Design Event Registration Like an Expert

Introduction

The event industry is a complex beast and registration is no different. My name is Katrina Majeske, I'm an official registration nerd here at Swapcard. After years of being on the front lines of events, large and small, digital, in person, and everything in between, I'm here to help you cover some knowledge that may help you with your event registration to make sure that they have the best experience that they could possibly have as attendees. And you have the information that you need to make sure that you can cater an event to what your attendees are looking for.

Two Core Registration Phases

In my mind, there are two main categories for your event registration that are gonna be most helpful for you. And that's going to be pre event registration. So anything before they get to that event and then during and after. So when you're at the event, what does it look like for them?

And then afterwards, how are you following up? So the main things to consider with pre event registration is going to include your form design. So how does that website look? Does it feel like a website of yours, including your branding, your colors, things that make it feel like you as a website.

Pre-Event: Design a Friction-Light Registration Form

In addition, you want to make sure you're balancing gathering as much information as you can and keeping it seamless for your attendees. They shouldn't be on that page for more than ten minutes, and that should be easy for them to get through that, answer the questions, submit the payment if necessary, and then complete the registration. Generally, a concise registration form should have about ten or less additional questions. And when I say additional, I mean not first name, last name, but things like how many times have you attended this event?

What is your industry? Those types of demographic, more complex questions. So you want to design your form to include those types of questions so you have that data to make their event the best it can be. You want to think about how you're organizing this information as well.

Pre-Event: Order Questions from Easy to Complex

Start with the easiest things that they can fill out, their first name, their last name. Get them nice and comfortable on that reg form before you ask more difficult questions such as what industry are you in? You want to make sure you're gathering that information and tying it back to the registration experience in your event goals. For example, if networking is a key metric, then making sure you're capturing their interests on what they're looking to network in will help them have a great experience at your event.

Pre-Event: Ask Only What You’ll Use (and Use Conditional Logic)

Make sure that you're asking things that you'll actually use. For example, if you're asking pronouns and you're never going to do anything with them, they're not going to be on the badge or anything like that, they may wonder why you've asked that information. If you can ask questions in a conditional way, such as if you are interested in networking, what would you like to see happen? And then after that question, if they have answered in a relevant way that, oh, I need more information on what I've heard, then you can ask a question based on that answer.

Turn Registration Signals into Programming

If most of your attendees are responding that they're coming to your event for networking, ensure that you have networking areas that they can use or networking events at your event. These are the actionable information that they're giving you during registration, so don't forget to use it when designing the event experience. If your registrants are responding that they are in their first couple of years in the industry, then make sure you have that level one zero one content to make sure that they are feeling included the content that you're creating. My biggest piece of advice is to use your registration data.

Use Historical Data to Shape Demand & Timing

You can also look at your data from past events to make sure that you're planning this event the way that it should be. So if you have a lot of on on-site registrations, people are showing up and registering on the day of, maybe target those audiences for next year earlier as well to make sure that they are not just waiting till that last minute. And you'll always want to design your registration deadlines so that you're getting the best price earlier. So some industry advice.

Set Smarter Deadlines (and Align Marketing)

Use your registration deadlines wisely. Is this deadline on an international holiday?

For example, I've been at events where the final deadline is over Thanksgiving in the US, for example.

Traditionally, it doesn't work well as everyone's busy and they have things to be doing. They're not necessarily thinking about your event at that moment. With your registration deadlines, marketing traditionally should ramp up during those deadlines. You want to make sure you are designing a marketing campaign that is targeting everyone to register as soon as they can, but especially that final registration deadline.

Once that has passed, you are looking at the majority of your attendees in most cases. So make sure that you are really putting resources into the marketing campaign to ensure that you have the best insights you can going into your event dates. Another thing to make sure that you have a plan for is your integrations. So if you are using several platforms for your event registration and for your CRM, you'll want to make sure that those are communicating effectively.

Nail Your Integrations to Protect Data

So you're not worrying about losing data or not having the information you need when you need it. Remember, one size does not fit all in registration experiences. So each registration type, and I'm talking about attendees, exhibitors, speakers should each have their own designed event form or at least conditional logic to make it the best experience for each of them. So I'm going to dive into a little bit more about these different registration types and how to design the best form for each of them.

Attendee Registration: Reduce Drop-Off & Capture Complete Data

For attendees, for example, that's going be your largest audience at most events. One thing to remember with attendees is that since they're easily distractible, sometimes they'll get halfway through a registration form and they need to go ask their boss for permission or talk to an accounting team. So best practices include using a save for later type of functionalities. That way you're making it more seamless for them to complete it, and you also are keeping that information so you know.

Who's been registering, where they dropped off, and maybe why if they got to the pricing page or something like that. Because it's the best information that you can gather is how and when attendees are trying to register so that they can complete that registration and become your attendees on-site. Another best practice for attendees is to never count on them to come back and complete more information after they've registered. Some people like to say, Oh, we'll just gather the minimum first name, last name, email, and that's it. Take their payment and they'll come back later to give us more information.

I would recommend never doing that as most attendees do not come back to your registration form after they've completed a registration. So ensure that you are getting the best data gathering that you can by gathering that during the registration. They should not be able to finish that without you getting the information you need to organize an amazing event. Another thing for attendees that's super important is attendee specific confirmation page or confirmation email.

Attendee Comms: Confirmation That Drives Prep & Referrals

So after they've registered, they see congratulations, you're coming to the event. Give them the information that they need to be able to prepare for the event. Maybe it's going to be in sunny California. It's a bring your sunglasses and share on social media.

Give them the opportunity to do the marketing for you. And even better, if you can enable some sort of referral program with incentives that shares with their network, then they're sharing their excitement for your event. And naturally, you're going to get more attendees from that if their friends and network colleagues are also signing up for your event.

Exhibitors & Sponsors: Concise Forms, Early Comms, Clear Roles

Another important part of your event is going to be your sponsors, your exhibitors, or anyone that is paying you to be at that event and on the show floor, networking with your attendees. Best practices include making sure that their forms are not only gathering information, but are even more concise as they usually don't have a lot of time in their day to be filling out for. That best practice for them is once you have a plan for your exhibitors and sponsors, communicate it with them as soon as possible, as many of them will wait until the last minute to complete that information. And for

anyone that's been on-site for an event with exhibitors, you know that there's always going to be last minute changes. Someone's going to get sick. Someone unfortunately left the company last minute. So you want to make sure you have a plan for those exhibitors once they show up on-site for their booth staff and for any information that you have to make sure that we can make quick pivots and ensure that they can make changes.

Best plan is to have a plan. Another top tip of mine for your exhibitors and sponsors is to have several categories of contacts for them. And what I mean by that is that, for example, sometimes the CEO or someone high up in the company will actually sign the contract for that exhibition or for the sponsorship, but they're not necessarily going to be the best contact for booth logistics, for example. So sometimes you'll want to ask for their key contact, their on-site contact, and any other contacts that you think could be accounting might be helpful to make sure you have the information you need to contact them at the right person at the right time.

Exhibitor Data: Collect What Enables Delivery

Ensure you're collecting the information you need upfront. So for example, if you need to collect a logo for signage or if you need to know what their audience is during this or their primary interest at the event, ask that during registrations that you know what they're going to be looking for at your event. So for booth staff, specifically with exhibitors and sponsors, I would do your best to keep that information light so that you can change it easily on-site and you're not overwhelming them with questions they don't know the answer to that can stop them from finishing that registration.

Speaker Registration: Dedicated Flow & Comms

The other category of a registration type that I see at most events is going to be speakers. And usually these are higher profile individuals with assistance, or maybe even you receive a spreadsheet full of names that you're just importing into the system. So special considerations I would have for them is they should have their own confirmation email and their own information that they are getting that is helpful for them. So your speakers, attendees, and exhibitors should all receive different information as speakers may need to check-in at a specific counter to get their speaker gift, or your exhibitors need to know where they can go to set up their booth or the booth setup hours.

Attendees may need to know to bring their ID or have any other checkpoints or download the app before they get on-site. So that way it's a seamless experience that they can just walk in, get their registration, whether it's a digital badge or if it's a physical badge, and then can go right into networking sessions and just enjoying your event. Let's talk about the on-site experience. So now we're at your event, you're super excited.

On-Site: Digital Badges (Pros, Cons, Communication)

You have a couple of different options and one of them that's pretty new is having a digital badge. Not only are digital badges more environmentally friendly, it cuts down on a lot of the logistics that you have to worry about before getting on-site, but it's also going to increase your mobile app usage. So you'll get more data on your attendees. So what were the most popular sessions?

What exhibitors got the most traction at the digital booth?

That information is vital to be able to design event experience that's best for them. But the most important part is that you communicate this with your attendees. They have to know that they're not going to a registration counter and picking up their badge. So make sure they know that before they even get to your event.

On-Site: Physical Badges & Fast Queues

The other option for your on-site experience is the traditional physical badge. This is where they come up to your registration counter. Usually they have a confirmation email with a QR code and they're scanning it and it prints a badge. Like I said, if you're going to be needing to see ID, make sure you let them know that beforehand so that they're not coming up with their Costco card or something that is an acceptable form of ID for your event.

The goal here is to make it as quick and seamless as possible. So if you can have something that they simply scan the QR code, it prints their badge, and if there's an ID check, making that as fast as possible and staffing it appropriately for your audience can avoid long lines or frustration at registration counters. With most physical badges, I would recommend putting a QR code on the badge. So that way you can not only use that for lead retrieval for your exhibitors, but you also have that for access control.

Access Control, Tracking & Privacy

So if they're going into different rooms for sessions, or if there is a networking lunch that only some people get access to, you can use that QR code to keep your access control clean at your event. So you're having the right people in the right rooms At the right time. In addition to using a QR code on a badge, there's other cutting edge technology that will have wayfinding, blue dot tracking on the show floor, knowing where your attendees have gone, etcetera. One piece of advice I would have is make sure that you're including this information in your terms and conditions and your privacy policy as privacy does matter.

And there's a variety of international considerations with legal reasons, etcetera, to make sure your attendees know what you'll be doing with that information. So don't forget to include that on your registration form and get the consent of your attendees before you're continuing with this type of technology to ensure everyone's on the same page. With the on-site experience, another thing you want to keep in mind is your registration layout and design. How are you making sure that they're having the best experience, whether they already have the QR code and they're ready to just print their badge, or maybe they've changed companies or they have additional information they need on their badge.

On-Site Ops: Layout, Staffing & Queue Management

So I would recommend having self serve counters and a customer service station at every registration to ensure that they have the best help they need if they do need it. So a recommendation I have is to use your registration data from years past, because you've seen how many people are checking in from what hours. Is it the third day of registration? That's the biggest crowd that you're seeing?

Or is it the first day? So this type of information you can use from years past to make sure that you have adequate staffing, adequate equipment, and queue management to make sure that line isn't overwhelming for your attendees or for your staff and your event. And as I've said before, the best plan is to have a plan. So make sure you've got contingencies in place.

Policies & Contingencies (Badges, Name Changes, Support)

If someone has lost their badge, are you gonna have a badge replacement fee? Is there a charge for changing a name on a registration? As we've talked about before, your customer service counter is imperative to make sure that they have the help they need to get their registration just right. In conclusion, there's a ton of different ways that you can prepare for your event with proper communication, proper planning, and execution.

Conclusion

So whether it's your attendees, your exhibitors, your speakers, you want to make sure you're designing a great experience for them so they can show up to your event, have an amazing time, network, and tell all of their friends about it. So they come back year over year and give you that satisfaction of throwing the best event that you can. So I hope that this has been helpful. It's been great talking to you.

And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us. We're happy to help. Thanks.

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