Helpful information for event managers.
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Event registration is critical to the success of an event. Without it, event organisers lack planning certainty. Smooth and effective registration gives attendees a worry-free event experience and event managers control and peace of mind. This blog post provides an overview of the most important aspects of event registration.
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Capacity limits can be used to limit the number of seats for an event or individual registration options within an event, allowing for greater control.
Limits are useful when capacity is limited. Limits can also help increase demand by making seats scarce. See also our blog post on event registration hacks.
Limits allow you to better control the number of attendees for your event. Limits allow you to better plan the entire event or individual sessions. Setting capacity ensures that overbooking does not occur.
Once the limit for your event is reached, no more attendees can register. As a result, you may lose potential attendees to your event. Even if you account for a potential no-show rate, you may not be able to reach your desired capacity. A waiting list can be a solution to this problem.
Try to plan your event with as much flexibility as possible. If demand is greater than your capacity, you can make short-term adjustments to your event concept. If demand is lower, adjust your event location or order quantity. Note that if you enable the display of available seats on your event website and there are few registrations at the start of registration, this may discourage participants from registering.
A waitlist allows interested guests to be placed on a list if an event or event option is sold out. Interested guests can thus be placed on a waiting list in case seats become available due to cancellations.
A waiting list is only useful if you have a fixed capacity and there is a certain probability that registered attendees will cancel their registration. A waitlist is useful when demand for your event or registration option exceeds supply.
The waitlist allows you to track potential people who are interested in attending your event or in one of the registration options. A waitlist also helps you track excess demand for an event or registration option. This allows you to adjust your event configuration to better meet demand.
By activating a waitlist, you automatically raise attendees' hopes that a seat will become available. If this is not the case, it can lead to disappointment.
It makes sense to set the number of waitlist spots in addition to the actual capacity limit. As mentioned above, an unlimited waiting list can lead to frustration among your target audience. Think about how many spots on the waitlist make sense, i.e. how many spots could realistically become available at a later date. In order to free up space for waitlisted attendees, there must be a way for registered guests to cancel their registration. Registered guests often do not decide until a few days before the event whether they will be able to attend. For this reason, it is a good idea to send a reminder email to registered guests some time before the event to let them know that they can cancel their registration.
For paid events, you also need to decide at what point in the process payment should be made. Ideally, payment should only be made after the guest has confirmed their attendance, otherwise refunds may have to be made.
Finally, it should be noted that a waitlist can also reduce demand for other registration options for the event. For example, a potential participant may only register for the waitlist for a fully booked option and not for an alternative option, which ultimately means that this person will not attend the event at all if there is no room.
Yes, a waitlist can be automated. Oniva offers an automated waiting list. This works by automatically inviting the first person on the waiting list to register for the event after a cancellation or deregistration. If that person does not register within the specified time period, the second person on the list receives a registration option, and so on.
Sessions are individual programme items within an event that are used to design the programme. They can provide variety, such as breakout sessions, or contain individually selectable agenda items.
Sessions offer the opportunity to provide participants with individual choices. The challenge is often to plan capacity in advance, when the exact interests of attendees are not yet known. A pre-registration survey can help and provide valuable information for better planning.
Accompanying persons are additional people who can be registered by participants during event registration. The number of accompanying persons can vary from one to several, depending on the event concept.
In general, event communication only takes place with the main person, i.e. the person who has registered for the event. This also makes sense for privacy reasons, since accompanying persons cannot give their consent for event communication and data collection.
In the case of accompanying persons, it is also important to note that the attending accompanying person may change by the date of the event. Therefore, event attendees should be given the opportunity to change the accompanying person's information.
When registering for an event, a companion registration can add complexity if, for example, the companion does not arrive at the event at the same time as the primary attendee.
The registration form is used to collect the guest information necessary to attend the event. Digital registration forms typically include at least first name, last name, and email address.
In general, less is more. Reducing the number of required fields will increase the registration rate and help you comply with privacy regulations regarding data collection. However, depending on the event, some information may be required to attend the event, for example, to correctly place a catering order based on food preferences or to send information to attendees' smartphones during the event. Please note that the registration form involves data collection and you will need to include your privacy policy to obtain attendee consent.
Additional queries are required information (such as meal preferences) that attendees must provide in order to attend the event. Another example might be whether or not the event registration includes dinner.
The registration deadline is the date by which attendees can register for an event. In practice, there is often a difference between the date by which organisers would like to receive feedback and the actual registration deadline. By moving up the registration deadline, organisers hope to achieve greater planning certainty. However, an early registration deadline may result in late registrations from interested attendees.
The actual registration deadline depends on the event concept. If you need to communicate the number of attendees to your business partners, and this has an impact on costs or resources, it makes sense to coordinate the registration deadline with your business partners. If you have a business event where this component is not important, you may want to leave registration open until the event date to allow for unplanned registrations.
Tip: The registration deadline can contribute to perceived scarcity. See our blog post on event registration hacks.
In addition to the registration deadline, you can also set a cancellation deadline. After registration, guests can cancel their booking until the cancellation deadline. Cancellations after the cancellation deadline can be costly, because a reduction in the number of attendees at that time will result in costs to the business event supplier.
However, disabling the cancellation option can also have a negative impact on no-show rates. If a guest is actually unable to attend, they will be counted as a no-show if they are unable to cancel.
Cancellation deadlines should be coordinated with event suppliers as they are primarily related to resource planning.
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