Events Creating an Event

Transcription

1 Events Creating an Event

2 Events Creating an Event Objective: To learn how to create an event & understand the different configuration settings that are needed to build out event content & enable online event registration. Events Notes Series: This document is part of a series of notes regarding the YourMembership.com Events System. We ve organized the notes into different steps for you to follow. This Creating an Event document is the 3 rd step in the series. When working with events, we recommend viewing our events documents in the following steps: Step 1: Event Registration Forms Step 2: Event Registration Tickets Step 3: Creating an Event (THIS DOCUMENT) Step 4: Event Sessions Step 5: Managing Events Step 6: Managing Event Registrations If you have not yet reviewed the Step 1 (Event Registration Forms) & Step 2 (Event Registration Tickets) documents we suggest doing so before continuing. What is an Event? Events in YourMembership.com allow you to take in and manage registrations for various occasions within your organization. These event occasions can range from educational courses & trainings to meetings, sponsorships & conferences among others. The Events System gives you the flexibility to manage attendance & accept payments for any type of registrant. These notes will help guide you in creating a successful event within your site. The third step to creating a successful event is to create the actual event itself. This portion will allow you to enter the majority of information that you already know about your event (the what, the where, the when etc.). Within this step you also have the ability to enable online registration & setup specific restrictions on who has access. We will outline all of the available configuration settings for creating an event within this document. 2

3 Creating an Event Within the YourMembership.com system, there are two options you can utilize to post events into your site-wide community calendar: Add a New Date - This option will allow you to enter limited information for an upcoming date, such as a short description; however, it does not allow for event registration or event fees. For example, add a Date if you wish to inform your members of any upcoming holiday or anniversary that may not have a physical location or require attendance. Add a New Event This option will allow you to enter detailed information about an upcoming event, include a registration form and attach associated registration fees. To add a new event: Click the Features Menu Tab > click Events in the Left Rail Menu > click Calendar & Events > click on Add a New Event. We ll outline the various configuration settings that make up Adding a New Event below (in bold). 1. General Information a. Status: Set the status to Active to make the event accessible on the frontend. An Inactive status will make the even not visible on the frontend. (Quick Tip: When setting an event to Inactive you do have the ability to Activate On a specific future date) 3

4 b. Name: This is the name of the event that will display on the frontend (ie: 2015 Winter Conference). c. Short Description: The short description is a plain-text area that you can, in 500 characters or less, provide some detail & information regarding your event. The Short description appears as a tooltip on an event when a user hovers over the event in the Calendar Snapshot Zone, Month View, Group Calendar & Event Listing. The text in the tooltip will appear as it is entered within this Short Description field. d. Is event visible to signed-in members only?: This option allows you to decide who has access to view the event on the frontend. i. Select Yes to have the event & its details only accessible to Members of your site who are currently logged into their profile ii. Select No to have the event & its details visible to both Members of your site & anonymous site visitors. e. Show in site-wide calendar snapshots?: Select Yes if you d like for your event to appear within the site layout calendar snapshot. Certain design layouts have an available calendar snapshot zone which displays some of your upcoming events. f. Show in main community calendar?: The Community Calendar page is a listing of all of your current & past events that have been created within your site. Select yes to have the event display in this page. g. Categories: Check the box next to the categories you wish for the event to reside in. 4

5 Categories are a method of organizing the different events that you offer (ie: Meetings, Conferences, Workshops etc.). These categories can be used to filter events on both the frontend & backend of your site. i. To create event categories click the Features Menu Tab > click Calendar & Events in the Left Rail Menu under the Events section > click Manage Categories. 2. Date Settings (When does your event take place?) a. GMT Offset: Select the appropriate time zone in which your event will be held. Event registrants will have the ability to export the event to their default calendar (ie: Outlook, Google calendar etc.) and an accurate time zone will ensure that the event information displays correctly within their personal calendar. (Quick Tip: If the event occurs during Daylight Savings/Summer time, check the box just below the GMT Offset dropdown field. This ensures the exportable ical file that is imported into their default calendar properly reflects the start & end time of the event) b. Start Date: You can utilize the Calendar Icon to the right of the field to select the start date for the event. c. Start Time: Enter the start time of the event, for example 12:00:00 PM. d. End Date: You can utilize the Calendar Icon to the right of the field to select the end date of the event. The end date can also be the same as the Start Date. e. End Time: Enter the end time of the event. The End Time field is used for the purpose of generating an ical file. Calendar applications (such as the Calendar within Microsoft 5

6 Outlook) will use the event end time inside an ical file to calculate the duration of an event. f. Event Date for Display: Enter the desired form for which you wish to display the event date range on the frontend-end event page. For example, Monday & Tuesday Afternoon. g. Event Time for Display: Enter the desired form for which you wish to display the event times on the frontend event page. For example From 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM. 3. Recurrence Settings a. This option allows you to configure an event to recur multiple times within your community calendar (this is best utilized for recurring weekly meetings). b. You have the option to set a recurring Daily, Weekly or Monthly event. If a recurrence option is selected, you will be prompted to enter a recurrence setting and an End By Date. Once the event is saved, the system will automatically generate any future events based upon the recurrence settings and you can edit each event accordingly. c. (Quick Tip: For recurring entries, you must specify an End By date. The End By must be within one year of the Start Date. Recurrence settings cannot be edited after an event is created. Any Sessions created for this event will NOT be duplicated when recurrence is specified. Sessions must be recreated for each occurrence if desired) 6

7 4. Group Information a. This section allows you to link a site-wide event to your individual groups. b. Linking an event to a group will display the event within the group calendar on the frontend. c. Allow group admins to edit this date/event? i. Selecting Yes will allows group administrators to edit the event that you have associated with your group. Please note, to use this setting you may only associate the event to ONLY ONE group. An event that is linked to multiple groups cannot be edited by administrators of multiple groups. 5. Location Information (Where does your Event take place?) 7

8 a. Location Name: Enter the location in which the event will be held. For example: Hilton Hotel b. Presenter: Enter the name of a Presenter or Speaker that will be highlighted within your event. The name value you enter here will display on the frontend event page. c. Address: Enter the physical address information for the event. d. Address Cont: If necessary, enter additional information regarding the physical address of your event. e. Include link to Google Maps: Check this box if you wish to add a Google Map link to the event page on the frontend (Quick Tip: The Google Map is displayed based off of the Address Information provided in the Address, City, Country, Location & Postal Code fields). If enabled, a map image will display below the Event details section on your event page. f. City: Enter the physical city in which the event will be held. g. Country: Enter the physical Country in which the event will be held. h. Location: Enter the physical location in which the event will be held. For example, if in the United States the Location could be Florida. (Quick Tip: The location label is determined based off of what the Country value is; ie: United States = State, Canada = Province, Australia = Territory) i. Postal Code: Enter the physical zip code in which the event will be held. 6. Contact Information a. The contact information section allows you to enter a specific individual or department for members/users to reach out to if they have any questions regarding your event. The information provided here will be visible on the Event Details page on the frontend. i. Contact Name: Enter the name of a specific contact individual or department/title for members/users that have questions regarding the event. ii. Contact Enter a contact address. Ideally, this would be an address monitored by those heavily involved within the event. When entered, a mailto hyperlink is automatically created on the frontend event page. iii. Contact Phone: Enter a contact phone number that members/users can call into to get more information regarding your event. 8

9 7. Registration Settings (This is where you enable users to register online for an event) a. Enable online registration?: When toggled to Yes, a new set of configuration settings will appear below. Enabling online registration allows users to register for the event within your site. A register link will appear within the event details page. b. Is registration restricted to signed-in members only?: This option allows you to restrict registration to specific members (must be logged into a profile) or open event registration to nonmembers (no login required to register). i. If Yes is selected, you may restrict registration to specific member types by checking the box next to the Member Type name. (Quick Tip: Leaving all boxes unchecked will allow all members to register for the event. It s the same as checking all boxes) c. Primary Registration Form: Select the event registration form you would like to use for primary registrants of the event. The event registration form contains all of the data fields that you would like to collect for the event and should be completed first prior to creating the event. (Quick Tip: Please review our notes on Creating Event Registration Forms for more information) 9

10 d. Auto Approve registrations?: If Yes is selected all registrations will be automatically marked as processed and counted toward the overall registration list. If marked No, registrations will need to be monitored and reviewed manually by a site administrator. (Quick Tip: Marking an Event Registrant as Processed does not correlate to processing a payment for the event. These are separate actions. It is recommended to Auto-Approve registrations if you are charging a payment for registrants) e. Allow a member to register more than one attendee?: This option allows you to enable a primary registrant to not only register themselves for the event but they may also register additional individuals. If enabled, any additional attendees will be considered as separate registrants; however, if payment is included they are all included in one Store Order which would be assigned to the Primary Registrant. f. Allow incomplete registrations and modifications to existing registrations: Select Yes to allow registrants to skip certain fields within the registration form as well as edit their registration at a later time. Incomplete registrations consist of required event registration custom fields that are not completed and/or required session tickets for a selected session. g. Show Registration Form for additional attendee registrations?: Select Yes if you wish to gather specific information for additional attendees in addition to the primary registrant. (Quick Tip: It is recommended to show the registration form if you allow for additional attendees. If you elect not to show the registration form for additional attendees you will only obtain the First & Last name of the attendee. In addition, reminders and notifications will only be sent to the primary registrant) h. Additional Attendee Registration Form: Select the registration form you would like to use for the additional attendees. This could be the same registration form as that of the primary registrant or you may elect to have a separate registration form for additional attendees. 10

11 (Quick Tip: Please review our notes on Creating Event Registration forms for more information. To create an event registration form hover over Features > Calendar & Events > Event Registration Forms & click on Add Event Registration Form ) i. Ticket Options for Primary Registrant: Event Tickets are specific payment options that are needed for attendance to your event. You must create your event tickets prior to creating an event. We recommend reviewing our Event Ticket notes document which details creating event tickets. The Primary Registrant is the actual individual going through the registration process. The event tickets you configure here will be available only to the primary registrant. i. Required Tickets: Check the box next to the event ticket name that you wish to be required for the Primary Registrant. If selecting multiple required tickets, the primary registrant will only be allowed to select one of the options provided. The registrant cannot complete their registration without selecting a required ticket. (Quick Tip: If you are accepting payment for any event it is highly recommended you always have at least 1 required ticket. An example of multiple required tickets could be a Regular Registration fee and a VIP Registration fee with different payment amounts. The primary registrant would then choose which payment option (fee) in order to attend your event) ii. Optional Tickets: Check the box next to the event ticket name for any optional tickets (payments) that are available within your event. Any event ticket selected within here will give the primary registrant the ability to select any or all optional tickets presented. (Quick Tip: Optional tickets can be used for 11

12 additional offerings available for your event that aren t necessarily required for overall attendance. For example, at a conference, you may offer a round of golf for a specific fee that attendees can pay to participate in but it is not required for all conference attendees. Therefore, you give the primary registrant the option to select whether or not they d like to participate for a fee) j. Ticket Options for Additional Attendees: Event Tickets are specific payment options that are needed for attendance to your event. If you allow the primary registrant to register additional attendees you can associate event tickets (payment options) for those additional attendees. The additional attendee is the individual(s) that the primary registrant is registering on behalf of during the registration process. The event tickets you configure here will be available only to an additional attendee. i. Required Tickets: Check the box next to the event ticket name that you wish to be required for the Additional Attendee(s). If selecting multiple required tickets, the registrant will only be allowed to select one of the options provided. The registrant cannot complete their registration without selecting a required ticket. (Quick Tip: For Additional Attendee tickets you can associate the exact same ticket as that of the tickets enabled for the Primary Registrant. You may also associate different event tickets for additional attendees. If additional attendees pay a different price amount you ll need to create separate event tickets specifically for the additional attendees and configure them within this area) ii. Optional Tickets: Check the box next to the event ticket name for any optional tickets (payments) that are available for additional attendees. Any event ticket selected within here will be available for additional attendees to select any or all options. You may associate the same optional tickets as that of the tickets enabled for the Primary registrant or you may elect to create different optional event tickets for additional attendees only. 12

13 k. Max # of Registrants: If necessary, you may enter a numeric value within this field to specify the maximum amount of registrants you d like for your event. Often times this field is used if the venue for your event has a certain capacity. Online registration will automatically close once the maximum number of registrants has been reached. If left blank, you may take in an unlimited number of registrants for the event. (Quick Tip: All registration statuses except Cancelled are counted toward the maximum) l. Must Register By: Utilize the calendar icon to select a date after which online registration closes. The registration link will be automatically removed from the event page once this date has passed. (Quick Tip: Registration closes after the date entered has passed. If 12/1/2015 is entered as the Must Register By date members/users have until 11:59:59 PM of 12/1/2015 to register online for the event) m. Send Reminder: Selecting yes provides the ability for an automatic notification to be sent to registrants of the event a certain amount of days before the event takes place as a reminder to registrants of the event. Simply toggle Yes & enter a number value for the number of days you wish for the notification to be sent. (Quick Tip: This notification is a general reminder for all events you create. It is not intended as a specific reminder for each event. You may edit this notification by navigating to Content & Settings Menu Tab > General Settings Section > Notifications & clicking the pencil edit icon to the left of the Events: Reminder Sent to Event Registrants notification. Additionally, you must have the pre-defined Address field in your Event Registration form in order for this notification to be sent/received to event registrants) n. Enable Registrant RSVP: This option encompasses two settings that you may enable/disable. The Registrant RSVP adds a pre-registration pop-up box to the registration process asking the user if they will attend the event. The user s options are 13

14 Yes, No or Maybe. Enabling this option is best for events that don t require payment or any contact information to be collected. If your event has payment options & online registration enabled it is not recommended to utilize the RSVP. This setting also determines if you wish to display the Event Registrant/Attendee list to other users on the event page. i. No, registrant list visible only to Site Admins: Selecting this option will NOT utilize the RSVP (yes, no, maybe) & the Registrant/Attendee list will NOT be visible on the frontend. ii. No, registrant list visible to all (obeys Restricted to Signed-In Members setting): Selecting this option will NOT utilize the RSVP (yes, no, maybe), however, the Registrant/Attendee list will be visible on the frontend to other users. iii. Yes, RSVP list visible only to Group & Site Admins: Selecting this option will display the RSVP (yes, no, maybe) during registration, however, the Registrant/Attendee list will NOT be visible on the frontend. iv. Yes, RSVP list visible to all (obeys Restricted to Signed-In Members setting): Selecting this option will display the RSVP (yes, no, maybe) during registration & the Registrant/Attendee list will be visible on the frontend. 8. Online Registration Instructions a. This section provides a content editor for you to add additional description or instruction to event registrants. The information you enter within here will be displayed to the user before making their ticketing selections or filling out the event registration form. b. It is highly recommended that you be as detailed as possible within this area to describe the process the registrant is about to go through. If you have multiple ticket options for your event this is a perfect area to explain the various options available along with any possible early bird discounts. 14

15 c. You ll also want to specify within here the important fields within your event registration form that are required. (Quick Tip: If your event has sessions, you ll also want to add some description within this area as well as the Online Registration Instructions appears before making any session selections) 9. Registration Thank You (This is the landing page after event registration is complete) a. Use the default Thank you page: Selecting this option will take users to the Default Event Thank you landing page. You have the ability to edit the default thank you message by clicking on the Preview link in parenthesis. All events share the same Default Thank You landing page. (Quick Tip: The Default Thank you page will NOT display if you have event tickets configured for the event) b. Use the Thank You Note below on the Thank You Page: Select this option if you wish to have a custom message on the landing page after a user has completed the event registration process. 15

16 The information you provide within the content editor will be displayed on the Thank You page after the user has submitted their registration form & payment (Quick Tip: If your event utilizes event tickets you ll want to utilize this custom thank you message as opposed to the default thank you) 10. Online Check-In (Allows registrants to mark themselves as attended) a. Selecting Yes will enable the online event check-in link for the event. When activated, users will see a link to check-in on the event details page (Quick Tip: This option allows registrants to mark themselves as attended for an event without any site admin intervention. Use caution with this setting if you are tracking CE credits for the event as credits are automatically awarded when a registrant has been marked as attended) b. Check-In required Fields: Select how a registrant should provide their check-in confirmation for the event. The Badge Number is automatically generated by the site and displayed within the event registration receipt. You may select the registrant Last Name OR Registration Badge ID/Badge # as the required confirmation or Last Name AND Registration ID/Badge # as the required confirmation. c. Online Check-In URL: This is the system generated direct URL for the frontend check in page. You may provide this to event registrants to mark themselves as attended. (Quick Tip: If you do not allow registrants to check themselves in with these features a site 16

17 administrator still has the ability to use this link to administratively mark registrants as attended) 11. Related Products Select any additional items that you would like to be offered for purchase on the event page. Any items selected will display during the even registration process as optional items to purchase. (Quick Tip: A Related Product should be one that is not required for the event. It could be a discretionary item such as a T-shirt or coffee mug. Any Products created within the store NOT marked as an Event Ticket type will be available for selection here) 12. Event Image/Logo Allows you to upload a relevant image or logo to your event which will be automatically displayed within your site s Events listing page and on the individual event details page. Click on the browse button to upload and associate the image/logo with the event. 13. Description/Comments a. This section provides a content editor to add any information regarding your event. The info added within here will display on the Event Details page and is visible before the user begins the registration process. 17

18 b. It s recommended to add content within here that would entice a member/user to want to register for the event. Include the types of activities that will be going on; ie: workshops, trainings, speakers etc. (Quick Tip: Depending on your event, you could use this area to create hyperlinks to other custom pages that you ve created that further detail event functions) 14. Upon Submit This area allows for further action after submitting/saving the event. a. Post to Mobile Feed checking this box adds the event name and link to your mobile feed, which ensures the event is visible in a micro/mobile browser b. Go to Session Management for this event checking this box will direct you to create a session for this event. Sessions are individual classes, workshops, breakouts, speakers etc. that you can offer to registrants attending an event. Please review our Events Managing Sessions notes document for more information. c. Clicking the Submit button will save the event. 15. Send Notification? Upon submitting your event, a box will appear asking if you would like to send a New Event Notification. Clicking Yes here will send a notification to the entire community alerting them that a new event has been posted to the calendar. 18

19 Events Creating an Event This concludes the third step in the Event Series notes documentation for Creating an Event. Be sure to continue to Step 4 of our Events Series which covers Event Sessions. Events Notes Series: Step 1: Event Registration Forms Step 2: Event Registration Tickets Step 3: Creating an Event (THIS DOCUMENT) Step 4: Event Sessions Step 5: Managing Events Step 6: Managing Event Registrations 19