The trouble with a registration PDF
Plenty of respected organizations still run their biggest night of the year on a registration PDF. Download it, fill it in, email it back. Then someone on staff retypes every reply into a spreadsheet, chases the ones who forgot an entrée choice, and prints the list the morning of.
Guests notice, even if they never mention it. A PDF registration form for your gala looks as dated as a broken link.
It also causes real problems. Every retyped row is a chance for a misspelled name at the door, and the spreadsheet is already out of date the moment it's printed.
What registration actually has to do
Event registration comes down to a short list of jobs. Take an RSVP without making anyone create an account. Count seats honestly, plus-ones included, and stop at capacity. Keep a waitlist, so a full event still captures interest instead of turning people away.
Confirm right away by email, with something the guest can show at the door. And give whoever is working the door a live list they can use without a laptop, a login tutorial, or the one staff member who knows the system.
None of this is complicated. It feels complicated because most organizations only deal with it twice a year, on deadline, in a vendor's interface built for someone else.
Three good ways to run it
On a WordPress site, registration usually ends up in one of three places. Each is a sound choice. What differs is where the guest list lives afterward and what each registration costs.
The Events Calendar, on your own site
The Events Calendar is a free plugin that adds event pages and a calendar to your site. Its free companion, Event Tickets, takes RSVPs and sells tickets through Stripe or PayPal, and the guest list stays in your own WordPress database.
The paid edition, Event Tickets Plus, adds custom registration questions and QR code check-in at the door. For receptions, trainings, and open houses, everything stays on your site.
Eventbrite, for large and paid events
Eventbrite runs registration on its own platform: payment, confirmation emails, and a phone app that scans tickets at the door. Free events cost nothing to list. Paid tickets carry a service fee and payment processing, which your buyers pay unless you choose to absorb them.
The attendee list lives in Eventbrite, so download it after every event, and link to the event from your own calendar.
Your membership system, for member events
If your members already sign in to an association management system, its event module is often the right home for member events. The member signs in once, the system knows their membership, and the registration lands on their record next to dues and renewals.
How to choose
Start with where the guest list needs to end up, then match the tool to the event.
- Open events on your own site, such as receptions, trainings, and open houses: The Events Calendar with Event Tickets.
- Large or paid events where you want payment and door scanning handled for you: Eventbrite.
- Member events with member pricing: the event module in your membership system, linked from your site's calendar.
Many organizations use two of these. The calendar on the site lists every event, and Eventbrite or the membership system takes the registrations for the events that need them.
The door, and the morning after
Whichever tool you choose, find out before the night how the door will work. A phone is best: the person at the door scans a ticket or finds a name in a searchable list, and the count stays current.
The next morning, export the list of who actually came and keep it with your organization's records. That list is the start of next year's invitations, and it belongs to you.
What LFW sets up
If LFW runs your website, setting up a registration tool is a fixed-price project, quoted before work starts. After that, a new event page, a new ticket type, or a change to the confirmation email is a small task under the Web Operations Retainer.
Plugin licenses and platform fees are set by each provider, not by LFW. Your organization pays licenses directly unless your order form says LFW resells them.
Leland Fiegel