Event concept
Event is a single happening that has a start date, end date, and a location.
The event is the starting point for creating both online registration forms and websites.
All registrations belong to an event.
This makes the event setup the foundation of both registrations and registration reports.
Event navigation and dashboard
The Event List is the page you see when you log in to Certain.
You click on an Event to manage it and view registrants for the event.
The first page you see when accessing an event is the Event Dashboard.
The Event Dashboard has setup options and summary data about registrants.
Getting started with event creation
See our instructions for creating events.
Our instructions cover three ways to get started creating your first event.
Recommended process to configure your event
We recommend the following process to successfully configure your event:
Step 1: Configure event details. Step 2: Create forms and customize. Step 3: Add optional components.
Step 1: Configure event details
- Event Details.
- Primary Location or Venue.
- Primary Registration Contact.
Step 2: Create forms and customize
- Profile (collect personal data).
- Attendee Types (determine how registrants choose or are placed in attendee types).
- Questions (collect additional information about attendees).
- Verify (enable attendees to verify and/or edit their information).
- Confirmation (provides attendees with final data on their registration).
- Custom HTML (displays additional optional messages on the form).
Step 3: Add optional components
- Agenda (establish an agenda that attendees can browse and select from).
- Payment (how will attendees pay if they need to?).
- Accommodation (enable attendees to reserve a hotel room).
- Additional Registrations (enable attendees to register other attendees).
- Logic (create conditional rules that cause things to happen on the form or behind the scenes).
- Custom HTML (displays additional optional messages on the form).
Event Setup overview
Each event has a start and end date and status. The event status determines whether the event is in testing mode or is accepting live registrations, and also can be used to keep track of when the event physically takes place. Basic event setup also consists of choosing which Functional areas are needed for the event (see the Plan > Configure > Options page). Functional areas, such as Finance or Accommodation, can be enabled or disabled depending on which features you need in order to run your event. For instance, if you do not need to collect fees for an event, you can disable the Finance and E-commerce modules.
Location / Venue
Each event can be assigned a primary venue, that is either unique to the event, or taken from the account's database of previously used suppliers. The event's primary venue is defined on the Plan > Event Setup > Details page.
Registration Contact
Each event can be assigned a registration contact.
Select from the account's list of registration contacts or add one to that list as part of assigning that contact.
Do this under 'Contact' on the Plan >Event Setup > Detail page.
Attendee Types
Registrations for an event are divided into one or more attendee types (e.g., attendee, sponsor, guest, employee, etc.).
Attendee Types are created and modified on the Plan > Event Setup > Attendee Types page. Here the planner can:
- Select an attendee type from the ones available to the event, or create a new one.
- Modify the attendee type, default status, and confirmation text.
- Set limits on the number of registrations in this attendee type for both the event and a single order.
- Assign date-based registration and cancellation fees for the attendee type.
- Designate a passcode to the attendee type and send it to all invitees of that type.
- Enter projected amounts for all attendee type fees, which are used in budget reports.
- Create and modify attendee types (details).
Registration Status
The registrations in an event can be tracked by their status, which includes standard values of:
- Requested Invitation
- Waitlist Hold
- Invited
- Request Denied
- Invitation Sent
- Pre-registered
- Declined Invitation
- Cancelled
- No-show
- Attended
In addition, you can create custom registration statuses for each event, on the Plan > Configuration > Status page. Modify the event's registration statuses (details).
Custom Questions
An event may contain up to 30 custom questions whose answers are stored for each registration in that event.
These custom questions should collect information that is specific to the event only.
Questions that have prices or inventory limits should be set up as agenda items.
Questions whose answers describe a person, that do not change that much over time, and are not event-specific, should be set up as custom profile questions.
Custom registration questions are created and modified on the Configuration tab > Questions sub-tab.
Here you can:
- View, reorder, and remove questions in the custom question list.
- Modify the custom questions.
An event has 60 custom questions available to it—30 as custom profile questions and 30 as custom registration questions. Since the custom profile questions are set up for an account, all events in that account use the same 30 custom profile questions. Each event, however, can have its own distinct 30 custom registration questions, which contain event-specific information. Create and modify custom registration questions (details).
The difference between profiles and registrations. How to set up custom profile information for an account.
Agenda Items
An event may have many agenda items that occur between the start and end dates.
Agenda items may include breakout sessions, optional activities, meals, guest programs, classes, speaker engagements, etc.
You create Agenda Items on the Plan > Event Setup > Agenda page, where you can:
- Edit existing agenda items or create a new ones.
- Modify the name, online label, and description of the agenda item.
- Manage agenda items by grouping them by Location, Track, or Session/Group.
- Limit how many registrants can select an agenda item by assigning it an inventory.
- Assign date-based and time-based registration and cancellation fees.
- Assign CEU credits to the item.
- Enter projected amounts for all agenda item fees, which are used in budget reports.
- Create and modify agenda items (details).
Note: If your Certain edition includes it, you may use the Speaker and Session Management features in your event. In that case, you would be setting up "sessions" instead of "agenda items". See Manage > Speakers and Sessions > Sessions.
Payment Processing
Events that involve online payment processing from the attendees must be assigned an e-commerce account, so that the system knows where to direct the payments received.
Set up an e-commerce account to accept payments online.
Assign an e-commerce account to an event.
Accommodation
The collection of accommodation reservations, including room block and sub-block management, is set up on the Plan > Accommodation page. Here you can:
- Create or modify hotels, room types, and room night inventory limits.
- Create or modify accommodation blocks and sub-blocks.
- Select housing options to ask of registrants.
- Enter optional fees and projected numbers.
Room Sharing and Roommate Matching
You can enable or require registrants to share hotel rooms with other registrants if you wish.
The Room Sharing and Roommate Matching module provides elements that can be shown on the Accommodation pages of the form as well as Roommate Matching functionality you access from the Accommodation area.
Potential roommates:
- Select housing options to ask of registrants.
- Input roommate matching criteria requirements (e.g., only attendees of the same gender may room together).
- Setup Room Sharing and Roommate Matching (details).
Online Display Settings
Each event can have its own custom online display, which defines the overall look and feel of both Websites and online forms.
The display settings are modified on the Settings tab > Display sub-tab.
This area enables the planner to:
- Upload an image for the event.
- Create custom headers and footers for the page display.
- Select the page alignment, width, and layout.
- Select font faces, colors, and sizes.
- Add custom HTML shells (for advanced users with HTML knowledge, only).
- Customize the event display (details).
Publishing and follow-ups
Next, continue the process to publish your forms. You have several options:
- Post links to the forms on your public Website.
- Create a Website inside of Certain to market your event.
- Email a link to your registration form to potential attendees.
Note
Help topics may include features about to be released.