How to start event registration for virtual or in-person events in 2022

Let’s say you want to start event registrations for your virtual or in-person event. You’ve decided to use an awesome event registration software, Oveit . But now the big question – how to start event registration?

First of all, thank you for choosing us. This is going to be as easy as it can get. At the end you will start registering visitors free of charge and receive payments in your account instantly.

If you need a video tutorial, we made one you can see below. Otherwise – keep on reading this post.

Let’s get started.

A checklist on how to start event registration

The first thing you will see when you start your account with Oveit is a short checklist with the things you need to do before starting registering visitors to your event.

It looks like this:

How to start event registration checklist
A checklist on how to start event registration with Oveit

There’s basically 3 things you need to do to start your event registration. They are the things you see above:

  1. Set up billing information: this is your company or individual details. Oveit is a special software that allows you to sell tickets directly to your customers. This means they will need to know who they’re buying things from. This is the section where you’ll be setting this information in. Don’t worry – you only set it once.
  2. Set up a payment processor: A payment processor is a company, like PayPal and Stripe that helps you receive payments instantly, directly into your account. If you have a PayPal, Stripe or Crypto account, this is where you set it up. This is a very important part of how to start event registration, if you’re planning to receive payments for your event.
  3. Create an event: This part is self-explanatory. You will have to enter some details about your event, like name and the date it takes place in, set up tickets and share the registration link with your potential visitors.

As you notice above, there’s a fourth step as well. This is the “select pricing plan”. By default, Oveit automatically registers you with the free event registration plan, which allows you to register up to 300 visitors per event, on an unlimited number of events, free of any Oveit charge. If you receive payments, you will be charged a commission by PayPal or Stripe.

If you checked all details above, you’re basically set and you know how to start event registration for all your next events.

However, Oveit is a powerful tool, with extensive options that allow you to create the perfect event. Let’s have a look at some of the most important ones:

Your dashboard

Once you’ve started your first event you will get access to your Dashboard. Here you will see an aggregate of all your ticket sales and registrations, once they start happening.

If you don’t have any events the first thing you should do is click on “Create event”

dashboard

How to start event registration: Your new event

Now, let’s move on to creating an actual event. You can either click on the button My events and you will be taken to the Event Management chart or you can click on Create an Event button and this will take you to the core part of Oveit.

myevents

You’ll see that creating an event is extremely easy. You have 4 main steps and two other ones in case you want to use two additional functions: Registration forms and Badge design (these are more advanced topics on how to start event registration).

How to start event registration steps

The first step is entitled General Settings. Here you set up general details on your event, things such as the event’s name, start and end date and where it takes place. By the way – if you host a virtual event – just add “Virtual” or “Online” in the Location/address input.

There’s several other things you can fill in. An example would be “No seating”. This means you will not have a seating map. If you need a seating map just choose “With seating” and find out here how to set up a seating chart.

You will need to add a start and end date for your event. If you’re selling tickets for a venue, such as a theme park that sells tickets all year round, just tick “Perpetual”. This will allow visitors to buy tickets whenever they feel like visiting you.

There’s several other more advanced features, such as registration forms or badges. If you need these, be sure to book a guided tour of these features.

Adding tickets to my event registration

Next steps on how to start event registration guide: tickets.

You can split the types of event registrations you will accept with different types of tickets. Oveit allows all sorts of discounts and addons with your ticket but you only need to know one thing. At its basics you will just need to add one ticket, free or paid and click “Save”. This takes you to a list where you can add more tickets by clicking “New ticket category”

How to start event registration by setting up free events
How to start event registration – adding tickets

Sometimes you may need a more advanced ticketing setup when you start event registration. If so – check out our post on advanced ticket types or contact us for a guided tour or more advanced features and benefits.

How to start event registration: checkout settings

checkout-page
Checkout settings – default options are usually left unchanged

There’s a lot of options on this page. Please don’t get confused. We’ve set up the page in such a way that our default check marks do the work for you. You can contact us if you need a more in-depth explanation or more advanced configuration.

Usually, what you want to customise is the follow up email subject and content. Basically your message to your future visitors:

Confirmation email on event registration

This is where you customise what your visitors will receive in their email after they registered.

Above you can see a chart with variables and their description. The computer-code looking things are tags you can use to personalise the email content. For example: if you’re holding a virtual event you can add [tickets_codes] in the email body to display the registration code your guests will use to access your virtual event.

Finally, you have the order confirmation page. Here you can opt to send a Thank you message that will be displayed after the customer has purchased the ticket or you can send him to a custom created URL on your website. To do that, just add the link and all is done.

How to preview your event registration

The final event registration setup step is the Preview section below:

How to start event registration and customise layout

Step no. 4 allows you to preview your registration widget prior to publishing it. You can play around with colors and fonts and brand the event registration according to your wishes.

Hit publish when you are ready to start registration and you will be taken to…

Payment processor integration

If you haven’t done so already, this is where you connect your payment processor. This is usually PayPal or Stripe. This way we can help you receive payments instantly. It’s very, very simple:

  • If you use PayPal: press Activate PayPal integration: In the next step you will add your PayPal email address and name. This helps Oveit to know where to send funds paid by your customers.
  • If you use Stripe: press “Activate Stripe integration”. This takes you to your Stripe account where you can check whether you want to safely accept payments with Oveit.

All of our transactions are handled by our partners (e.g. PayPal and Stripe). Your money or your customers payment data is never stored with us.

If you haven’t done so already, you will need to fill in your billing information. As you sell directly to your visitors, they will need to know who they’re buying from. Oveit issues invoices for all purchases on your behalf. Here’s what you need to fill in, only once, as you start selling:

If this is a bit too complicated when you start your event, just reach out to us and let’s set up a call where we can guide you through the setup process, step by step. One of our customer success staff will help you get everything set up.

Final step: Copy, paste and embed your event in your website

The last step: start your event registration. All you have to do now is get the event on your website and make it available to customers or point them to your event registration on Oveit. To do that, click on ‘My events’ in the bar, right near the Oveit logo. You will see a list of your events. You can start your registration in two ways:

  1. Point visitors to your event registration page on Oveit. Click the “Preview” link and share the URL with your visitors on social media or your website.
  2. Embed the registration on your website: you will notice that every event has an “</> Embed” button below it. Click on that button and you’ll find two embed codes (one available for light theme and one for dark theme – the theme refers to your website visual theme). Just copy the code you need and paste it on your website. The embed is responsive and works with most website management software so you won’t have any problems putting it on your website in just a couple of seconds.
embed

And that’s it! You managed to start your event registration and start receiving event registrations. Now visitors can register, purchase tickets and attend your in-person or virtual event.

March 11, 2021 Events, Oveit Features No comments yet

4 difficult clients every event professional will meet

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”.

What could be better than a job/career that makes you jump out of bed every morning? Finding meaning in what we do is what makes us one step closer to happiness. It is something that we all crave for. It’s the ideal of the modern era, one in which fulfillment is often more important than money.

people at a desk, taking notes

Event planners definitely are among those who find meaning in their careers. Bringing people together, helping them evolve and (why not?) making the world a better place makes us jump out of the bed each morning (ok, maybe not on rainy Mondays).  Although challenging, the event planning industry repays every drop of energy that we invest in.

How do you define a difficult client?

Event planners also have to deal with what most of us try to run away from: difficult clients. And when I say ‘difficult clients’ I don’t mean those who force you out of your comfort zone. Those bringing you projects so big that they keep you up at night. That want you to plan the perfect event for them. That inspire you to be better with each passing day. Those are the ones you will thank later.

No, I mean those clients that are never happy, no matter how good you deliver. But at the same time, they can never articulate their unhappiness. That, day in day out, make things more complicated than you have ever imagined they could be. Than never help, but often obstruct you. That want you to execute their ideas but at the same time never take responsibility for anything. That hope that you can read their minds (but would hate it if you could).

Difficult clients in the event management industry

There are many types of difficult clients because there are so many ways in which people can be difficult to interact with. But based on the discussions that I had with our #eventproffs friends, there are 4 types of clients that you will (probably) meet in your career. 

The always angry/hostile client

It is always ready to argue over anything. He/she likes to intimidate those around. Every discussion is different, but all have one thing in common: a raised voice.  

How to deal with a hostile customer?

It’s crucial to not take it personally because it really isn’t. It’s also very important to keep calm, another choleric person won’t do any good. Be polite yet firm, letting your client know that you are always in control. Show that you take him/her serious, but don’t let yourself impressed by the aggressive attitude.

There are situations when we really are responsible for our customers’ anger (but not the way they manage it), so try to see if there anything that you could do better.

The hesitating client

“In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.” Theodore Roosevelt

There are people who just can’t make a decision. That think and overthink. That need hours to make up their minds (for any silly decision) and then just completely change it. That get cold feet in front of a decision. And, in our careers, we’ve all meet someone like this. When managing events, time is the one resource that’s always missing. And those who’ve seen how a venue looks just hours before an event know what I mean…

Listen to your client and see what makes the decision so difficult for him. Try looking from his point of view and let him know what your opinion is. Whenever you can help your client decide by providing relevant data/visual support.

The all-wise client

Have you ever met a person that knows everything there is to know? I am sure you have. The person that hires an expert and then tells him how to do his job. That doesn’t even need arguments to back-up his statements.

I don’t know about you, but for me, this is the client that’s most difficult to manage. First of all be sure that you are always well-prepared and that you have all the possible information. You will need a lot of statistics to support your ideas. You will also need a lot of tact in dealing with someone that “has all the right answers”. Don’t let your ego stand in your way, it will only make things worst.

 

The silent/apathetic client

It’s the client that shuts down communication, building a wall around him. He doesn’t like complicated situations (well, who really does?) and thinks that silence can make them go away. How to act?

First of all, “patience is a virtue”. To make your client talk you will need to ask the right questions and take the time to listen. Really listen. Encourage him to tell you what he thinks about the venue or caterer that you have selected. Praise every good idea that your client comes up with and ask for advice. Make him feel important and you will see a higher level of involvement from him. Communication is the only way to build a strong relationship with a ‘silent client’.

Difficult clients can be one’s worst nightmare, but they can also make us go the extra mile. Not every difficult client is, in fact, a difficult client. Because sometimes the problem is not with them, it’s with us.

Unfortunately, there will be times when you will just feel that things aren’t going to work for you and your client. If you ever feel that it would just be better to let your client go you should read this fabulous article first. 

January 19, 2018 Event management, Event professionals No comments yet

How to use Facebook to promote your event management organization

“If you’re not on Facebook, you don’t exist.”

In my opinion, this is definitely false; I know many people who don’t have Facebook accounts and still have a very active social life (ok, maybe not so many, but I know quite a few). The real question is: it is possible for a business to exist without being present on Facebook? I don’t really know.

scrabble letters writing Facebook

But the fact is that Facebook can be a real game-changer, offering access to over 2 billion people around the world.

And I think it’s great if you are an event planner because it helps connect with so many potential attendees. And it’s definetely useful when you decide to sell tickets online.

How to promote your event management business on Facebook? There are many ideas that could work so I am going to present you the basics of what you should do.

Create a page for your events.

Create a Facebook company page. It’s the first thing that you should do, although there are ways to promote your business on FB without actually having a page(but it will cost you). Facebook is sometimes used as a search engine so it’s in your best interest to offer relevant information for those looking. Use a relevant profile picture so people will recognize your brand and, very important, don’t let the “About” section blank.

Let’s say you plan a large annual music festival; use your logo as a profile picture, so people will associate your FB page with your festival from the first second. For the cover photo, a photo of people having fun at your events works great.

Share content

Although the number of followers that see your organic posts has declined in the last few years (so that you will need to put some money in it) it’s still important to share content on your page. Used as a search engine FB will redirect people to your page and a neglected one won’t do you any good. Create quality content for your followers but also use content created by your partners. Planning a festival? Share videos of the artist that will perform. Conference? I’m sure the main speakers would love it if you would share some of their viral posts. But remember that short posts with graphic content perform best on Facebook.

Frequency is important

As on all social media channels, FB also requires you to post with a certain frequency in order to stay “top of mind” with your followers.  But be aware that posting too often can do you more harm than good. It seems that there is a tight connection between your number of followers and how frequent you should post (once or more times a day), you can find out more about this here.

Reward your followers

A great way to show appreciation to your followers is to set up exclusive promotions,  only for them. Generate a discount code available for a certain period of time; offer free T-shirts to your most engaged followers; set up a contest with a substantial prize involved (I am not referring to the “like, share and tag” type of contests as I am not a big fan of them).

Create an event on Facebook

Another great way to create some buzz is by creating a public event on the platform. People can share public events, invite friends to attend and, most important, hit the “Interested” or “Going” buttons. This way the event will become visible to the FB friends of those that interact with it, helping you reach a greater number of possible attendees.  Offer as many information as you can, as FB has an algorithm that recommends events to users based on interests and behaviors. While Facebook might be a great place to promote your event, you will most likely need an event registration software as well. 

Promote your event with Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads are a great way to promote your events. Before starting a campaign you can select your goals for the campaign (as app installs, conversions, brand awareness, reach, traffic etc) and then the targeted audience. The really great part is that Facebook helps you define your audience by both geographical and demographical criteria. You can create your audience by location ( the city in which they live), sex, age, interest; you can choose if your Ads reach your followers and/or their friends. This is a great info that can increase your conversion rate if you use ads to sell tickets for your events (as new clients are more likely to buy tickets for events where their Facebook friends will attend).

P.s. as I said at the beginning of this article you can use Facebook without a page – with Ads that are linked directly to your website, but I think that it works better when you are present on the platform.

As said before, I don’t know if it is impossible for you to make it without being online. I really don’t. But I see on a daily basis how event management businesses use it to reach their attendees and sponsors. I see how technology offers you the chance to sell tickets all over the world and have instant access to your revenues. I see how it changes the whole world.

Updated 06.12.2021:

If you are a tech-savvy that is always looking for new ways to create memorable experiences we have great news! With Oveit, you can create, mint and sell NFT tickets for your events, allowing your attendees to actually own their part of the experience.

August 26, 2017 event marketing, Event professionals, Festivals No comments yet

Use email marketing to boost your event management business

39 years ago the first mass email was sent, and the results were amazing. Starting that moment email marketing caught everyone’s attention and even though what worked a few years ago doesn’t work anymore, email is still one of the most used channels for marketing. And this article is meant to show you how a strong email marketing strategy can support your event management business and why you should use this powerful marketing tool.

email marketing BLOG

One of the main reasons for which it’s so used is that it is easily measurable: a report from MillwardBrown Digital states that marketers find email marketing as the easiest marketing channel to measure ROI for. Another significant reason is that while social media channels have 100% ownership over your followers (and your reach can be affected by an unannounced algorithm change) emails give you absolute power; those people gave you their email addresses and you can reach them as long as the internet is still out here.

But besides these two reasons, email marketing has many more advantages than you should profit from:

Helps you save time and money

Email marketing is cost-effective itself, but it can also help you reduce costs with printed materials that you now use. Ok, maybe you have some old-fashion clients that still prefer to touch their birthday cards or the discount vouchers, but for the rest of them you can use emails and reduce the printing costs. You can also automate emails so you use your time for other activities that help your business.

Another way to monetize your email influence is by offering space for companies to brand your email template. It’s an unobtrusive way to promote your partners and it’s easy to see the results of your campaigns.

Increases brand awareness

It is crucial to keep your customers engaged, and also it is crucial maintaining a strong connection with your subscribers in order to make them buy. Studies reveal that prospects need more than 4 online interactions before buying a product (or service), so you see why is crucial to have rhythmic interactions with your (future) customers.

It’s easy to educate your clients

By constant communication, you can educate your customers so they will be able to use all the benefits that you offer.Maybe you plan your annual festival but, for the first time, you will use NFC technology for cashless payments. If you have the email addresses of your customers (if you used a smart tool to sell tickets, you have them) you can educate them on how to use NFC. You can put up a trigger-based set of emails so when someone buys a ticket automatically receives a “Thank you” email, followed by another email that offers indispensable information on how NFC works.Trigger-based emails (that are automatically sent based on different actions performed by customers) have the highest open rate, so make sure that you use them.

You can (and must) segment your subscribers

Segmentation is a very powerful marketing tool that we strongly recommend you to use. It helps you to ensure that every one of your subscribers receives relevant information (as mentioned before if you send a lot of irrelevant emails your subscribers will start to unfollow you). Assuming that you hold a conference twice a year follow up should be segmented separately for each event; let’s call them conference A conference B. It’s unprofessional to send a thank you email for attending conference A to someone who wasn’t there. If one event is focused on medicine and the other on marketing what is relevant for a segment of your audience is irrelevant for the other segment. So make sure that you provide useful emails for your two different groups of attendees.

Maybe you hold a music festival that groups different types of music; let’s say you have an indie rock stage, an electronic stage and one for reggae. Although your attendees want to enjoy the festival experience, each one will be more interested in one type of music. Use your registration form and ask them what stage they prefer and segment your guest into 3 categories based on their music preferences. Keep them up to date with relevant info from their field of interest.

Of course, for general info regarding access and on-site activities you can use only one newsletter.

Email marketing is easily measurable

As I said before, another reason for which email marketing is so used is that it offers you easy access to data. You can see who opened your email, which links are clicked, who forwarded your mail, which emails bounced, unsubscribers and much more. This is great because it offers you a lot of hints on how to adapt your message.

Nathan Hangen, the creator of Ignitiondeck, offers a great piece of advice: “If they’re leaving after a certain autoresponder email, then re-work it. If they’re leaving after marketing messages, then re-work the way you present offers. If they’re leaving early on in your funnel, then you need to fix your original call to action so that it’s in harmony with what you’re sending.”

As you see, email marketing is a great marketing tool if used wisely. But you must keep in mind that, on a daily basis, the average office worker receives about 92 emails, 16 of which are spam (link report radicati.com). No one wakes up hoping that their day will be full of unsolicited spam messages so the first important step when creating an email marketing campaign is to obtains permission to email your future customers. The second is to provide quality information, otherwise, you will become just another unread email.

p.s.make sure that your registration form contains an email field and do ask for permission to send informative emails.

July 25, 2017 Event management, event marketing, Event professionals No comments yet

How to reduce queues during festivals

HELLO

Festivals are becoming bigger and bigger every day; some good examples are Coachella, Tomorrowland, Mawazine etc., which are hosting hundreds of thousands of guests every festival. The festivals are getting upgraded while their popularity is increasing. Organizers are bringing only A-list artists, increasing the number of stages, and accommodating more attractions and partners; the overall experience is getting better and better every year.

Festivals are becoming bigger every year but they are also increasing their prices accordingly

Not only the festivals are getting bigger, additionally, they are becoming more expensive too. Guests spend between 50 to 500 euros to attend such kind of event and their expectations have increased exponentially. Most of the crowd which is attending festivals is composed of Millennials who consider that experiences are more important than things.

In this time, when people appreciate experiences more rather than valuables, it is important to do everything possible to fulfill this need and create a flawless and remarkable experience.

The most recurring issue that usually arises within festivals is queuing; nobody likes to waste their time waiting in line, however, it always happens.

The lines can’t be 100% avoided, though, there are a few practices that will reduce them considerably.

One of the most popular practices which is becoming rapidly adopted by most festivals is the NFC wristbands. Through the NFC wristbands, event planners are trying to offer a higher event experience making it more convenient, secure, and transparent.

Visitors can top-up money on their wristbands at any point of the event, and pay without queuing in lines – everything just with a simple tap while event organizers benefit of transparency and complete control with real-time reports over all sales.

The wristband is synced with a specific ticket category which allows the visitors to access all their designated areas more easily and if entitled receive perks such as T-shirts, free drinks, etc.

Additionally, with the help of the NFC chip, the wristband can be used to create a new level of interactions, such as: Treasure Hunts and challenges, rate favorite products or shows, save playlists, check geolocation etc.

Since 2015 the NFC integrated wristbands started to become popular within the events’ world. If back then guests were complaining about wristbands’ failures which left them unable to buy food or drinks, today they do work smoothly and are reducing considerably the queue.

No more queue for food and drinks, but how about the registration process. When attendees arrive at the event, they need to change their ticket into the NFC wristband. Unfortunately most of the attendees are complaining having to stay a few hours in line to get their wristbands; it is of course a big turn-off, when the pre-event excitement is killed by a huge waiting time.

Trying to be on-top of the situation, event planners are already finding solutions to combat this huge registration lines.

Event planners are always trying to find solutions to reduce queue

Big events(e.g., Coachella) are shipping the NFC wristband directly to guests, right after the ticket is purchased. Guests receive precise instructions which they need to follow in order to configure their wristbands from home. Also when arriving at the event’s premises, it is mandatory to have it already attached around their right wrist. In this way, guests can enter directly, without having to stay in line to do their registration. This practice turned out to be successful and diminished the lines considerably.

The NFC wristbands represent an important milestone in the process of reducing queues within festivals

What are the biggest benefits when using the NFC wristbands?

  • Visitors tend to spend 15-30%more
  • Speeds up purchases & reduces queues
  • Minimize cash handling
  • Captures all sales and audience insights
  • Control and transparency
  • More interaction within the event

It is interesting how in a short period of time so many uses have been found for the NFC chips. With the use of a simple chip, attendees can do almost everything with it. Their Social Media profile can be synchronized and all their data stored and access after the event. An NFC wristband is the only thing you need in order to attend a festival. No need to worry for your wallet, money or mobile phone, you only need to be worried of not having enough fun.

July 17, 2017 Event management, Event professionals, Events, Oveit Features No comments yet
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