Creating a public - open registration page

Before creating your registration page, make sure that you are familiar with the registration page capabilities and the distinct types of registration pages that you can create, by reading the Enable registration and build your own custom registration page article.
If you wish to create a private (RSVP) or a combined public (open) and private (RSVP) registration page, please refer to:
Set up a private - RSVP registration page
Set up a combined public - open & private - RSVP registration page

In this article we'll take you through the steps for creating a public (open) registration page.

Before detailing the steps and to better understand the process, let's remember that a registration page is made up of:

• A landing page, with all the customizable event details and the Register now button.
• A main form, with the mandatory fields and additional fields that can be added for attendees to fill in.
• Any optional additional forms, with more fields for the attendees to fill in, and that can be targeted. This means that you can decide if you want attendees to see these forms or not, based on their responses on any of the previous forms.

1 - Choose the Public - Open type of registration page and confirm the URL

To access the registration page module, go to Content > Registration in your workspace.

If you are creating the registration page, you will see the below screen:

The type of registration page that you select will have an impact on the settings available in the next steps of the configuration. This means that if you select Public - Open registration, you will only see the configuration and settings that are relevant to this type of registration page. You can change the type of registration page later, even once it is fully created. If you do, you will simply need to check the configuration and settings to ensure that everything is how you need it to be.

1. Select Public - open registration.
   
   
2. Confirm or personalize the registration page URL.
   The first part of the URL will always be: https://webapp.spotme.com/login/eventspace/
   The second part of the URL will be automatically populated based on the name of the event, with dashes "-" replacing the spaces between words. This extension can be modified here, and later on if needed. Only use letters and numbers in this field, with dashes or underscores.
   
   
3. Click on Enable registration to continue.

2 - Add the event details to the registration landing page

In the Event details tab, you can:

1. Edit the URL of the registration page if needed (as mentioned above).
   
   
2. Add the customizable event details that will appear on the landing page:
   In the Description section, use the text editor to add and format your text, and add as may images as you like.
   For the text: text colors cannot be directly changed using the toolbar, however you can copy and paste text colors from external sources. There is no limit to the amount of text that can be added here.
   For the images: The space available for the description images is 685 px wide. Images that are less that 685 px wide will keep their file dimensions. If you intend to use the full width for your image, we recommend that you use an image that is 1370 px wide for the best result.
   Add sessions, speakers and sponsor information to your registration landing page, taken from the workspace at the click of a button. A great way to promote your event and encourage attendees to sign-up.
   
   
3. Preview your registration page: Remember to preview the page to see how it looks (especially after adding the design), using the Open page button. Below is a preview of the landing page created above, with the description text:
   
   
   
4. Remember to click on Save to confirm all the changes you have made.

3 - Customize the registration page design

In the Design tab you can customize how the event registration pages will look, including the banners and the colors used. This is the same for all types of registration pages. Find out how

4 - Add the fields to the registration main form

In the Form fields tab, you choose what fields will be present in the registration page for your attendees to fill in.

You will start by choosing what fields will be added to the Main form, i.e. the registration landing page.

Mandatory fields in the public - open registration landing page

 

The Email address, First name, and Last name fields are information that you must collect from your attendees in order to register them. They are mandatory and will always be present on the registration page main form (they cannot be removed).

Adding more fields to the public - open registration main form

To add more fields to the main form, click on the Add a field button, and select the field to be added in the dropdown list.

The fields that are available to choose from are pulled directly from the user metadata in the workspace. You can therefore create new user metadata, which you will then be able to select as fields to be used in your registration forms, including hidden fields that will not be visible to the attendee and that you can use for targeting additional forms.

The types of user fields (i.e. the format of the user metadata) that can be added to the registration page in order to collect data during the registration journey, are the following:

• “boolean” (checkboxes)

• ”choice-list” (dropdown list)

• ”choice” (radio button)

• ”email” (open text)

• ”locale” (country list dropdown)

• “number” (open text)

• ”text-multiline” (multiple lines of text)

• “text” (open text)

• “hidden” (text field that is not visible to the attendee and can be used for targeting additional forms)

• "formatted-datetime" (used to add a date and time picker).

As you add fields to your main form, keep in mind that, if needed, you can add more forms that can be displayed to attendees, and that you can make these forms "conditional". This means that, based on the information provided by registrants when they fill in the main form and any subsequent form, you can decide whether to display or not a specific form to a specific attendee or group of attendees. More information below

You can use the Add a description button to add a free-form text section (perfect for section breaks, adding extra guidance or information, or adding legal disclaimers). You can also use the Add legal documents button to add privacy policies or disclaimers for attendees to acknowledge while registering.

Once you have added the fields to the main form, you can move them up or down using the ≡ button next to each field. If needed, you can also make the added fields mandatory for attendees to fill in, using the Mandatory checkbox.

Below you can see a preview of how an open (public) registration page main form can look to attendees when they access it:

5 - Add more forms to the registration journey

You can, if needed, create additional forms that can be displayed to the registrants after filling out the main registration page form. You can add the fields that you need to these additional forms, the same as you did with the main form.

Any additional form can either be displayed to all registrants as they go through the registration process OR they can be "conditional".

"Conditional" means that, based on the information provided by registrants when they fill in the main form or any subsequent forms, you can use targeting to decide whether to display or not a conditional form to your attendee.

More information on creation additional and conditional forms

6 - Choose which emails to send out to attendees as part of the public registration process

In the Emails tab, you can specify what emails will be sent out to attendees automatically, at each step of the public registration process. Remember that the invitation email that you send to the potential attendees in order to invite them to RSVP and register to your event needs to be sent out manually. It is not sent out automatically.

By clicking on a step's dropdown, for example Open registration confirmation email, you can select the email that will be sent out at that step by the system. Here for example, we can see the email that will be sent out when the attendees complete their registration via the public registration main form:

For each step, you can also choose to not send any emails, by selecting the Don't send this email option in the Default email dropdown list for that step.

Please note that depending on the settings you will enable for your registration page, some of these emails may or may not be configurable.

Below is a breakdown of the emails associated with a public (open) registration page:

• Open registration confirmation email: Email sent to users when they fully register for the event via public (open) registration:
  -> Default email template: (Public Registration) Verify email
  Can be configured only if you enable the Allow attendees to self-register to the event app option in the Settings section.
  
  
• Registration pending email: Emails sent to users who have registered via public (open) registration and are waiting for their request to be approved. Only used when manual approval is configured . Once approved, users will automatically receive the "Login email".
  -> Default email template : (Public registration) - Pending manual approval
  Can be configured only if you enable a manual approval step in the Settings section.
  
  
• Profile update confirmation email: Email sent to users after they have updated their profile information via the registration page.
  -> No default email template .
  This is disabled by default and can be configured only if you enable the Allow attendees to update their profile data option in the Settings section.
  
  
• Login email: Email sent to users when logging in to the event, or when they have fully registered for the event. It contains the "Access the event" link.
  -> Default email template : Invitation to access the event
  Can be configured only if you enable the Allow attendees to log in to the event app option in the Settings section.
  
  
• Unknown account email: Email sent to users trying to log in into the event via the registration page without having registered first via the registration page.
  -> Default email template : Registration (Registration not found)
  Can be configured only if you enable the Allow attendees to log in to the event app option in the Settings section.

All the steps are pre-configured so that they send out the appropriate emails using the default email templates, except for the "Profile update confirmation email" (which can be created and configured if needed). No action is needed here unless you want to specifically change the email templates that are used, or disable the sending of emails for one of these steps.

In addition to using these default email templates that are accessible via the Emails module in Backstage, you can edit these templates or create your own new templates using the email editor.

Targeting tailored registration emails based on attendee information

In addition to the above described standard emails that are sent out automatically to attendees as part of the public-open registration process. You can also create tailored "sub-versions" that can be targeted to specific groups of users based on the information that they provide during the registration process.

As a basic example, in addition to the default "Registration confirmation email" you may wish to have a targeted custom email that will be sent only to specific attendees that belong to a specific team or branch of your organization. Or, you may wish to send customized Registration confirmation emails to your attendees depending on whether they are attending the event "remotely" or "in-person".

This can be done by clicking on the + Send a different email to a specific target group button:

Here you can select a custom email, (for example the "Registration confirmation email") and set-up the targeting:

Above in the screenshot we have set-up the targeting so that, depending on whether the attendee fills in the Attending field as "in-person" or "virtually", they will receive a custom "Confirmation email" that matches their choice of attendance.

You can add any number of targeting rules, however please keep in mind that:

• Targeting rules are applied from top to bottom: target group 1 will be checked first, then target group 2, etc.
• A user will always get only ONE email. If a user meets the criteria of more than one target group, the first target group within which they fall will be applied.
• If a user falls within no target groups, they will receive the default email.

More detailed information on using custom email targeting

7 - Open and manage the access to the public registration page and the event app

In the Settings tab, there are three sets of options that allow you manage the access to the registration page, and to the event app.

Remember that the registration landing page is always accessible online via the URL. It's the settings described below that will determine whether attendees can access the main registration form or not.

Allow attendees to register to your event

 

By enabling the Allow attendees to self-register to the event, you will allow attendees to access the event, as this will make the Register now button available in the landing page:

If the Allow attendees to self-register to the event option is disabled, your audience will not be able to access the registration for the event:

Allow attendees to update their profile information

You can enable the Allow attendees to update their profile information option, to allow your attendees who have already completed their registration to go back to the registration page and update the profile information they initially provided.

Please note that the attendee would need to be logged in or be redirected to the registration page via an email with a link to the registration page in order to access the ability to update their profile information.

In the registration landing page, registrants can see the Update your profile button:

Then, in the main form, they can update their profile information:

Choosing what fields can be edited by registrants in the forms

When the Allow attendees to update their profile information option is enabled, in the Form fields section, you can select which fields can be edited by the registrants, using the Editable check boxes:

Attendees can never update their email address.

Allow attendees to log in to the event app from the registration page

You can use the Allow attendees to log in to the event app option, to enable or disable the Log in button in the registration landing page:

Enabling the Allow attendees to log in to the event app option means that the "Log in" button will be available for attendees to use in the registration page in order to access the event. If this option is disabled, the "Log in" button will be hidden:

Attendees who have already registered for the event can click on this Log in button, enter their email, and receive a "Log in" email with a link to access the event app.

If this option is enabled and users have already logged in to the event app, if they return to the registration landing page they will see a Continue to the the event link that will take them to the event app, as well as a Sign out button:

Enable SSO (Single Sign-On) for your registration page

How does it work?

As mentioned above in the Allow attendees to register to your event section, attendees will by default use their email address to register to the event.

For recurring and/or internal events where all or large portions of attendees are from the same organization(s), you can enable SSO (Single Sign-On) for your registration page.

With SSO enabled, participants will save time by directly registering to the event using their corporate identity provider (IDP) instead of their email address, for example the organization's Azure AD or any SAML2 compatible IDP (Identity Provider).

Please note that when attendees register to the event using SSO, they will immediately be granted access and redirected to the event app. They will not receive a registration confirmation email as they will directly access the event.

Important: You can enable SSO (Single Sign-On) authentication for your registration page, only if SSO is configured at the app container level of your event. For more information on setting up SSO on your container app, please contact SpotMe support.

SSO is only supported on registration pages that are set-up as fully public (open) registration, or that are set-up as public & private. Registration pages that are up as Private (RSVP) cannot have SSO enabled.

How to enable SSO

To enable SSO to your public or combined public & private registration page, in the registration page go to the Settings tab, and open the Authentication section:

Here you will see the three options that are available:

Email authentication
This is the default authentication method selected for the registration page, where participants use their email address to complete their registration.

Single Sign-On (SSO)
Selecting this option means that attendees can only register using the SSO

Email authentication & Single Sign-On (SSO)
Selecting this option means that attendees can use either using their email address or via SSO:

By selecting the Single Sign-On (SSO) or the Email authentication & Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication option, you will be able to select the SSO to enable among the options in the dropdown:

The SSOs present in the dropdown are pulled from the existing SSO configurations that are present on the associated container app. For more information on setting up SSO on your container app, please contact SpotMe support.

Once SSO is enabled on your event’s registration page, please be aware that when attendees register to the event using SSO they will immediately be redirected to the event app, and will also be able to login to the app via the app container using the associated SSO.

They will not receive a registration confirmation email as they will directly access the event.

Add a manual approval step to the public registration

You can add a manual approval step to your audience's public registration journey. With this option enabled, attendees who register for your event via the public registration will need to be approved manually in Backstage before they can gain access to the event:

You can also edit the Registration pending approval email, that attendees will receive to inform them that their request to register is pending. More information

To approve the pending registrations, in the workspace main menu go to Content > Users, and click on the Pending registration requests tab:

The list of pending registrations will appear here, where you can select the registration requests and Approve or Deny them:

• For registration requests that are approved, the attendees will receive a confirmation email that their registration is approved with a link to access the event, are removed from the Pending registration requests tab and are added to the main users list in the workspace.
• For attendees that are denied, no email approval email is sent to them and they do not gain access to the event.

Limit the email domains from which attendees can register for the event

Once you have finished preparing your public registration page by following all the steps above, make sure that you have enabled the necessary options in Settings > Access limitations, to ensure that registrants can access the registration page.

Beyond that, all you will need to do is share the registration page URL by any means that you see fit, to ensure that your registrants can find it.

9 - How to track event registrations, access analytics, and see the user registration statuses

Read the dedicated How to track event registrations, access analytics, and see use registration statuses article.