| Nowadays, with an increasingly competitive events | | | | your own. |
| industry, race directors and event organisers | | | | Essential #3 of Online Registration: Automated Emails |
| recognise that, with all the logistics and attention to | | | | Put yourself in your registrant's place: You fill out an |
| detail inherent in planning events, it is important to | | | | online form, enter your credit card number, click the |
| have event management software they can depend | | | | submit button...and then nothing. Was my registration |
| on to ensure success. With a wide variety of | | | | received? Was my card charged??? An automated |
| products available, try to keep 5 essentials in mind | | | | follow-up email is essential for the success of your |
| when picking the software that will work best for | | | | event and there are two different ways that you |
| your event. | | | | can use it: |
| Essential #1 of Online Registration: Customisable | | | | 1. To send an automatic confirmation email to the |
| Registration Forms | | | | registrant. Give your attendees peace of mind |
| There are many products available that allow you to | | | | knowing that their payment has been accepted and |
| create an online registration form, but most lack the | | | | space reserved. |
| flexibility needed to accommodate the needs of each | | | | 2. To send out emails to registrants with a reminder |
| unique event. Many online registration products offer | | | | as the event date approaches. |
| a standard form template which includes a generic | | | | Regular communication from the event organiser will |
| design and a limit to the number of custom data | | | | build confidence in his participants and keep them |
| fields you can add to the form. This design inflexibility | | | | engaged in preparing for the event. |
| can hurt user experience and limited data collection | | | | Essential #4 of Online Registration: Robust Reporting |
| does not exactly put your job on cruise control | | | | Easy participant tracking and reporting is key to a |
| either. | | | | stress-free event. An issue that many event |
| Take the issue of design for example. You may have | | | | organisers complain of is not knowing exactly how |
| a beautiful and professionally designed event website | | | | many people will be coming to the event until the |
| with clean lines and pretty images, but when a | | | | very last moment. Events that accept entries by |
| registrant clicks that "Enter Online" button and links | | | | way of paper registration may be busy hand |
| over to the form, they may be presented with | | | | counting forms and manually updating attendee |
| something that looks completely disjointed from the | | | | spreadsheets until the night before the event. |
| excitement that was just generated by your | | | | Using a fully automated online registration system will |
| website. The standard form template offered by | | | | allow you to view real-time event data snapshots as |
| many software companies will not have your | | | | the registrations are flowing in. Up-to-the-minute |
| website's look and feel or even the event logo in | | | | reports are so important for those staff meetings in |
| some cases! A proper online registration system | | | | the last days leading up to the event. A system with |
| should give you the option to match the registration | | | | flexible and robust reporting should be able to offer |
| form's look and feel to that of your event website. | | | | you the data you have collected in a number of |
| This will give the registrant the feeling that he has | | | | different custom reports, in real-time, and from any |
| never left your website and provide a sense of | | | | internet connection so that you can check the |
| security that their data and payment are not being | | | | numbers on the fly. |
| collected somewhere else. | | | | Essential #5 of Online Registration: Complete |
| As far as flexibility of data collection, it is important | | | | Automation |
| that the software you choose offer the option to | | | | When doing your research, you will probably find that |
| create as many custom fields as needed for | | | | the every online registration system claims to offer |
| collecting any type of data you may need from the | | | | some degree of automation but I would suggest that |
| registrant. Examples of different types of data fields | | | | finding a product that will truly reduce your workload |
| would be: short answer, long answer, single choice | | | | requires COMPLETE automation. By this I mean that |
| radio button, multiple choice, drop-down menu, time | | | | you want your registration form to be connected to |
| format, file upload, and quantity questions to name a | | | | your merchant account, which is connected to your |
| few. Flexibility in types of questions you can create | | | | database. |
| means flexibility in the reporting you can harvest | | | | For example, one online registration provider may |
| from your event administration area of the tool. | | | | collect participant data for you and email you the |
| Also keep in mind that your event may include | | | | data, but not put it in a database. They may leave it |
| different types of attendees of which you need to | | | | up to you to manually enter it into a spreadsheet or |
| collect different types of data. More advanced online | | | | offline database. Another online registration provider |
| registration systems will offer you the ability to | | | | may collect the data and funnel it into a database but |
| create multiple versions of a registration form | | | | the reporting available may be very limited and the |
| including questions that apply to only those that need | | | | registrant may not get a customised automatic |
| to answer them. An example would be the data | | | | confirmation email confirming his registration. In other |
| needed from an event participant as compared to | | | | cases, the online registration software may collect |
| that needed from an event volunteer. This type of | | | | the participant's data and credit card number but you |
| information is easy to gather when you have full | | | | may have to manually process payments offline or |
| control over your online registration forms. | | | | through your own merchant gateway. Opening your |
| Essential #2 of Online Registration: Online Payments | | | | own merchant gateway can be expensive not to |
| Gone are the days of waiting for your attendee's | | | | mention confusing. |
| cheques to clear or waiting for payment to arrive by | | | | When choosing your system, make sure it is fully |
| mail so that you can make a bank deposit. The vast | | | | automated and fully integrated. A complete tool will |
| majority of event organisers these days are opting | | | | handle everything from capturing data, to charging |
| to accept payment online by credit card. Accepting | | | | the card, sending a confirmation email to the |
| entry fees online is a great time saver because | | | | registrant, housing the data in a secure database, and |
| money collected online is in most cases automatically | | | | offering reporting and communication tools to keep |
| deposited into your bank account. | | | | informed about your transactions and your |
| A feature like this can really get an event organiser | | | | participant's needs. |
| excited, but before you sign on the dotted line make | | | | Conclusion: |
| sure the online registration system you use is secure | | | | The key to any successful event is providing the |
| and has your registrant's best interests in mind. | | | | attendee with a quality experience, growing |
| Something else to consider is whether you would like | | | | registrations year-over-year, and reducing workload |
| to use your own online merchant gateway or use a | | | | so that you can focus on all of the above. With |
| merchant gateway provided by the online registration | | | | some careful research, selecting the right online |
| company. A fully integrated registration system | | | | registration system will enable you to take your |
| should offer you use of a merchant gateway so that | | | | event to the next level. |
| you do not need to go to the trouble of setting up | | | | |