Events Best Practice



  • Gather required details: # attendees, registration open & close dates; CMF account for paid events

  • Plan: tickets per registration (global section) and tickets per attendee (multi-attendee section); cost, GST, cost variations over time

  • Consider what questions must be asked, including required/compulsory questions; reduce identity questions where possible (avoid date of birth, passport number, etc), consider using an age range drop-down question rather than asking specific age

  • Identify payment methods to be accepted, and whether invoicing will be allowed (if offering earlybird tickets, invoicing is not recommended as visitors may select an earlybird ticket, and not pay the invoice until after the close-off date for earlybird tickets).

  • Determine action(s) to be taken on unpaid tickets e.g. cancel at dd/mm/yyyy and release to those on wait-list, contact each non-payer, or just cancel all unpaid when registrations close

  • Receipt information required by the event organising body

  • Administration fee if registration is cancelled (do you need a compulsory admin fee ticket?)

  • Refunding - what is your organisation's approach to this (e.g. only to be done through accounts/treasury team, request via email)

  • Organise access to Events (Events Registration) for team member(s) as Event Admins or Event Editors Who can edit an Event

  • Check with your Accounting/Finance/Treasury team about which ticket(s) needs GST applied?

  • Review the Getting Started Videos

  • Set attendees, registration dates Creating an Event - v2

  • Create global and multi-attendee sections

  • Create tickets, these are shown alphabetically by ticket name on reports.

  • Create questions, these are shown alphabetically by question name on reports

  • Request Event Admins are added (servicedesk assists), and add Event Editors Who can edit an Event

  • Add instructions, e.g. click 'next' at top right to continue; to add another attendee click the 'Add attendee' button that will be shown on the next screen

  • Use templates to 'copy' pagebuilder elements from one section to another, or from one event to another Events Templates v2- inserting, adding and deleting

  • Need to present text in a table that resizes? Save the table as a picture/image, then insert that image and change the image settings to 'responsive'

  • Avoid underlining or whole words in capitals, instead consider bold, italic, vary the font &/or size

  • Avoid using the word "select" in questions in the page set-up as an error will appear (it's an SQL injection term), instead use "choose" or "indicate" or similar.

  • Use 'tree view' in the Page Builder (button at top near the Preview button) to more easily move an item up or down

  • If a ticket is a 'child' ticket within a Package ticket, don't set that 'child' ticket as a package ticket itself.

  • Only add a field name where the ticket/question will be referred to in a conditional visibility rule (v2 only), to improve event page loading speed

  • Custom Terms and Conditions are best entered as text, with limited-width image (e.g. logo), so that text 'flows' according to mobile/tablet/pc screen size. Be aware that not all attendees will click/tap the T&C's link to read those, so any important information should be displayed as part of your event webpage.

  • For paid events: consider adding a compulsory drop-down question on the last page "I understand that a registration is only valid once payment has been received" and have the drop-down response as "yes".

  • Live preview the Event, confirm it performs as intended

  • Change the browser size to reflect a mobile/tablet screen size, check you're happy with the event's appearance on a smaller device  (over 60% of attendees use a mobile/tablet device when registering on Events Registration)

  • Global sections and multi-attendee sections set correctly

  • Ticket total, min/max settings are correct (ticket minimum 0 = optional; ticket minimum 1 = compulsory). Avoid using negative ticket amounts for discounting, instead use package tickets.

  • Have your Accounts/Finance/Treasury team confirm the GST settings on the tickets are correct, and add Analysis Codes (if applicable)

  • Images are set to 'responsive' to optimise viewing on tablets and mobile devices (image settings, advanced tab)

  • Review section length, is it mobile-friendly and tablet-friendly

  • Have a colleague(s) complete the event webpage and give feedback

  • Review sample registrations on the registration data export, ensure that tickets and questions are named so as to be understandable by attendees and when downloaded on reports

  • Delete sample registrations before go-live

  • Tick box to allow registrations, check start and end dates and times

  • You/team member complete a 'live' registration when registrations open

  • Monitor registrations regularly (hourly/daily/etc): what tickets are selected, what questions are answered, is payment made

  • Adjust event webpage based on common errors/feedback (e.g. commonly missing a question, or not proceeding to payment), however don't make "big" changes once live (e.g. add pages to accommodate Day Visitors that use conditional visibility with many new questions/tickets), this will adversely impact when you edit registrations that were completed before the new changes were made.

  • If receiving payments via CMF, check CMF journal data

  • Review unpaid registrations, consider deleting unpaid registrations. Note that unpaid registrations are still included in the Events Processing Fee charge; 'free' events do not incur this charge, more at Events Processing Fee and Events Processing Fee Report.

  • Check the registration close date and time, check event webpage address shortly thereafter, see the 'this event is not available' message

  • Some Events prefer to add a 'registrations closed' page (needs to be first section in the pagebuilder) giving a link or telephone number of whom to contact for late registrations; review ticket settings Using the v2 Pagebuilder - examples

  • Save registration data export, and create reports/lists as required

  • Prior to your event's check-in date, use Events Check-in feature to create Action and Status values (and Action Categories, optional) Checkin - Video 'How to use Checkin'

  • Prior to check-in date, add Custom Questions and Custom Tickets, so you can easily look-up a selected attendee's responses to those questions/tickets once the event check-in commences.

  • When attendees are arriving, and for the duration of the Event, use Events Check-in feature to record arrivals, departures, collection of resources, shuttle queue planning, etc. Check-in allows the creation of lists (Actions) and tags (status values) you need for your Event



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