Create a Full Conference Registration

In this tutorial, we will create a full-fledged registration experience, capable of...

• Exhibitor and attendee registration
• Logical selection requirements
• Exhibitor booth reservations
• Full colleague registration
• And more...

CASE STUDY BEGINS: SCOPING OUT THE CONFERENCE

We have a 2-day conference called OUTDOOR NATIVE. It takes place in San Francisco, CA, on October 19-20, 2020. 

The first day of the conference is about learning and networking; the second is about doing. On the 19th, registrants can pick up to two 2-hour courses and explore the exhibit hall at their leisure. On the 20th, registrants (and exhibitors) will embark on their chosen adventure for the day.

WHO is registering?

• Non-Member Attendees
• Member Attendees
• Exhibitors

WHAT will they register for?

• General registration fee
• Tracks/courses
• Optional lunch
• Exclusive panel and networking session
• Adventure day activity

WHAT information do we need from registrants?

• Exhibitors
  • Company logo
  • Company description
  • Industry
  • Mission Statement
• Non-Members
  • Industry you work in
  • Favorite outdoor-focused charity
  • How'd you hear about us
• Members
  • Membership ID Number
  • Industry you work in
  • Favorite outdoor-focused charity
  • How'd you hear about us

CREATING THE CORE REGISTRATION EXPERIENCE

Now that we have a general idea of what our conference involves, we can start constructing the registration experience. 

REGISTRANT PROFILES

Let's start from the top and work our way down. At the very highest level of your event registration, what must happen? You need to provide registrants with a way to tell you WHO they are. 

We have 3 registrant types:

• Member Attendee
• Non-Member Attendee
• Exhibitor

Each registrant type will have different options to register for and different questions to answer. So really, we need 3 custom registration forms. We call these CUSTOM PROFILES.

Click into the REGISTRATION tab of the Builder, then select the CUSTOM PROFILES tool from your belt on the left. Click the + NEW PROFILE button up top and create your first profile, "Member Attendee". Do the same for the other two types:

With profiles, we dictate who will register and what they will register for. Each profile is a customizable form that represents a TYPE of registrant.

For each [type of registrant] Custom Profile that you create, here are a few key examples of attributes which can be set to accommodate each Profile you build:

• 1) Which Registration Items appear [for that type of registrant]
• 2) The list of Form Prompts that show [for that type of registrant]
• 3) The Confirmation Email settings (including a customizable body of text and banner image

See below the full set of attributes which can be customized per profile:

REGISTRATION ITEMS

Remember, items represent any tangible selection that a registrant can make. Typically, we create items for these types of things:

• Optional lunch selection
• Registration fees
• Breakout sessions
• Activities
• T-shirts

Click into REGISTRATION ITEMS tool on on the left. Click the CREATE YOUR FIRST ITEM button. You'll notice 4 options; however, each of these items fall into 2 buckets of general behavior:

1) Quantity-Based Item

2) Single-Selection Item

• Enhanced Item: this item is a checkbox-type item. Registrants can only select one of these per registration
• Attendee Item: this item is a dropdown-type item. Registrants can select multiple, up to the allowable limit per registrant that you decide

The following represent the main registration options available for this event:

• Non-members Admission $300: includes 2 courses and access to exhibit hall
  • Register after August 31, 2019 - price increases to $400

• Members Admission $199: includes 2 courses and access to exhibit hall
  • Register after August 31, 2019 - price increases to $299

• Exhibitor 10' X 15' Booth $800: includes 2 exhibitor floor badges (cannot take courses)
  • Register after May 15, 2019 - price increases to $1,000

To configure, create the following:

• Enhanced item called "Non-Member Registration"
  • Make the base price $300 (the early bird rate)
  • Click ACTIVATE AUTO PRICE CHANGES and setup the $400 late price trigger
  • Add a description to the item
  • Set "Registrant Must Choose This" to YES

• Enhanced item called "Member Registration"
  • Make the base price $199 (the early bird rate)
  • Click ACTIVATE AUTO PRICE CHANGES and setup the $399 late price trigger
  • Add a description to the item
  • Set "Registrant Must Choose This" to YES

• Enhanced item called "Exhibitor Booth"
  • Make the base price $800 (the early bird rate)
  • Click ACTIVATE AUTO PRICE CHANGES and setup the $1,000 late price trigger
  • Set "Registrant Must Choose This" to YES

Notice that we set each item to mandatory status (by flipping "Registrant must choose this" to YES). You might be curious as to why this was done - now it seems as though every registrant will have to purchase all three levels of event access.

However, that is not the case. Not every registrant, will see all three of those items. Recall that we have separated these three levels of registration access into three appropriate profiles. Thus, each registrant will only see one option depending on the profile they choose at the start of registration.

QUICK TIP: You can use registration groups as needed. Groups are useful for ordering the registration items on your form. They assist with 1) incorporating needed business rules (specifically, minimum and maximum selection rules); and 2) providing an organized, professional look to the registration form.

CONNECTING ITEMS WITH PROFILES

After you create registration items, you can place them on the appropriate forms in which they belong.

Navigate back into the Custom Profiles tool and click the pencil icon next to the Member Attendee profile. Scroll down to the "Which items will you offer in this profile?" box. Check the box next to the appropriate registration option that should sit on this particular custom form. 

Click the BACK TO PROFILE LIST button in the upper left corner to return to the profile grid. carry out the same process for the other two profiles. Once you add at least one item to a custom profile, it can be activated.

• Check the ACTIVATE box next to a profile (in the profile grid) to turn it on

QUICK TIP: The reason we require at least one item be present on a custom profile prior to activation is because our system requires every registrant checkout with at least one item in their cart.

SETTING UP REGISTRATION LOGIC

Now we can continue with the same process above, applied to the other registration options that registrants will get to pick on the form.

Attendee course options will need Registration Items created for them. See below business rule requirements for the event's courses:

• There are 2 time blocks of courses..
  • 9am - 11am
  • 3pm - 5pm
• Each time block will offer the option of selecting 1 of 5 courses, which happen concurrently 
• The same 5 courses will be offered for both time blocks, so it in the attendee's best interest to pick different courses within each group of items

Navigate back into the REGISTRATION ITEMS tool and create a new item group. The group will help us organize our items. Name the first group "TIME BLOCK 1: 9am-11am".

Next, create 5 Enhanced registration items. Keep them free of charge (since the admission fees to the conference cover the cost of the courses). Click and drag them all under your TIME BLOCK 1 grouping. Let's call them:

• Oceans of our World (9am)
• Mountains, Valleys and the Creative Topography of Earth (9am)
• Forestry and Wildlife 101 (9am)
• The Tropics of Mother Earth (9am)
• The Delicate Balance of Ecosystems (9am)

Now click into an item to open its settings panel. Select the EXCLUDE ITEMS sub-menu on the left. You can now govern which selections of other items should be disallowed based on the current item's selection. 

• Go ahead and check off the box next to the 4 other courses offered
• This means if the registrant selects the current item on the form, they cannot select any of the other 4 courses in that time block 
• Do the same thing for the other 4 course options - now they are mutually exclusive

Now we have one time block of courses built out. Next, create the second group. If you click the small GEAR icon on top of the group you created earlier (TIME BLOCK 1), you will open the settings panel for your group. 

Take a look at the settings panel and you'll see a COPY GROUP function in there. Push that link and you will instantly create a copy of each item and the group. 

To clean up the group and get it ready for registration, take the following steps:

• Change the group name to "TIME BLOCK 2: 3pm-5pm"
• Edit each item title to reflect the session name (they are all the same), but instead of "(9pm)", append "(11pm)" to the end
• Now, click into each of your new 5 sessions and make sure you have the proper exclude rules setup
  • NOTE: all you need to do is make sure the 11pm sessions are mutually exclusive with respect to each other, NOT with respect to the 9am group of sessions

CHALLENGE

Create activity registration for the second day. 

Requirements:

1. There must be 3 activities to choose from
2. The registrant can only select 1 activity for the day
3. Include an optional add-on for provided transportation as a separate item (HINT: you can change an Enhanced item's control setting to a "YES/NO" input rather than a checkbox)
4. There needs to be a final option "NO ACTIVITY" that serves as an opt out

Here are a few examples you can use:

• Mountain Biking Tour $99
• Surfing Lesson $39 
• Hike and Beach $49 
• Golden Gate Bridge Bike to Sausalito $29

MEALS

There is a third item type that we haven't reviewed yet: the GOODS & SERVICES item type. Typically, we recommend using this item type to represent ancillary goods. In our case, we'll use it for the optional lunch option. 

In the Registration Items tool, click the + NEW ITEM button and create a Meal item using the box on the far right of the window. You can call the item "Optional Lunch Box". You can set the base price to $18. 

Now click into the WEBSITE tab of the Event Builder. Push the FOOD MENU tool in your belt on the left. Create 3 options for lunch. In the FOOD MENU tool, note that you have a few capabilities with respect to customizing your meals:

• Upload an image
• Add a description
• Designate satisfactions of different dietary restrictions 

When you have completed meal creation, head back to the REGISTRATION tab and select the REGISTRATION ITEMS tool. Click your meal item that you created. Set the Limit PER Registrant just just a quantity of 1. This will ensure that registrants don't select more than 1 of these.

Now select the FOOD MENU option in the sub-menu on the left, then click the MANAGE MEALS button. You can create a sub-menu of items using the meals you created in the Food Menu tool. 

Now, when a registrant opts into the meal, a dropdown selector will reveal itself and allow the registrant to choose the specific meal they'd like. 

T-SHIRTS

Create another Goods & Services item called "T-Shirt". Set the Limit PER Registrant to 1 as well. 

CHALLENGE

Attempt to use the your t-shirt item's mini-menu to activate apparel sizes.

Once you've setup apparel sizes for your t-shirt item, we can setup automatic free include logic. The expected behavior is that the t-shirt item is included for free when the registration option above is selected.

First, click into your Member Registration item, then select the Free Extras sub-option. Below, you'll see a list of your items with respective checkboxes next to them. Go ahead and flip on your Free T-Shirt item. Now, when a registrant selects Member Registration, they will get a free t-shirt! Feel free to have some fun with the Free Extras tool and make other connections within your form.

CHALLENGE

Figure out how to to configure your custom profiles with all of the new registration items you have

Requirements:

• Allocate all registration items that are currently created
• Make sure to ACTIVATE each registration profile (HINT: it is a checkbox in the Profile Grid, before entering a profile for editing)

This is what your Member profile should look like now:

CREATING TEAM REGISTRATION THROUGH THE GUEST SETUP TOOL

NOTE: Before proceeding, make sure you complete the last challenge in the prior section, it is critical to this section. 

EXHIBITOR REGISTRATION

Earlier, we created an Exhibitor Booth item. This item essentially serves as the main registration fee for an exhibiting team/company. The booth comes with 2 exhibitor passes. 

How do we create exhibitor passes? How are they included with the booth? What if an exhibiting company wants to bring more than two personnel, how do we allow them to purchase additional? Finally, how do we allow these registrants to come back and select their own adventure for Sunday?

First, we need to create an ATTENDEE REGISTRATION ITEM. Click the + NEW ITEM button in the Registration Items tool (within the REGISTRATION tab of the Builder). Use the box on the far left and name the item "Exhibitor Conference Pass". These passes will allow the exhibitor to indicate the number of personnel they'd like to bring to the conference. 

Let's use our free include logic to connect 2 free Exhibitor Conference Passes to the Exhibitor Booth item:

• Open the settings for the Exhibitor Booth item
• Push the FREE EXTRAS sub-option on the left
• Now click the QUANTITY-BASED INCLUDED ITEMS button below
• Use dropdown next to your Exhibitor Conference Pass item to connect 2 for free!

Now, an exhibitor that opts to purchase a booth will receive 2 free exhibitor passes for free. The dropdown functionality of this item will also allow exhibitors to pay for additional passes beyond the 2 that are included for free.

With that ability in mind, we will need to associate a base price with the Exhibitor Conference Pass item. Go ahead and price this pass at $75 using the BASE ITEM PRICE box (within the Exhibitor Conference Pass item's settings panel). 

EXHIBITOR TEAMMATE REGISTRATION

Next, we need to configure the form so that the quantity of the Exhibitor Conference Pass item selected will translate to the correct number of extra registration slots awarded to the registering exhibitor.

First, consider what is needed to make this a reality:

• 1) A way to tell the system how many "guests" you're bringing
• 2) A way for the "guests" themselves to register

NOTE: A "guest" in our system is an extra registrant that is attached to what we call a "primary registration", or the first registrant in a group. However, our system allows you to re-classify or rename guest registrants to something that fits your event's needs. We can call them "colleagues" or "teammates" for example.

FULL GUEST REGISTRATION METHOD

Click the GUEST SETUP tool on the left, within the REGISTRATION tab. Flip the large activation switch in the upper right corner of the screen. 

The guest setup process comes in a few steps, depending on which method you choose at the beginning. For our example, select the FULL RECORD METHOD.

After selecting, you will notice that there are 3 distinct steps:

1. INVITED PARTY LABEL: determine what invited registrants are called for this event
2. TRIGGER RIGHT TO INVITE ASSOCIATES: setup the calculation based on items
3. WHICH ITEMS CAN YOUR ASSOCIATES CHOOSE: decide items offered to additional regs

1. RE-LABEL

We can change the invited party label to another term that is more suitable to exhibitors. 

2. SET TRIGGERS

Triggers are items that you give the ability to award a registrant with extra registration slots. In our example, the "Exhibitor Conference Pass" item should be the indicator of how many exhibitors will be attending the event and thus, need to register.

• In the Guest Setup tool, scroll through the STEP 2 section until you see the Exhibitor Conference Pass item
• Check the box next to it to designate the item as a guest trigger 

QUICK TIP: See the "Quantity Chosen" text? That explains the fact that the number of extra Associate slots someone is awarded is determined by the quantity of that item selected using the dropdown.

To the far right of the trigger, you'll notice your 3 custom profiles stacked right on top of each other, with a checkbox for each.

NOTE: if you do not see this, then you need to make sure you have allocated registration items to each of your custom profiles properly, as well as ACTIVATED all of your profiles before completing Guest Setup. Please go back to the REQUIRED CHALLENGE just after the T-SHIRT ITEM section to complete this step. See below for this step.

These boxes allow you to dictate which profiles are eligible to be used by invited registrants. With this in mind, you have a few unique abilities:

• You can leave them all un-checked so the guest registrant has the option of any available profile
• You can turn on a couple profiles to narrow down the offered profiles
• You can select only 1 profile, which would make it mandatory that any guest registrant that is triggered by that particular item, be routed directly into that custom profile

In our example, we are using the Exhibitor Conference Pass to trigger registration slots (or invites) or additional exhibitor representatives. Therefore, it makes sense that we make these additional reps register using the Exhibitor profile. 

• Check the box next to the Exhibitor profile, for the Exhibitor Conference Pass triggering item

In some cases, we would recommend creating a separate profile used specifically for "Exhibiting Staff". An extra profile might be needed if the form questions / form items must be varied from the original exhibitor profile used by the primary registrant.

3. SETUP GUEST FORM 

In the final step of guest setup, we need to determine which items that are already present on the registration form should also be viewable by "guest" or invited registrants.

For each item, there is a dropdown.

NOTE: you will not see your trigger item "Exhibitor Conference Pass" in this list. That is because triggering items are automatically disallowed by being show to "guest" registrants, to prevent un-ending trigger loops. 

Each dropdown contains the same 3 options:

• Show ONLY on Primary
• Show BOTH on Primary and Guest
• Show ONLY on Guest

In our example, we will want to flip the dropdown on all items available to exhibitors to SHOW ON BOTH PRIMARY AND ASSOCIATE FORMS. That way, those items show to both.

We should flip:

• All adventure option items (including the OPT OUT item)
• The optional lunch box

The dropdown on the far right then allows us to either offer any item to guest registrants for free OR keep the original pricing valid. In our case, we will want to use STANDARD PRICING. 

In some cases, we would use SHOW ONLY ON GUEST FORM, wherein there are registration items that are exclusive to guests. An example would be a guest-only reception that is not attended by main registrants, who might be participating in conference sessions at that time.

INTERACTIVE BOOTH MAP

You can leverage the system to offer an interactive space map for exhibitors to reserve specific booths on the exhibit floor. This is useful especially in cases where exhibiting companies are particular about where they setup (i.e. competitors prefer to locate their booths far away from each other).  

To enable space selection, we will first create the interactive booth map. This involves drawing your booth spaces and can be done with or without a schematic/graphic of your floor plan in the background.

Then, we will connect the map to an underlying registration item, which is the mechanism by which a registrant can access the interactive map while filling out the registration form.

Much like guest triggering, we will designate an item in the form that, when selected, will present the exhibitor registrant with the opportunity to pick a booth from the map. 

CLICK N BUY SPACES

Navigate to the REGISTRATION tab inside the Event Builder, then select the Click N Buy Spaces tool on the left. 

1. BUILD THE MAP

The first step in setting up the exhibitor booth map is to create the map. Click the CREATE & MANAGE SPACES button to enter the space map tool. In this tool, you can create rectangular and/or circular booths of any size. 

QUICK TIP: you MUST flip the radio button at the top of your map grid to ACTIVE status in order for the map to appear inside the registration form. Don't forget this important step when you're ready to go live.

When you first enter the map creator, you'll see your first available booth (colored yellow) in the upper left corner. This is called the DECK. Click and drag a space from the deck to the map. Once you drop the space on the grid, it will turn green, thereby indicating that the space is active. 

If you run out of spaces on the deck, click the blue SETTINGS button in the upper left corner of the tool. Then, expand the MAP ATTRIBUTES section and increase the TOTAL SPACES dropdown to the total number of booths you are offering. You can always increase this down the line, if needed.

To resize a space, click and drag one of the corners of the rectangle. To return a space to the deck, double-click the rectangle. To adjust the color and shape of the booth, click the small triple-dot icon on top of the rectangle. 

After creating each space, you'll notice a row is generated for that booth below the map grid. This list is called the MANIFEST. Here, you can manually assign active registrants to a booth, remove a registrant from a booth and set a premium/price to a specific booth.

Since our booth price is baked into the underlying registration item that we setup earlier ($800, with price increase to $1000 on specified date), we don't need to add any prices within the map tool.

QUICK TIP: let's say your base price for a booth (minimum amount you'd have to pay for a booth) is $500. Different booths have different premiums depending on where the booth is located on the map (i.e. corner booths cost $300 extra). What you can do is set the very minimum base price inside the underlying REGISTRATION ITEM. Then, you can add individual booth premiums inside the CLICK N BUY tool. That way, premiums are location-specific and only charged on top of the $500 base fee.

CHALLENGE

Play around with the CLICK N BUY SPACES tool and create your own custom map. A few things you can do:

• Add widgets to represent non-interactive facilities (i.e. bathrooms) that aren't for reservation
• Color-code your booths
• Upload a background image to the map to better orient viewers
• Add premiums based on locations
• Rename your map
• Change the dimensions of certain spaces
• Change the shape of certain spaces
• Add more spaces to your map
• Re-label or re-number your spaces

2. LINK THE MAP TO REGISTRATION

Once the map is completed, return to the CLICK N BUY SPACES tool inside the Event Builder. 

Scroll down to STEP 2. You will see a pick list with all of your registration items. Check the box next to the appropriate registration item that should trigger access to the booth map when selected. In our example, use the EXHIBITOR BOOTH item (which contains the base exhibitor fee). 

3. PUBLISH THE MAP

Once you're ready to publish the map to your event website, jump into the WEBSITE tab of the Event Builder and select the CONTENT ACTIVATION tool on the left. Find the tab for booths and flip the switch - this will generate a new tab in the main menu of your event website (and companion mobile app) which contains a graphic display of your exhibitor map. Note that this map is interactive for visitors to your site and thus can be searched for specific exhibiting companies and/or space numbers.

TESTING AND FINISHING YOUR WEBSITE

 Beyond the agenda, there are of course a number of additional ways to add content and customize the look of your event website and registration experience. We encourage you to explore the system in its entirety, get creative and keep learning!

TEST REGISTRATION

We HIGHLY recommend thoroughly testing your registration experience from all angles / profiles before launching. The better you know your registration, the easier it will be for you come event day to support registrants through the process. 

To test, simply click the eyeball icon in the Event Builder to preview the event site. Then, click to register as an attendee would.

After completing a full registration, you can always delete the registration and try again using a different profile. To delete a registration:

• Visit the Event Dashboard
• Click the blue carrot icon on top of your event to open the controls
• Push the REGISTERED ATTENDEES button
• Then, click the red "X" icon to the left of the registrant's name (i.e. yourself!)
• Confirm deletion

QUICK TIP: You can re-access / re-register any deleted registration manually by clicking the INCOMPLETE button (right next to the REGISTERED ATTENDEES button) and selecting the ADMIN CANCELLED radio button filter at the top of the modal. 

BUILDING THE AGENDA

This is the final key piece to building out Outdoor Native. Hop into the AGENDA tab, then select the AGENDA SETUP tool on the left. Then click CREATE ONE NOW. The system will automatically generate 2 days for your agenda (since the event takes place over 2 days). 

Take a look at each day - notice you have a couple options for adding slots to each day. You can:

• IMPORT a slot from a previous event
• Create an ITEM-CONNECTED SLOT, which is a slot connected to a registration item
• Build a NEW SLOT from scratch, manually

The 1st and 3rd options are fairly straightforward: either bring in a slot from a previous event to reduce your workload, or just create a brand new slot from scratch. The 2nd option above, however, has some interesting implications. Consider that we have registration items that are time-based (we do). Not only do they need to appear as options on the registration form, but they also must be present on the agenda. This is where the ITEM-CONNECTED SLOT comes into play. With this method, you can essentially connect a registration item to the agenda. 

Go ahead and click the ITEM-CONNECTED SLOT button. A modal will appear with all of your registration items. By clicking into each item, you can assign the item a date/time/location. Finally, you can add the item to the agenda by clicking the button below. 

CHALLENGE

Connect the COURSE items to the agenda. Then, manually create slots that represent the rest of the agenda. Some ideas:

• On-site check-in
• Breakfast meet n' greet
• Networking session
• Lunch

SETTING UP THE REST

The registration experience is complete, save for a few tweaks you may decide to make. From here on out, it is all about building out your webpage and making everything look on-brand. 

Things to consider setting up from the this point:

• Add colors to your registration form elements and webpage
• Create custom marketing pages to live in the main menu of your site
• Embed images and videos
• Create an agenda
• Fill out registration item descriptions
• Customize button labels
• Show off your sponsors
• And more...