What is it?
One of the most common types of forms is an Event Registration form. Event Registration forms allow users to register and pay for an event they’ll attend, including sessions, meals, etc. These forms can also allow registrants to pay for guests they’ll be bringing to an event.
Primary benefits of event forms
Within a normal form, a user fills out a section of information a single time. When registering additional profiles, this can be a cumbersome process, as it requires the use of multiple sections/versions of the same fields. In an event form, if you choose to register additional profiles or guests, the event section will replicate itself for the additional registrations. As a result, you'll often need just a single event section to collect the information for multiple users.
Also, when viewing the form list, the submissions column, which accounts for each submission made through the form, only exports out the form taker's information and non-event fields. The registrants column records the information of all profiles registered through an event form and exports them out individually, meaning you have a row for each registrant on your exported excel file.
To note: Event exports only export out information entered into an event section. Information entered in a non-event section can only be exported through the submissions column.
How to Access
Navigate to Forms > Form List
Creating an Event Form
1. To begin creating a new event form, click ‘Create New Form’.
2. In the ‘Create New Form’ window, add your Form Name (required), Form Description (optional) and check the appropriate Setup Option(s).
If you want to offer users the option to become a member or renew their membership, check “This form will be used for membership” in addition to “This form will be used for event registrations.” Click Save.
3. Configure the Form Settings in the left-hand column of the Form Builder.
-
Form Name: Name of the form that will display on the form page and internally.
-
Form Description: A form’s description displays in the form editor for admins.
-
Form Alias: The form’s alias is how the form will be directly accessed by Admins and members. For example, your-domain.com/2015-conference-registration is a direct link to this example form. The portion “2015-conference-registration” is the form’s alias. You can customize this in order to create a custom link that points to the form.
-
Publish Form: Toggle this option to ON when the form is ready for testing, or to use on the website.
-
Enable form expiration date: Toggle this option to ON and set a date if you want the form set to inactive automatically on a specified date.
- Permissions: Click Edit Group Permissions to set the Groups that have permission to use the form.
- Date-based Pricing: Click Add a Date-Based Pricing Rule to create date-based pricing for early-bird specials or late registration rates. For a more in-depth explanation of this feature, click here.
- Discount Codes: Click Add Discount Code to create discount codes that override all other pricing on affected fields.
- For a more in-depth explanation of this feature, click here.
- Forward URL: Enter the URL to forward users to at the end of the form.
Form Sections
All form functionality will take place in the sections on the right-hand side of the form.
Login Section
We recommend enabling the login section unless the form is an anonymous type form, like a ballot or anonymous survey. Confirmation emails will not be sent to users who don't log into the form.
Login Type
- Existing Users: will allow existing members to log in
- New Users: will allow non-members to access the form
Event Section
If you didn't choose the 'event registrations' checkbox when configuring your new form, the event section can be added after a form is created under Add Form Elements->Presentation. An event section will initially resemble the below.
The name field is required and cannot be removed from the event section. The Register Guest and Register Linked Profile buttons only display if you've enabled the settings that allow users to register guests or linked profiles. To edit these settings, click the Properties button located at the top of the event section. Once you do, the Element Properties column will open on the left. Edit the event's settings here, which resemble the below.
To note: The Event Name and Event Date listed in the Event Details portion of the properties determines whether your event shows up in either your Upcoming Events or Past Event Attendance sections on your admin dashboard. If these fields are wrong, it may not display, or display under an incorrect name.
Choose whether you want to Require at least one registrant for the event. A form can have multiple event sections, so you may want to require one registrant for one, but make the others optional.
You can also choose to limit the number of registrants for the event. This will limit the total number of registrants. If there is a cap in place, a small timer will display when a person registering through the form becomes inactive for 1 minute letting them know that their submission will become inactive.
Underneath this section, you can also choose what happens when the registrant limit is reached.
Next, if the form is available for organizations, you can toggle ON the option to Allow key contacts to register linked profiles.
You can also toggle ON the option to allow Guest registrants. Guest registrants are event attendees that are not members. Here you can set a limit on the number of guest registrants allowed in one submission.
If you would like the form to Create prospect profiles for guest registrants, toggle that option ON.
Finally, if you would like guest registrants to be charged at the Public/Prospect rate instead of the Member Type rate, you will want to toggle "Prevent guests from receiving member type pricing" to ON.
After configuring the Properties of the event section, drop the appropriate custom and built-in attributes, as well as any form fields or presentation elements you'd like into the event section. Additional fields must be added beneath the Registrant Name.
Summary Section
This section includes an area for the member to enter a Discount Code and you may enable Summary Fields. If you click ‘Properties’ in this section, in the element properties on the left, you can choose Add/Edit Summary Fields to configure the fields that appear in the Summary so that the member may review what they entered before moving on to the payment section.
Payment Section
This section includes credit card payment fields. The Name and Address sections will pre-fill with information captured in the Membership section. If you click ‘Properties’ in this section, you can add the Payment Processor, Invoice Template and edit the invoice template due date.
'Override invoice template's due date' can be toggled on if there is a need to pick a specific date that the invoice should be due. (Note: this feature is only available on event forms)
Confirmation Section
This section includes the Confirmation Page that will be seen once a member submits the form. Just click on the section to edit the text in the Element Properties. If you click on the ‘Properties’ button at the section's top, you may enable the Confirmation Email, which will send automatically once a logged-in user submits the form. You also have the option to set-up an Itinerary Email.
Confirmation Page: The page end-users land on after hitting "Submit".
Confirmation Email:The email that goes out to the form-taker and any BCC's.
Send Itinerary to All Registrants: The email that goes out to all the Registrants of the Event Section. The form-taker can be BCC'd on these as well.
NOTE: If both emails are set to 'ON' as in the above screenshot, the form-taker will receive both emails.
Comments
60 comments
Lisa,
We use the event forms before the conference, so that most of our attendees are pre-registered and the registration desk is simply them picking up their attendee packet.
For day-of registrations, we have had a fair amount of success in having the attendees fill out a paper form, then we have a staff member fill out the online form from the back end of MemberClicks and take payment that way. Then we make a name-badge. We find it doesn't take that long. It especially helps if you make fewer fields required after the online pre-registration closes.
Does this answer your question?
Hey Lisa! Curt makes a lot of suggestions I really like, regarding pre-registering and paper forms onsite.
What you also may find helpful is to utilize the "Take Form As" feature, where a staff member can ask for someone's name, and seamlessly login as them on the spot. The member can then proceed to fill out the Form, and everything is done and tied together. I hope one of these suggestions helps you!
Memberclicks helped me setup my first event registration form and i have had the first attendee register. I see him on the registrants list, but i don't see any payment or invoice. Is it possible for an attendee to register and then backout of the process without paying or receiving an invoice?
Hello Caroline! Once a user has registered successfully, they cannot cancel without reaching out to an admin. If the user didn't pay or create an invoice, it sounds like he didn't select a pricing field. If a registrant needs to pay, I would recommend reaching out to our Help team at help@memberclicks.com so they can help you pin down what happened.
For an event, is it possible to set up member type pricing for lapsed members? Or do they fall into the category of the active member types and receive the active member pricing? Thanks.
Hey Sara! Lapsed Members are treated like Prospects, so that is the pricing they would receive. However, that's a moot point, as the only Form a Lapsed user can login to take is one that includes a Renewal section. If they're renewing, they would then be treated as an Active version of the Member Type. I hope that helps clarify!
I would like to do a limited version of a currently active registration form for on-site registrations. If I toggle off the "enable this element" for things that are no longer pertinent, will this affect any of the previous registrations? Will it affect the layout of spreadsheet when I export the registrations that used the reduced on-site form?
Thanks, Sara
Hey Sara! Disabling elements will only impact what people can see while taking the Form. The layout of your spreadsheet will change if you also move the field, but if you're only disabling it, all will remain as is. I hope that helps!
I am trying to set up a registration form for a two-day event with many session options throughout each day. This is my first time setting up an event registration form and I am looking for guidance as to how to proceed. We would like to allow pricing options to register for only one of the two days, or a discounted rate to register for both days. For example one day registration is $100 regardless of which date you choose, or $175 for two-day registration. Is there a recommended way to go about that? Additionally, how do I integrate logic in order to have only the workshop selections they choose appear depending on which day they register for?
Hello Kiri! I went ahead and made a Help ticket for you, since you've got some specific, in-depth questions. We'll be in touch shortly!
How do I get a Form to assess a Member a Member-rate and a Guest -rate to a Guest of an Event??
Hey Jason! Currently, using "Register Guest" will get any Guests the same rate as the person taking the Form. So if they're a Member, the Guest will also get the member-rate; a Public user will get the public-rate for their guest. If you need the Guest rate to be separate, I would recommend using a separate field for Guest Registration Fee/s.
Hello,
If I have enabled the itinerary emails to go out to individual registrants, and the person completing the form registers themselves, will they get both the confirmation email and the itinerary email, or just the confirmation email? I am trying to determine if I should include merged form data about selections in the confirmation email, but if they get those details in the itinerary email, it isn't necessary to duplicate it there. Also, do the confirmation and invoice emails only go to the email of the person who made the submission?
Hey Kiri! If the user taking the Form also registers themselves, they will get both the Confirmation Email as well as an Itinerary Email. You can set-up your Form to only use Itinerary Emails. Only the Form taker will receive the invoice, as it will not be included in the Itinerary email. I hope that helps clarify!
Is there currently a plan for Guest Registrations to be able to identify and link to current member accounts?
Hey Brooke! No solidified plans that I'm currently aware of. If you haven't already, please leave us some feedback about that!
Can Field Logic be used to determine pricing? Exhibitors and Sponsors get a complimentary attendee registration. We plan on having Exhibits, Sponsorships & attendees on same form.
Hey Cheryl! You can use Field Logic to determine which Field shows up, based on a previous selection. While Field Logic won't impact pricing, it will let you decide which pricing field shows up. If you have questions about how to accomplish what you're looking for, feel free to reach out to our Help Team!
Does the form timer only appear on forms with a cap to the number of registrants? Is there a way to change the timer or is it always 5 minutes?
Are registrants to non-capped events (or people filling out other non-event forms) still timed out of the form if they're idle for a while? How long is that time period, and do they get any sort of time-out warning?
Hey Jen! The timer appears if your Form has any Registrant or Selection limits. While this is not editable at this time, that time was just moved from 5 minutes to 10 minutes instead.
If you do not have limits set-up, users will time out after an hour of inactivity, and there is not a time-out warning at this time for that. I hope that helps clarify!
I have an event registration form in progress and had added the member renewal section as an option. Some members have likely chosen to renew to get member pricing for the event. However, we have realized that there's not an option for a 'member in renewal' who is choosing NOT to renew to continue farther in the form. We have an option set up farther in the form for non members to register at an increased cost for the event. How do they click "no thanks, I'll consider this later" or something like that and continue on to register successfully for the event?
Hey Carolyn! In the Membership Section, if you leave the 'Require Membership Section When Available to the User' toggle OFF (this should be the 2nd toggle), users will have the option to renew, but will also be able to bypass. I hope that helps!
Thank you! I didn't realize I was unintentionally 'trapping' people into membership with my toggle options. I did use it appropriately in another form where submission requires membership, but this form does not.
If we are using the conference app, can we have exhibitors and attendees use separate registration forms, or do we need to have both options on one form?
Hey Janice! It depends how you want to handle this, as only one Form can hook up to the Conference App. If you want exhibitors to be able to log in like your attendees, you will want to either:
a) Have exhibitors register via the same Form as the attendees
Or
b) Import/Manually add the exhibitors that should be able to login
I hope that helps clarify so you can decide how best to move forward!
When entering selection options for a selection set, is there a way to upload multiple selections at once? I tried copying and pasting a list from excel but they ended up at one entry instead of separate entries. Thanks!
Hello Sara! At this time, there is not a way to import all selections onto a Form at once; they need to be added individually.
Hi! Is there a way to have confirmation emails resent automatically to all registrants, or does this have to be done manually? In particular, we have members register for monthly webinars and want them to receive reminder emails the day of or 24 hours ahead of the webinar. I know how we can do this manually, but it would be great if we can schedule it when we set up the form. Thanks!
How do I turn the timer/clock off on a form?
If I were to turn on the itinerary email after I've already had people submit the form, will those individuals receive the itinerary message when I turn it on?
Please sign in to leave a comment.