5 Tips When Choosing an Event Registration System
Organizing your own breakfast seminar, conference, or course is very exciting. Still, without the right tools, it can be time-consuming and stressful to do. A seasoned event organiser will tell you, there’s an easy way to simplify your job:
Get yourself an event registration system!
If you are planning to host an event(s) a robust registration tool to manage sign-ups, ticket sales, order changes, check-in at the event, and to stay in control of the financial side of your event is crucial.
What is an Event Registration System?
An event registration system allows you to sell tickets and communicate with participants via email and SMS. Participants can sign up and purchase tickets for your event by filling out a registration form. The system collects all necessary participant information for communication, invoicing, and ticket distribution.
Your event registration system will help streamline your work when hosting an event by automating tasks, keeping control of your finances, and managing participant accounts after your event. It will help you save time on order changes and invoicing. Time which you can use to focus on the details that make your event a success.
Fun fact!
Did you know we calculated how much money you can save by using an event registration solution like Checkin?
We found out that you can save up to € 50.000 a year!
To make it easier for you to find the right solution for your company, we've gathered the 5 most crucial things you should consider when looking for an event registration system.
The 5 Most Important Things to Consider
There are many excellent event registration systems on the market, which can make it hard to find the right one for you and your event. Here are our tips to make your search for the right solution easier. (We hope!)
- Ask a friend to understand your needs
This may sound obvious, but many people don’t do this.
Our friends at MFO made a smart choice by reaching out to other players in the same industry who had similar needs.
Sharing your experiences with others will both confirm what you already thought you needed and uncover needs you may not have considered.
Contacting others in the same industry is invaluable and will help you find the right solution for your needs faster.
- Create a list of tools that need to collaborate
To create a smooth customer journey for your participants, all the systems you use must communicate, work together and automatically share information.
Every time you can avoid manually entering information twice (or more), you save a lot of time while ensuring high data quality that will pay off in the long run.
When your tools work together you can automate multiple processes, all at once.
With just one click you can publish your event, and make your registration form available on your website, and tickets will automatically be sent to participants at a specified time once they have registered themselves and paid.
When everything is automated, you can focus on creating a memorable event.
Create a list of tools that should collaborate and find an event registration system that offers the integration and automation you need.
- Offer the payment solution your audience prefers
Signing up and paying for your event should be simple. The easier this process is, the more tickets you will sell.
Therefore, we advise you to look for a registration system that allows your participants to choose how they wish to pay. You can do this by offering payment options, such as:
- Bank card,
- App payments, or
- Invoices sent directly to the participant or their company.
- Prioritize Flexibility
Each course, breakfast seminar, festival, and conference are unique. Therefore, the event registration system you choose should adapt to the needs of different events. And it’s not unthinkable that your needs will change over time.
Look for an event registration system that offers you great flexibility when it comes to features:
- Can features be used in multiple ways, depending on the type of event you are planning?
- Is it possible to create various types of tickets with different prices and discounts for different audiences?
- Do they provide the option to sell group tickets or package deals?
- Does the event registration system come with a floor plan or a seating map?
- Is it possible to use our own logo and branding colours on the registration form? (This is what’s called White label)
- Can we choose which payment options we want to offer to B2C and B2B customers?
- Can we choose how to send out the tickets and when?
In addition, we recommend you ask yourself:
- How many people can use the solution? Do we need to buy more licenses?
- What price model do they use? Do we have to upgrade or buy a different license to use certain features?
- Are there any hidden costs we need to know about?
Choose a system that gives you control over event finances
It doesn’t matter whether you organise a festival, a concert, hold courses or a conference, at the end of the event it’s important to know if your event was profitable or not. And whether you managed to stay within budget or not.
When using Excel or simple registration solutions, getting insight into the financial numbers can be difficult and time-consuming.
If you don’t have a complete event registration solution that handles the financial part for you as well, this part of your event can quickly lead to a lot of manual work with invoice distribution and unhappy accountants.
Automated accounting and financial reports can be part of your event registration system so that everything related to event finances happens automatically in the background.
This way your in-house accountant, if you have one, can save a tremendous amount of time when invoicing your participants and settling the accounts.
Or if you use an external accountant, you can save a lot of money by delivering your accountant the complete account settlements and pay-out reports with a press of a button.
Where to start?
We recommend talking to people you trust and asking them which event registration system they use, and most importantly, why they are satisfied.
Once you know what to look for, check if it's possible to integrate the systems you already use. You can save a lot of time if you can integrate the system you use for accounting and marketing your event.
Know what degree of flexibility you need, by asking yourself the questions we shared with you and finally, do yourself and your participants a favour – don’t forget about the financial side of the event. You can save both money and time here!
We are sure that by following our 5 tips, you'll find a system that suits you, your company, and your events.
Good luck!
