Setting up an event

Create event pages for community events, parties, etc. You can accept RSVPs, fill volunteer shifts, sell tickets, track attendance and more!

Updated over a week ago

Where to start

Usually, you’ll want to create an event within a calendar. When a calendar page has been created, go to Events & subpages and click + New event

Give the event a name, slug, status (unlisted, published, etc.), and click Create page

Basic event settings

1. Under Event settings > Basics begin entering the date and time for the event. Set the time zone for the location. The length can be entered in hours, minutes, or days. 

📌 Note: The time zone will not appear on the website, you can add a note regarding time zone to the Intro of the event and in the Autoresponse.

2. Enter the venue name.  

3. Limit attendees by entering a maximum capacity. This will cap the number of RSVPs allowed. If you enter “0” there is no limit to the people who can RSVP. Use the Additional # of RSVPs to add a number of offline RSVPs to the total capacity. Please note that offline RSVPs will not be counted towards your RSVP total if have an associated goal set up in your nation. 

📌 Note: If you sell tickets for your event, the capacity for your event will be overridden by the limits you set on your tickets. 

4. A contact person can be an invaluable helper on the day of the event. Enter the contact person’s name, email address, and phone number. You can choose to have this information hidden on the public event page by checking the box “Don’t publish contact email address/phone number.” Consider assigning RSVPs to the contact person under Event settings > Advanced.

5. There are a series of checkboxes on the side of the page that will affect the complexity of your event settings. These include:

  • Sell tickets: Sell tickets for this event. Edit ticket levels at Event settings > Tickets.

  • Accept RSVPs: Allows people to RSVP for the event. If unchecked, the event will display, but people will not be able to submit an RSVP to it. 

  • Allows guests +1: RSVPs can enter the number of guests they will bring to the event. The total group number will be deducted from the maximum capacity.

  • Show who RSVP'd: The profile photo and name of each RSVP will be shown in a stream on the public event page. 

  • Ask to sign up for shifts: Ask RSVPs to sign up for shifts during the event. Edit shifts at Event settings > Shifts

  • Ask for volunteers: Ask RSVPs if they want to volunteer. All RSVPs will be directed to a volunteer signup page after RSVPing.

  • Don't list this event on the website: Track RSVPs and attendance from the control panel, but don't display the event on the website.

6. Click the Save settings button at the bottom of the page before continuing. If you make changes without saving, they will be lost.

Location

Enter the venue’s address under Event settings > Location. Include the venue name, street, city, state, zip code, and country. An exact address will generate a Google map that is included in the event page and the overall calendar page, if your event is part of a calendar. 

You may check "Override latitude and longitude" to input your own information. Once checked, two text boxes will appear to enter the new latitude and longitude. 

Click Save location to save your settings. 

Ticketed events

To sell tickets through your nation you must first check the box Sell tickets at Event settings > Basics.

When the box is checked, two dropdown menus appear. First, select the donation or invoice page the visitor will use to process the payment. If you already have a donation page, we recommend creating a separate one for selling tickets.

The second menu selects a tracking code for the transactions to monitor how much money you have collected through ticket purchases. If both the event page and the payment pages have tracking codes, only the tracking code from the payment page will be added to the ticket sale.

Click the yellow Save settings button at the bottom of the page before creating the ticket level(s).

Next, configure your ticket level prices under Event settings > Tickets.

1. Name the ticket level in the Name text box, ie “Individual” or “VIP”.

2. Write an optional description of the ticket level in the Description text box. This will display under the ticket price on the public event page.

3. Enter a ticket price. This must be a positive amount. If you'd like to create a free event, uncheck the box next to Sell tickets and check the box next to Accept RSVPs

4. Set a ticket level limit, this is the number of tickets that can be purchased for this ticket type for this event across all ticket buyers. For example, if your event has a VIP section that can hold 50 people, you should set this to 50. If someone attempts to purchase more tickets than are left remaining for that level, a pop-up will let them know that there are insufficient tickets available.

5. Indicate how many tickets a ticket level purchases. This is best used when you are giving a discounted rate for couples or group tickets.

6. Click Save. To delete any existing ticket levels, click on the arrow next to the name under “Current Ticket Levels.”

📌 Note: A person buying a ticket will receive two autoresponse emails: one confirming their RSVP and one with the receipt of purchase. 

If you plan to sell tickets outside your nation you can accept RSVPs for your event and send people to a third party website to purchase tickets. To do this, do not check the box next to “Sell tickets” at Event settings > Basics. Then under Event settings > Tickets indicate the URL where your RSVP can purchase tickets. You are also able to enter the price for the tickets in the “Ticket price” text box.  

Hosts

Further refine your event by adding hosts under Event settings > Hosts. To add a host for the event, the person must already have a profile in the People section.

1. Click on the dropdown menu. A blank search box will appear. Enter in the name, email, or twitter handle of the person you wish to add as host.

2. Click Add host.

3. Add the host(s) to a list or remove a host from the event, select the arrow button. 

If an RSVP selects a host, the host will be listed as the RSVP’s recruiter on that person’s profile.

Volunteers and shifts

Volunteers can play a critical role in ensuring your event runs smoothly. Recruit volunteers for your event using a volunteer signup page or by creating volunteer shifts. Note that if this is a ticketed event, volunteer options are not displayed on your public event page. 

To use a volunteer signup page select the “Ask to sign up for shifts” checkbox under Event settings > Basics and click Save settings.

Anyone who visits your event page will check the box "I want to volunteer." If this box is checked, the RSVP will be directed to your default volunteer page. Set this default under Website > Pages > Defaults. It is a good idea to add a role to your volunteer page specific to the event.

You may also ask RSVPs to sign up for shifts during the event. Create the shifts by checking the “Ask to sign up for shifts” checkbox at Event settings > Basics. Click Save settings at the bottom of the page.

You'll add shifts under Event settings > Shifts.

1. Enter the time the shift starts.

2. Enter the duration of the shift in hours or minutes.

3. Include a goal for how many people you want to sign up.

4. Click Save. Edit any shift by hovering/clicking Edit. Delete a shift by clicking on the arrow.

RSVP and attendee settings

Under Event settings > Advanced you are able to add a person to a path, assign membership*, and add tags to any person who has either RSVPed or attended. You may also assign a point person to anyone who RSVPs, if a point person does not already exist for that person’s profile.

📌 *Note: Memberships are available as add-ons. For more information on adding new features please see the add-ons page in your nation.

A tag is s resource for tracking people connected to an event, they are searchable and will also display at the top of a person's profile. 

📌 Note: setting up event tags is best used for tracking people who attend a series of related events, since you can already use existing filter criteria to find the specific event someone RSVP’d to, attended, or hosted. This should make it less necessary to use different tags for every event, and instead let you focus on creating calendar level tags that apply to all the events of that type.

Filters will reflect the current RSVP list, rather than all who RSVP’d, ever. This makes these filters particularly useful for reminder and follow-up emails, which you could schedule to be sent as part of your event creation workflow.

If you use event tags, we recommend you have a system of tagging in place. For example, tag the RSVPs with “Event - 07/30/2015 - RSVP” and the Attendee with “Event - 07/30/2015 - Attendee.” Filter using the tags and you can pull up the entire list of RSVPs based on the tag.

You’ll be able to find anyone who RSVP’d, but didn’t attend.

Track people who have attended multiple events by pulling up the event-specific tags.

Tracking RSVPs and attendees on event day

See the complete list of RSVPs at Event settings > RSVPs. You can quickly add a new RSVP, track if an RSVP has paid for a ticket, print a PDF of the total list, and download a CSV file of the RSVPs.

Every RSVP will display an individual’s name, number of guests, ticket information, recruiter (or host), point person, and if they RSVP’d on social media.

Click the arrow to add the RSVP to a list. Hover over/click Edit to edit any element of an individual’s RSVP. Click the arrow to cancel an RSVP.

Mark a RSVP as having attended the event at Event settings > Attendees

Update the attendee list during an event by checking the box next to the RSVP’s name and clicking the Update Attendees button.

Any tags, memberships*, or followers you created under Event settings > Advanced for attendees will be activated when an individual is marked as having attended.

You can independently track those who RSVP’d and attended, and those who RSVP’d but were not present at the event.

Before you start marking attendance, you may want to uncheck the box next to "Automatically send person RSVPing an email" at Event settings > Autoresponse. In the rare case that someone is marked as having attended the event, but had not previously RSVP'd, they will receive an autoresponse email. Avoid this possibility by deactivating your autoresponse email. 

📌 Note: that you can also use goals to track RSVPs in your nation. Goals will track the total number of people who have RSVP'd to any event in your nation. Learn more about how to use goals.

Cloning events

Cloning can be useful when an event happens regularly within your community. Clone an event at More > Clone. An event can be cloned once, daily, weekly, monthly (by date), monthly (by day of week), and yearly.

Be sure that the original event has completely correct information before you clone an event. Everything, including hosts, ticket levels, and times will be cloned. Information that is not carried over is RSVPs and attendees, as well as any images (Social media images, Featured Content Sliders or images in the Intro of your event). 

It is not possible to update cloned events as a set. If you need help deleting cloned events, please email [email protected].

When the page expires

Since events exist in time, event pages will expire the morning after an event took place. When this happens, the page status in Settings > Page settings will change from “published” to “expired.”

An expired page will be hidden from the site, but it can still be found via search. Take note that users can still RSVP on that page, even if the event has passed.

Turn off RSVPs for past events by changing the page’s status to “deleted.” This will remove the page completely from your site, but it will remain accessible to you in the control panel.

Alternatively, if you do not want to delete the page, you can uncheck “Accept RSVPs” under Event settings > Basics. This will keep the page accessible via search, but people will no longer be able to RSVP for the event.

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