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Event planning and management

The decisions you make when planning an event affect how you set it up. Consider the questions in this chapter before you start.

Planning your event

If you are new to CiviEvent, think about the structure of your events and how you want someone to experience registration. These questions can help you decide how to set up and configure an event:

  • What different types of events does your organization hold, and what type of event is this?
  • What different roles will participants have at the event?
  • What information do you want to collect about participants, such as food and lodging preferences?
  • Will you allow online registrations?
  • Is there a limit on the number of participants who can attend?
  • Do you want to approve registrations, or leave registration open to anyone?
  • Will there be a waitlist if the maximum number of registrations is exceeded?
  • Should one person be able to register multiple people?
  • Do you want to give registrants confirmation of registering?
  • Do you want to make the participant listing public?
  • Is this an event that repeats regularly with roughly the same details?
  • Will this be a paid event? If so:
    • What Financial Type will you consider the event fees to be?
    • What kind of fee structure will you need?
    • Will you charge multiple fees, such as fees for additional sessions or meals?
    • Will you offer discounts or early registration?

Assess what information you need to run your events effectively and what would be useful to collect during events and from participants. If you run similar recurring events, consider using event templates or the event copy features to make setup easier.

Promoting your events

Think about whom you want to attend and where they get their information. This can help you decide how to promote the event:

  • What strategy and channels will you use to promote your event?
  • Will you post the event on your website and allow people to register online?
  • Is email a good way to reach your constituents to market the event?
  • Is the event “by invitation only”? Whom will you invite?
  • Have you planned a schedule from the initial announcement or invitation through event reminders?

Listing your event prominently on your organization’s website and public calendar is one way to promote it. You can also let people and organizations know about it and encourage participants to help promote it. See the Integrating events with your website sub-section of the Online event registration chapter in this section.

If you publicise your event on another website or organization’s calendar, make it clear how people should register. For example, some social networks have a built-in event registration system, such as Facebook events. Other organizations helping to publicise your event may have their own registration systems. Wherever you publicise the event, make the expected registration process clear.

Following up after the event

Update each participant’s status during or soon after the event so that you have accurate information to evaluate it.

Consider emailing attendees after the event to thank them and provide links to any documentation you have online. You may want to send a different email to people who registered but did not attend. You might also use this opportunity to promote a new event, suggest that attendees join your organisation as members, or solicit donations for a specific campaign. To learn more, see Scheduled Reminders in the Email section.