WP Manifestindependent plugin directory
manifest / events / conboard

ConBoard – Conference Event Manager

A wordpress plugin for conference event websites

by Nathan D. B. Pizar · github.com/pixeldrift/conboard

★ 0stars

Install

Download source zip No release zip yet

This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/pixeldrift/conboard/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
No built-in updater. New versions won't appear under Dashboard → Updates. Install new releases yourself, or let Git Updater track the repository.
Readme github.com/pixeldrift/conboard ↗

Overview

ConBoard is a WordPress plugin designed for managing conferences, festivals, and multi-track events and powering live event info from the same data source. It connects sessions, presenters, rooms, and schedules into a time-aware system that works both on the website and on screens around the venue. This plugin is not just a website, but also a digital signage system!

It provides a structured content system for:

  • Sessions
  • Presenters
  • Rooms
  • Sponsors
  • Staff
  • Announcements

All ConBoard post types are interconnected and aware of time, location, and each other. ConBoard replaces the common patchwork of schedules, slide decks, and signage tools with a single, data-driven system. Instead of maintaining separate content for the website and on-site displays, ConBoard uses the same structured event data to power both. This helps avoid inconsistencies, reduces manual work, and allows displays to update automatically as the schedule changes.

Unlike slide-based signage tools or page-builder-driven event sites, ConBoard is built around structured event data. Content is defined once and rendered in multiple contexts, making it easier to maintain, extend, and integrate with other WordPress plugins while still supporting highly customized display layouts when needed.

Rather than treating event data as static pages, ConBoard models how conferences actually work. Sessions know when and where they happen. Presenters know which sessions they are part of. Rooms know what’s happening in them now, next, and later. This allows attendees to naturally explore the schedule, drill into session details, discover speakers, and see related sessions without duplicate data entry or manual linking.

During the conference itself, ConBoard becomes time-aware, enabling features like highlighting sessions currently in progress or starting soon. Multiple schedule views make decision making a breeze, and can indicate how far along you are in the day. The same details that power your website can automatically drive on-site info screens, ensuring consistency between what attendees see online and what appears on display boards around the venue.

Screen mode is where ConBoard really shines. Any ConBoard page can instantly become a digital signage display optimized for TVs and projectors, pulling live data directly from your site and offering automatically generated QR codes that take attendees directly to the relevant page of your site. This makes ConBoard not just a conference website plugin, but a lightweight, web-based digital signage system tailored specifically for events.

Upcoming features include exporting and importing data in CSV format, automatically generating print materials like conference badges and programs, and integrating attendee registration and ticketing systems.

ConBoard is great for:

Conference organizers who

  • Run multi-session, multi-room events
  • Need a structured schedule
  • Want consistency between website and venue signage
  • Don’t want to maintain separate systems for web and screens

AV teams who

  • Need URLs they can trust
  • Want quick fixes without admin access
  • Care about screen orientation, rotation, and legibility
  • Are used to improvising on-site

Setup

A good way to start is by creating a Session. Give it a title, summary, set a time, and choose a room. All fields are optional, but the more you add, the more useful ConBoard becomes. Custom fields that are connected to other post types can be created as stubs from within the item you are currently creating, or added separately and linked later.

Add a Presenter. Include their bio, headshot, and contact info. Now you can attach them to the session you just created. On the Session page, they will be listed as the presenter, with a link to their Presenter page. On the Presenter page, ConBoard will automatically list all Sessions they are a part of. Choose if you want to highlight them as a keynote speaker or be a featured presenter on the home page and Presenters page.

You can follow this process a few more times, in any order you wish. It's very common to advertise confirmed presenters first, before you know their session topic or have a schedule worked out yet. Speakers can appear on your website to attract attendees without having all the logistical details yet.

Screen Mode

Every page can become an info screen. This plugin is not just a website, but also a digital signage system! Any web connected device can be used as signage to show attendees what's happening now, what's coming up next, or an overview of main attractions. For example, display the Presenter screen when introducing a speaker, or display the Sponsors carousel on a loop between sessions.

Quick and easy digital signage already exists by default for all rooms, speakers, sessions, and more! Reasonable defaults let you present useful information to attendees immediately simply by navigating to a URL from any connected TV, projector, or other web-accessible display. No admin access necessary.

Simply pull up any ConBoard powered page and add ?display=screen after the web address. This will change the display template to be info board-friendly, with simplified details and a layout designed for a 16x9 screen.

https://example.com/room/main-hall/?display=screen

From the admin dashboard, you can open any ConBoard custom post and press the "Get Display Screen" button to retrieve the display link.

Any of the display parameters that show up in the URL can be changed to aid in orienting the information for the screen type. For example, if a screen is mounted in a vertical orientation.

?display=screen&orientation=portrait&rotate=90&flip=none

Display Boards

You can also create custom Display Board content to have even more control over what is shown. A Display Board is a named, reusable configuration for a digital screen. It defines what content the screen shows, how the content behaves, and the default physical display settings.

Display Board content is more customizable and can be configured much like a slide show, combining various information types. They are independent of Rooms, Sessions, etc. and can be shown on any number of displays simultaneously with your live data automatically inserted. A Display Board is basically a custom web page that you can tailor with whatever conference information you want to display using the simple built-in editor tools.

Content types that can be shown on a Display Board include:

  • Room schedule
  • Now / Next
  • Announcements
  • Sponsor loop
  • Welcome slide
  • Full schedule grid
  • Wayfinding
  • Carousel vs static content

Config Overrides

As a convenience for AV teams, Display Board properties may be temporarily overridden via URL parameters without requiring a backend login. For example, if you show up to the venue and discover one of the screens is rotated the opposite direction from the others. No need to have admin access and create a new Display Board definition just for that one screen when the content should stay the same. Just change the rotation flag in the URL. URL overrides take precedence over Display Board settings for that one screen only and do not persist.

Concept Differentiation

It is important to understand the difference between screen mode and Dispaly Boards

Screen Mode

Screen Mode is a presentation layer applied to any existing ConBoard page.

It takes a normal page like a Room, Session, Presenter, Sponsor, etc. and renders it in a layout optimized for TVs and projectors. This includes simplified typography, large readable text, reduced navigation, and optional orientation adjustments. It can also include a QR code that takes you directly to the standard version of the page on your own device.

Screen Mode Characteristics:

  • Uses existing content
  • Requires no setup
  • Activated via URL parameter (?display=screen)
  • Always reflects live data
  • Ideal for quick, ad-hoc displays

Screen Mode Examples:

  • Showing the current room schedule outside a session room
  • Displaying a presenter info slide during their introduction
  • Looping sponsor logos between sessions
  • Showing “Now / Next” in a hallway

Screen Mode is intentionally lightweight and discoverable. Anyone with the URL can use it without website admin access, which is great for AV teams.

Display Boards

Display Boards are a custom post type that defines a deliberate, reusable screen configuration with the ability to have mixed content. You can create as many Display Boards as you wish, depending on the type of information you want to display. Using the simple editor, you can choose:

  • What content appears
  • How it is arranged
  • How it behaves over time (loops, rotations, timing)
  • Default physical screen properties (orientation, rotation, etc.)

Display Boards are independent of individual rooms, sessions, or presenters. They are designed to be shared across multiple screens and reused across the event space.

Display Board Characteristics:

  • Explicitly created and named
  • Can combine multiple content types
  • Can cycle or loop content
  • Has saved defaults
  • Supports URL overrides for one-off situations

Display Board Examples:

  • A welcome screen in the lobby
  • A rotating sponsor carousel
  • A full schedule overview
  • A branded signage loop between sessions
  • A multi-panel board showing announcements + now/next + sponsor logos

Screen Casting

The easiest way to present ConBoard info screens on a TV or projector is connecting directly from a laptop or desktop computer over an HDMI cable. Because ConBoard is fully web-based, any device with a web browser should work. Alternatively, there are inexpensive wireless video transmitters that plug in to your HDMI port and are seen as standard monitor. It is recommended to use "Extend" mode and treat that screen as a second monitor rather than "Mirror" mode. Then simply navigate to the desired URL and enter the browser's fullscreen mode. The number of screens you can stream to depends on your computer hardware and how many video outputs are available. If you want the same content going to multiple screens, you can use a simple HDMI splitter/duplicator.

Wireless HDMI Adapters:

HDMI Splitters:

Some venues may have a central routing hub to send video signals to various screens. Others may need a device to be directly attached at the back of the TV. In cases where it is not practical to have a laptop connected to each screen, a dedicated playback device may be more reasonable. You can also use the web browser feature in any existing digital signage playback units you may have. For example:

Many smart TVs allow streaming content to them over wi-fi as a built in-feature. Check the specific TV mmodel to see if it supports Apple AirPlay, GoogleCast or Miracast. Otherwise, a small Roku, Chromecast, or Fire TV Stick can be a possible option as hardware receivers to connect to the screen's HDMI port. They do not have to be the latest model, and can be found inexpensively on Amazon and eBay. Second-hand works perfectly fine.

Cast Wirelessly from Google Chrome

  1. Open Chrome: Launch the browser on your computer.
  2. Open the Menu: Click the three vertical dots (More) in the top-right corner.
  3. Select Cast: Go to Save and share > Cast....
  4. Choose Source: Click the "Sources" dropdown to select if you want to cast a specific Tab, your entire Screen, or a File.
  5. Select Device: Pick your Chromecast or smart TV from the list of available devices.

Some TVs have a built-in web browser, but this is much less common and unlikely to find at an event venue.

Typically, you can only wirelessly cast to one TV at a time from a single computer. However, the free cross-platform software Pigeoncast can handle multiple displays from a single machine. This is highly recommended and will allow you to manage multiple info displays from one machine.

Please note that for any of these wireless options, your computer and the receiving device must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Keep in mind that the free public wifi provided at most venues can potentially oversaturated by attendees and perform slowly or become unreliable. Thankfully, the info screens are not show-stoppers, and dropped frames or lag will not be largely noticeable the way it could be with video playback during a keynote.

Media Export

If screen casting a live webpage is not an option for your situation, ConBoard still has available options for you. Most smart TVs will have a USB port that can display pictures and videos from a storage device and play them like a slideshow. The utility menu in the corner of every display screen has a download option. This will save the sceen as a 1920x1080 JPG image that can be copied to a flash drive. If your Display Board has animated content or is cycling through a content loop, each "slide" will be saved as separate image, numbered in sequence. Built-in video export is not yet available for moving content, but can be captured manually through screen recording if desired. You can also batch-export multiple Display Boards and Screen Mode pages from the Admin console.

The caveat with the export method is that your content will be static. The info displays cannot be updated live if there are updates made to the online schedule, the clock option will not be included, and live announcements will not be present. Any changes will require you to re-export and manually update the files on your flash drive.