• Individuals can register online for your big event if they meet all the Event's requirements.
• Use Product Option Groups & Prices.
• You can use the Add to Group feature in Option Prices to automatically place registrants into Groups when they register:
  • To manually add a registration (and so they don't go through the automatic registration process), first add the individual to the appropriate Group. Then you need to add them to the Event and search for and find the appropriate Group Participant record and Group record. Because each individual has a unique Group Participant record, you must use the New option to add someone, rather than the Add option.
• There are two ways to register someone and ensure they answer all Product Options and Custom Form questions:
  • Using the Portal: Individuals can register themselves on the Portal.
  • Using Widgets: Individuals can use the Event Details & Registration and Invoice Details & Payment Widgets to register themselves.
  • Staff can manually add cash and check registrations through the Add a Payment tool.
• You can see all registered individuals from an open Event record in the Participants sub-page.
• Use the Assign Participant Tool to reassign registrants from Default Contact to a real record. You can quickly find registrants that you need to reassign from:
  • Event Participants > Reassign Participant view
  • Event > Fix: Reassign Participant view

Communication

• You can select registrants from the Event Participants page and use the New Message Tool to communicate with them through email or text message.
• Use the Event Reminder Notification and/or the Registrant Message Notification to automate communication with Event Participants.
• Email registrants with an outstanding balance the My Purchase History snippet so they can pay their remaining fees. See Invoices for details.
• Event Coordinators can set up a View Notification on the Event Full Notification view to receive an email notification when an Event reaches the number of participants expected.

Reporting

• Need to see something about a person that is in the database but not on your Custom Form, such as their campus? Create a view on the Event Participants page or the Participants sub-page.
• Use the Form Responses Tool from the Events page for a spreadsheet of all of the registrants, their answers, and what Product and Product Options they chose.
• Take advantage of all the options you can run on the Selected Form Responses report from the Events page and see all the information someone provided when they signed up, including their invoice details and their Custom Form answers.

Multi-Week Events

Multi-week events meet weekly over the course of three or more weeks. Think Bible studies, member classes, or registration-required mid-week youth small groups. They are not multi-day events, which occur on consecutive days.

• Use the Add to Group option on your product option price to ensure you place every registrant into the appropriate Group.
• Allow people to register for each event in the series through your Portal or Widget to ensure you add every registrant to your Group, regardless of date.
• Associate the Group to all of the events in the series using the Event's Rooms & Groups sub-page to allow for attendance tracking.
• Add a Registrant Message to each Event in the series. Everyone who registers, regardless of date, will receive the registrant message. For example, a confirmation email with classroom instructions or a FAQ document.
• Do not: Use Register into Series for multi-week events. The Register into Series option is best suited for multi-day events, like a weekend conference.

Family Maximums

Have an event with a family maximum price? Perhaps a retreat or camp where parents pay for each child, but no more than a set price? You can do that! For this example, we'll use an event that costs $25 per child with a $50 family maximum.

• Set the base price of your Product to $0.
• Add these Product Option Prices:
  • Child 1 = $25
  • Child 2 = $25
  • Child 3+ = $0
• Provide clear and specific instructions for the parents, and be prepared to do it more than once. The parent should register the first child, selecting Child 1, and then select Add another person. The parent should then complete the form again, this time selecting Child 2 and then Add another person until they register all their children.

You can also have the parents register each child at the full price but provide a promo code so they can receive a second- or third-child discount.

Canceling Event Participants

The best practice to remove Event Participant records is to change their status to Cancelled and issue a refund or convert their Payment into a Donation, if requested. But in the rare scenario that you need to delete an Event Participant record, note that only dependent records will be deleted. You may need to delete other records created through an event registration (like Form Responses) separately.

If you use the Event Details & Registration Widget, Cancelled Event Participants do not count towards the Max Allowed for Option Prices. When you cancel an Event Participant, the option price on the Invoice Detail cancels, which releases the option for future registrations. No need to manually update. As if you needed another reason to move to Widgets!