Essential grid conflicts?

Ive never tried that plugin. Can you activate all the plugins and share a link?

Here: https://me-about.me/test/parents-area/ the rectangle with “NEWS” should load a grid but once the ajax plugin is activated it will stop working

I see.
Yea, you will need to execute the shorcode in the essential grid component.

You are best to contact the developers of that plugin to get a understanding of how and why shortcodes are not executing.

Cheers,