ePly Event Planning Blog

Planning a successful event takes a lot of forethought. It all starts with nailing down your goals for hosting the event, whether it be to drive a specific number of registrations, fundraise a certain amount, or simply provide an experience for your audience.

You want to kick off any event planning process by thinking about your event from the top down — starting with that goal and then everything you’ll do to accomplish it — so that you can set up your online event registration form and reporting to help you in the long run.

How? 

If you’re wondering what an online event registration form is meant to do beyond collecting registration data, you’re overlooking some seriously strategic setup opportunities! Used wisely, your registration form can be your biggest weapon in driving registrations and putting on a memorable event for everyone involved.

From our experience, there are eight things all online event registration forms should be doing in addition to collecting data:

If you’ve hosted or are planning to host a virtual event in 2020 (or beyond), let me ask you...did you charge or are you planning on charging for attendance? Many organizations are reluctant because virtual events lack several of the components in-person events offer (face-to-face networking being a primary one). 

But here’s the thing: While your virtual event might be different than your in-person event, that’s not to say it’s any less valuable. You’re likely still offering top-notch content, and possibly even continuing education opportunities. That’s worth something! 

But the question is...how much? How exactly do you price a virtual event, particularly when you’ve never hosted one before? 

Well, for every organization — and even every event — it’s different. But here are a few things to keep in mind as you’re trying to price yours:

Though it may come as a surprise to many people, building an effective online event registration form can be quite complicated. Finding a balance between asking for information you need, without being overwhelming and risking losing a potential registrant, is not an easy task. Not to mention the fact that many form builders can be difficult to navigate, both for event planners and the attendees attempting to use it! That’s why we’ve given you this quick-reference list to help simplify the process.

In our experience, there are 7 items that you should ALWAYS include on an online event registration form. Use this as a guide any time you start to build one:

Whether it’s due to poor weather, last minute vendor issues, or simply low registration rates, sometimes it becomes clear that the best choice for everyone is to turn to an event cancellation checklist. Though it can be a difficult decision to make — especially after all of the planning and hard work you’ve put into it — it doesn’t have to be written off as a complete loss.

There are upsides to handling a cancelled event swiftly and professionally and even alternative solutions if you’re on the fence about whether or not to cancel your event. If you’re looking for an event-saving alternative, we suggest looking into the features and capabilities a learning management software (LMS) platform can offer before you begin step 1 of an event cancellation checklist. 

If you’ve already exhausted all alternative possibilities, and need some fail-proof steps amidst the countless new to-do items, we've got you covered. Take a look at our:

101 checklist to see how you should start the process of cancelling your event.

The most recognizable name for a solution isn’t always the best solution. When looking for an Eventbrite alternative, keep in mind that new tools are very important investments, so you owe it to your organization to put in extra thought when choosing the best event planning app.

When working in the event space, you come to realize that not every event or conference is going to be a smash with attendance. You’ll hear a lot of reasons to explain no-show absences but usually it just comes down to a lack of time, money, or even interest.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with online event registration is not absolutely scrutinizing your form before releasing it to your audience. The only way you’ll truly know if it’ll be a seamless experience for registrants is by getting in there yourself! And if the experience isn’t seamless, there’s a good chance they’ll abandon registering altogether.

By following these seven steps, you’ll be able to identify and quickly eliminate any online event registration hiccups:

Small details can have a big impact on the number of people who will attend your events. That especially holds true when it comes to your online event registration form! In fact, certain things can even cause your potential attendees to leave, and never return to the form at all.