A technology news publisher needed dedicated landing pages for their conference and event coverage. Traditional post templates couldn’t organize complex event information —such as programming schedules, speaker spotlights, and related articles — into scannable sections that serve both in-person and remote audiences.

Solution

A custom event template with modular content blocks that organize conference information into distinct sections. Editorial teams populate event pages through Advanced Custom Fields, selecting which sections to display without writing code or requesting developer changes.

The template features intelligent navigation that automatically generates section links based on available content. A sticky sidebar with newsletter signup stays accessible as readers scroll. External links receive automatic tracking classes and open in new tabs to maintain site engagement while providing access to partner resources.

Technical Implementation

• Modular content block system with separate components for event highlights, featured programming schedules, speaker spotlights, and related story collections.
• Dynamic section navigation that generates links only for sections with content, using jQuery scroll tracking to maintain sticky positioning relative to the site header.
• Field-driven content management through Advanced Custom Fields, allowing editors to select and populate sections through the WordPress admin interface.
• Story card components that pull post thumbnails, excerpts from Yoast meta descriptions, publication dates, and co-author information into consistent layouts.
• External link detection with automatic class assignment for analytics tracking and target attribute management.
• Sticky sidebar implementation with responsive positioning that adjusts based on header height and scroll position.
• Newsletter subscription integration is embedded in the event sidebar to capture engaged conference readers.
• Responsive Stylus architecture maintains consistent design patterns with the existing theme while supporting new event-specific layouts.

Results

Editorial teams now build comprehensive event landing pages independently through the WordPress admin interface. The template accommodates varying content needs, displaying only relevant sections for each event while maintaining consistent layouts.

Conference attendees and remote readers navigate between programming schedules, speaker spotlights, and related coverage through persistent section navigation. External resource links maintain site engagement while supporting partner relationships. The modular architecture extends to new content types without theme refactoring, reducing development overhead for future editorial initiatives.