A recurring format without recurring data

POM Events has no recurrence. A weekly class, a monthly talk or an annual open day is a set of separate events. This page covers the two patterns that work and how to choose between them.

Why there is no recurrence

Each occurrence has its own dates, capacity, attendee list, page and URL. That is exactly what you need for a class where each session fills separately — and it is why recurrence rules, which assume occurrences are interchangeable, are not part of the product.

Pattern 1 — one event per occurrence

Use it when each occurrence has its own attendance.

  • A weekly workshop with limited places.
  • A course where each session is booked separately.
  • A monthly talk with a different speaker.

Each occurrence gets:

  • its own dates;
  • its own capacity and waiting list;
  • its own attendee list and door list;
  • its own page and URL;
  • its own position in lists and the calendar.

Costs: more records to maintain, and a listing that fills with near-identical titles.

Manage it with a template event kept as a draft carrying everything that stays the same, and copy from it for each occurrence. See Duplicate and reuse events.

Pattern 2 — one event covering the whole run

Use it when attendance is not per occurrence.

  • An exhibition open for six weeks.
  • A season with a single registration.
  • A campaign with a start and an end.

Set the start date to the first day and the end date to the last. Then:

  • the event appears once in lists, showing the range;
  • the date picker finds it on every day in between;
  • it stays in upcoming lists until the final day passes;
  • there is one page, one URL and one attendee list.

Put the schedule of individual sessions in the content, where it can be as detailed as you like.

Costs: one capacity for the whole run, one attendee list, and no way to know which session someone is coming to.

Choosing between them

Question If yes Pattern
Does each occurrence have its own capacity? Yes One event per occurrence
Do people register for a specific date? Yes One event per occurrence
Is it the same offer running continuously? Yes One event for the run
Would twelve near-identical listings be noise? Yes One event for the run
Do you need a door list per session? Yes One event per occurrence

Naming a series

With one event per occurrence, titles are what stops the listing becoming unreadable:

Morning yoga — 4 March
Morning yoga — 11 March
Morning yoga — 18 March

Keep the series name first and the distinguishing element last. The calendar shows very little text per cell, and the shared prefix is what a visitor scans.

A hub page for a series

For a long series, a single page describing the series — with the search form filtered by its category, or with the events linked from the content — gives visitors one place to understand the whole thing.

Two supported ways:

  • give the series its own event category and link that category's archive;
  • write an article about the series and relate the events to it, so each event links back.

Keeping a series consistent

  • Keep a template draft event with the shared content.
  • Give every occurrence the same type and category.
  • Use the same title pattern.
  • Use the same button labels and form fields.
  • Update the template when something changes, so improvements carry forward.

What to change per occurrence

  • [ ] Start and end dates
  • [ ] The distinguishing part of the title
  • [ ] Capacity, if it varies
  • [ ] Anything in the content specific to that date
  • [ ] The featured image, if each occurrence has its own
  • [ ] An empty attendee list
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