Event management plugin

Event management plugin

di Sara Arjona Téllez -
Numero di risposte: 8

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 riposta a Sara Arjona Téllez

Re: Event management plugin

di 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 riposta a Martin Vögeli

Re: Event management plugin

di 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 riposta a Luca Bösch

Re: Event management plugin

di 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 riposta a Sara Arjona Téllez

Re: Event management plugin

di 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 riposta a Sara Arjona Téllez

Re: Event management plugin

di 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 riposta a Sara Arjona Téllez

Re: Event management plugin

di 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
In riposta a Valentin Krendl

Re: Event management plugin

di Sara Arjona Téllez -

Moin, moin! 😊

It was inspiring to experience the energy in Lübeck as teams came together to bring entire projects to life in just 48 hours 🦄

Although Amaia and I were primarily focused on mentoring, we were thrilled that the first version of our "Call for papers manager" plugin was born during the event. A huge thank you to our team, who did a brilliant job! 😍👏💃

Our goal is to mature this initial version during Moodle HQ's upcoming "Project Week", a period dedicated to passion projects after each Moodle release. We aim to create a robust plugin that anyone can use for their call for papers — hopefully in time for MoodleMoot Spain 2026. To make that happen, Amaia will advance the project next week, and I will continue the work from October 20th.💪

We're excited to share our progress and welcome any feedback or suggestions from the community. 💬

Stay tuned for updates! 😇

Amaia and Sara 😘

In riposta a Sara Arjona Téllez

Re: Event management plugin

di Judith Birke -
That is great news, Sara and Amaia! I am looking forward to integrating it into my Moodle Database activity course (https://jubima.com/moodle), parts of which I presented at Moodle Moot Global in Edinburgh.
Best wishes
Judith