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Equalize Digital Sells WP Conference Schedule Plugin to The Events Calendar
Georgetown, Texas, July 12, 2022 – Equalize Digital, a website accessibility-focused company, has sold its WordPress plugin, WP Conference Schedule, to The Events Calendar.
Originally released under Equalize Digital’s previous company name (Road Warrior Creative), the first version of the WP Conference Schedule was developed in 2017 to support the needs of the company’s clients in the conference industry. Initial features were driven by requests from enterprise clients such as Lean Startup Co., Lesbians Who Tech, and Campaigns & Elections, with some inspiration from the conference schedule built into WordCamp websites. In 2019, after seeing mass-market potential, a free version of the plugin was released on WordPress.org.
“In 2019, our team knew that we wanted to develop our first commercial WordPress plugin and we thought that WP Conference Schedule was going to be that product. We released the free plugin on WordPress.org and began working on a premium plugin with the idea of releasing it a year later,” said Equalize Digital CEO, Amber Hinds. “But when COVID hit in early 2020, most of our conference clients put their events and marketing budgets on hold, and it no longer made sense for our team to focus development resources on a premium conference schedule plugin.” The Equalize Digital team shifted focus to creating Accessibility Checker, a passion-project WordPress plugin that puts accessibility reports on the post edit screen and makes it easier for content creators to make websites that work better for people with disabilities.
Since becoming available on WordPress.org, WP Conference Schedule organically grew to over 200 active installs, despite not being marketed or promoted. In the past year, as in-person events resumed, the plugin began seeing an uptick in installations and with that support requests – including inquiries into when the paid version would be available.
“Earlier this year, we realized that continuing to support WP Conference Schedule no longer made sense,” said Hinds, “It was a distraction from our mission to improve accessibility in WordPress and took development and marketing time away from Accessibility Checker.”
The Equalize Digital leadership team spoke with several potential buyers for the plugin and ultimately reached an agreement with The Events Calendar for the sale of both the free plugin on WordPress.org and the code for the (unreleased) WP Conference Schedule Pro.
“The Events Calendar is a leading calendar plugin in the WordPress space, and we couldn’t ask for a better team to bring WP Conference Schedule to its full potential,” said Equalize Digital CTO, Steve Jones, “It is a perfect fit with their existing offerings and we can’t wait to see what they do with it.”
About Equalize Digital
Equalize Digital is a Certified B Corporation, WordPress VIP Agency Partner, and corporate member of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). Headquartered in Georgetown, Texas, Equalize Digital has a globally distributed team that is striving to create a world where all people have equal access to information and tools on the internet regardless of ability.
Equalize Digital’s SaaS product, Accessibility Checker, scans WordPress websites for accessibility problems and provides reports in the admin dashboard. Accessibility Checker launched in December 2020 and has a free version available on WordPress.org. Learn more about Equalize Digital on equalizedigital.com.
About The Events Calendar
The Events Calendar is part of StellarWP, the software arm of Liquid Web. With more than 37 million downloads and 800,000 active installations, The Events Calendar offers calendars, ticketing, and powerful WordPress tools to manage your events from start to finish. Learn more at theeventscalendar.com.
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