Listing just the next event in every category

Thanks, I'll give it a whirl and see how I get on.

Ok so far I've written this (through many trial and error syntax issues!) and this code actually renders the page which is progress. However still nothing outputs.

<?php 

    $category = perch_events_category(array(
        'skip-template' => true
    ));

    foreach ($category as $categories) {

        perch_events_custom(array(
                  'filter'     => 'eventDateTime',
                  'match'      => 'gte',
                  'value'      => date('Y-m-d'),
                  'sort'       => 'eventDateTime',
                  'sort-order' => 'desc',
                  'template'   =>'events/listing/event-list-simple.html',
        ));
    }
?>

Any guidance gratefully received :)

I'm getting…

Fetching from cache: perch_events_categoryd41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e
Cache file not found: perch_events_categoryd41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e
SELECT * FROM perch2_events_categories WHERE categorySlug=NULL LIMIT 1
Array
(
    [type] => 2
    [message] => Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
    [file] => /Users/Daughter-Greg/Code/neish_v2/index.php
    [line] => 36
)

I don't know what any of this means, but it looks like it can't find the categories, or my code for the loop is wrong?

So I've changed it to ~~~perch_events_categories();~~~ so it now looks like this (i've echo'd $category to test the output of the variable:

<?php 

    $category = perch_events_categories(array(
        'skip-template' => true,
    ));

    foreach ($category as $categories) {

        echo $category;

        perch_events_custom(array(

                        'category' => '$category',
                        'template'   =>'events/listing/event-list-simple.html',
         ));
    }
?>

This outputs:

Array
<ul>
    <li>17th - 19th November 2015</li>  
    <li>lig</li>
    <li>2nd - 4th February 2016</li>
    <li>1 July 2016</li>    
    <li>31 October 2017</li>
</ul>

Array
<ul>
    <li>17th - 19th November 2015</li>  
    <li>lig</li>
    <li>2nd - 4th February 2016</li>
    <li>1 July 2016</li>    
    <li>31 October 2017</li>
</ul>

Array
<ul>

    <li>17th - 19th November 2015</li>
    <li>2nd - 4th February 2016</li>
    <li>1 July 2016</li>    
    <li>31 October 2017</li>
</ul>

I've have 3 categories and the loop happens 3 times which is correct and every date (four of them) is being listed which is also correct. I can't seem to get the categories to then loop through. It's outputting the $category as 'Array'. Not sure why

$category = perch_events_categories(array(
    'skip-template' => true,
));

echo $category;

is outputting 'Array' as a string and not the category slugs? Do I need to add a filter to the first argument to get the category slug?

print_r($category);

Outputs:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [image] => 
            [desc] => 
            [categoryID] => 4
            [categoryTitle] => Core Level Coaching
            [categorySlug] => core-level-coaching
            [categoryEventCount] => 1
            [categoryFutureEventCount] => 1
            [categoryDynamicFields] => {"image":null,"desc":{"raw":"","processed":""}}
            [_id] => 4
            [qty] => 1
            [perch_image] => 
            [perch_desc] => 
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [image] => 
            [desc] => 
            [categoryID] => 6
            [categoryTitle] => Leading with NLP
            [categorySlug] => leading-with-nlp
            [categoryEventCount] => 2
            [categoryFutureEventCount] => 2
            [categoryDynamicFields] => {"image":null,"desc":{"raw":"","processed":""}}
            [_id] => 6
            [qty] => 2
            [perch_image] => 
            [perch_desc] => 
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [image] => 
            [desc] => 
            [categoryID] => 7
            [categoryTitle] => The Language of Leadership
            [categorySlug] => the-language-of-leadership
            [categoryEventCount] => 1
            [categoryFutureEventCount] => 1
            [categoryDynamicFields] => {"image":null,"desc":{"raw":"","processed":""}}
            [_id] => 7
            [qty] => 1
            [perch_image] => 
            [perch_desc] => 
        )
)