---
title: "One events system instead of a decade of plugins · Woodshack"
description: "A live show producer's websites each ran their own ten-year-old events plugin. Now one person enters a show once, and it lands everywhere it belongs."
url: https://woodshack.net/work/central-events-system/
site: Woodshack (https://woodshack.net/)
about_this_site: https://woodshack.net/for-ai/
---
Work · Custom software · A live show producer

# Enter it once. It lands everywhere.

One events system replaced a decade of plugins, and made launching a new site a matter of minutes.

Tim did this work at the web agency where he's director of operations. Walter, the system that helped deliver it, is his own.

1
place to enter a show

4
sites fed (up from 3)

Minutes
to launch a new site

## The situation

A live show producer ran three websites, each showing upcoming shows through its own copy of a WordPress plugin more than ten years old. Every site was managed separately, so a single change to a show meant updating it in several places. The aging plugin was a growing maintenance and security risk.

They'd thought about more sites, but never built them. Another site meant another copy of the same hassle.

## What we built

**One central system** (Laravel) that holds every show in one place. One person enters a show once: the date, time, ticket link, description and photos, and even the tracking codes an artist wants on their own event page.

**A lightweight WordPress plugin** on each site that fetches and displays the right shows. Each show publishes itself on whichever sites it belongs on, and unpublishes itself on schedule, all set centrally.

**Site skeletons**, ready-made WordPress themes, so a new site is just logos, colors and whatever site-specific details they want.

## Changing course

Partway in, it was clear the original build approach wasn't going to hold up. Rather than push ahead and hand over something fragile, we changed course and rebuilt the core pieces ourselves. It was one of the first big jobs our own system, [Walter](https://woodshack.net/walter/), helped us deliver, with every change reviewed before it shipped.

## How it turned out

- **One edit, everywhere.** A new show time, ticket link, description or photo is changed once, in one place, and it lands everywhere it's supposed to.

- **Four sites instead of three.** A nationwide site for all their shows, a site for each of the two venues they operate, and a genre-specific site. The fourth didn't feel like a hassle anymore.

- **New sites in minutes.** The structure is in place, so the next site is a matter of logos, colors and details.

- **Built to grow.** The system is multi-tenant from the ground up, so it can serve other producers too, each with their own shows and sites.

## Why it matters for you

When the same work keeps getting repeated in several places, that's usually a sign it wants to be one system. Enter it once, and it lands everywhere it belongs.

And catching a project that's heading the wrong way, early, is worth more than any rescue later. Whether it's your own build, a vendor's, or an app made with AI tools, we'll tell you plainly when something won't hold up, and fix it before it becomes your problem.

[Tell us about your setup →](https://woodshack.net/contact/)

- custom software

- WordPress

- integration

- rescue

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