are very motivated! 😅💃)

Amaia & Sara 😘

In reply to Sara Arjona Téllez

Re: Event management plugin

by Martin Vögeli -

I often encounter this tool at other conferences: Pretalx is an open-source conference organiser that allows you to manage everything from simple, one-day events to huge, week-long conferences involving dozens of rooms and double-blind review processes.

It also helps with scheduling and speaker management. I've submitted a few talks and found the process easy to understand, with the final schedule automatically using the information I provided during submission. Check it out — it might be the tool for you 🤩

In reply to Martin Vögeli

Re: Event management plugin

by Luca Bösch -

Great hint, Martin

Nonetheless, I'd favour a Moodle internal tool, so you wouldn't have the hassle of having to (as a user) set-up yet another account, accept yet another EULA, and so on and (as an admin) having to set up a hosted Pretalx for me.

Let's hear from your Pretalx experience and maybe you could share some screen grabs to inspire, highlight what favored your user experience.

Best,
Luca

In reply to Luca Bösch

Re: Event management plugin

by Martin Vögeli -

Here is a live example. Click on 'View conference schedule' to see the Schedule, Sessions, and Speakers tabs. You can also filter the tracks. If you have submitted any proposals, you will see a list of them with their status (e.g., confirmed/not accepted) and the time slot allocated to them (see attachment 'your-proposals.png') ✅

On the proposal page, you can view your proposal's history. You can also make modifications, e.g., add a link to your slides before/after the talk (see attachment 'your-proposal.png'). On the profile page, you can indicate your availability, which is useful for schedulers, and you can even generate an API token (see attachment 'your-profile.png') 🤓

In reply to Sara Arjona Téllez

Re: Event management plugin

by David Bogner -

Dear Amaia and Sara,

there is a plugin which can be configured to do exactly that what you want and which has been used a lot for those purposes. 

https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_datalynx

Maybe you can create templates for the tool so that there is a ready to use template for all moodlemoots to use in future.

Kind regards,

David

In reply to Sara Arjona Téllez

Re: Event management plugin

by Stephan Robotta -
Hi Sara,

I love the database activity but it lacks some functionality.
With your use case in mind I would like to see how the database activity could be improved, to serve your needs.
I also remember a project that/is about to redesign the activity and lift it to a new level.

Maybe that would be a starting point to formulate some ideas and specifications in the tracker?

Best regards, Stephan
In reply to Sara Arjona Téllez

Re: Event management plugin

by Valentin Krendl -
Hi Amaia & Sara, 

I would love to collaborate with you on this project at DevCamp. I have experience with Cvent (an event management app) and had a couple of thoughts previously on how to transform Moodle for some of this functionality, including:

- Custom conference themes with sub-themes for different events, allowing unique styling per conference 

- Enhanced networking capabilities for attendees and guests

- Streamlined administration workflows

- Sponsor role management with self-service banner/logo placement and access to reports

- Template-based information sites for consistent event branding and single point of entry for information.

- Automated email campaigns and notifications

- Badge/certificate generation for attendees and speakers

I also think the approval workflow you need can be set up with Datalynx (which David mentioned). I haven't used it yet, but I'd be glad to explore it in the coming days.

For the full functionality I think devcamp will be too short, but it would be great to get a MVP started with working templates. I would also be interested in knowing what others need/would like to have in moodle for events.

Would you also like to pitch a session on bar camp like "best practices on hosting events on Moodle" as an exchange session?

All the best

Valentin