How to manage the registration page capacity and waitlisting

To fully control and keep track of the number of attendees who can register for your event, you can set a maximum registration capacity, i.e. a maximum number of registrations that can be completed via the event registration page.

Capacity can be managed for all registration page types: public (open), private (RSVP) and combined public & private.

By setting a limited capacity in your registration page, attendees will not be able to submit registrations once the full capacity is reached. They will instead see a message informing them that the maximum capacity is reached when they visit the registration landing page and form.

As registrations progress, event organizers will be able to refer to the registration page settings or the workspace dashboard to see the remaining registration capacity.

A waitlisting option can also be enabled on public (open) registration pages that have a maximum capacity set.

With waitlisting enabled, once the full capacity is reached your attendees will see a message saying that full capacity is reached, but will be able to proceed with their registration in order to be placed on a waitlist.

The waitlist is accessible and managed by the event organizer in Backstage, who can approve or deny any waitlisted registrations.

Please note that waitlisting is not available to registrants that are invited to register via RSVP).

How to set a maximum capacity in the registration page?

To add a maximum capacity to the registration page, go to the Settings section.

In the Access limitation options, enable the Set registration capacity option:

After enabling the Set registration capacity option, you must add a number that corresponds to the maximum number of attendees that can register:

Tip: For combined public & private registration pages, you can set a dedicated capacity for attendees that are registering via the public registration page, and a separate capacity for attendees that are invited to RSVP. This will allow event organizers to make sure that the RSVP registrants do not take up capacity from the your public event registration.

Once set, to help accomodate for changes you can increase or decrease the registration capacity at any time. Decreasing the capacity may result in attendees no longer being able to register, should the number of already registered attendees reach or exceed the updated capacity.

Adding a registration capacity limit will not affect the adding or import of attendees via Backstage, this means that even if the registration capacity is full, attendees can still be added to the user list via Backstage.

Attendee registrations that are counted in the capacity will have the following status in the workspace:
- ‘Self-registered’ (if public registration capacity is configured).
- ‘RSVP - attending’ (if private registration capacity is configured).

The Waiting list option can also be enabled once you have set a registration capacity. Enabling this option will allow attendees to register to the waiting list even once the full registration capacity is reached. Please note that waitlisting is not available to registrants that are invited to register via RSVP.

Remember to click on Save to confirm your changes.

Waitlisting cannot be enabled simultaneously with the manual approval step on a registration page (the “Manual approval” option will disappear if a registration capacity is configured). Waitlisting is not available for attendees who are invited to register via RSVP. It is only available on public (open) registration pages and on public & private registration (combined) registration pages (for attendees going through the open registration process). 

How does this work for attendees registering to the event?

Once you have set a maximum capacity, as soon as the event registration capacity has been reached, attendees will no longer be able to register to the event.

For attendees going through public registration (with waitlisting disabled) or via RSVP invitation - attendees will see a message on the registration page simply saying that the event is full and that they cannot register:

Likewise, if at the moment or accessing the form the registration capacity is full, the message will also be visible there:

If two people at the exact same time try to register to the last remaining seat on a session, they will both be able to complete the registration form, however the person that clicks on Submit first will claim the seat, and the other person wll see the message in red above.

Note: If an attendee has registered via RSVP, and decides to unregister, this will automatically free up a space in the RSVP registration capacity. 

With waitlisting enabled (only available for public registration) - once the full capacity is reached the attendees will be able to register to the waitlist only:

Once they have completed their waitlist registration, they will see a confirmation screen saying that they have been added to the registration waitlist: 

Attendees will also receive an email when they are added to the waitlist. More information

Waitlisted attendees who are approved by the event organizer will receive another email when their registration is approved. More information

Attendees who are added to the waitlist are not added to the workspace's user list. They are instead listed in the Pending approval tab in Backstage, from where event organizers can manage the waitlisted attendees.

How to track event registrations against the full capacity

As an event organizer, you can see the exact number of completed registrations compared to the full capacity, via the registration page Settings > Access limitation > Registration status:

Note: Please be aware that, if you have waitlisting enabled and your capacity is full, and that you approve some waitlisted registrations, then you may see that your registration status is over capacity here, for example 202/200. This is because even once your registration capacity is full, you can still approve waitlisted attendees. Remember also that you can increase the registration capacity here at any time if needed to adjust it based on the approved waitlisted attendees.

You can also access the workspace dashboard, where you can see the number of registrations as well as the capacity expressed as a percentage against the capacity limit, as seen in the example below:

Currently the capacity limit percentage is only visible for public registration pages, and is not visible for private (RSVP) registration pages.

How to manage the waitlist once registration capacity is reached

The Waiting list option can also be enabled here once you have set a registration capacity. Enabling this option will allow attendees to register to the waiting list even once the full registration capacity is reached.

Waitlisting cannot be enabled simultaneously with the manual approval step on a registration page (the “Manual approval” option will disappear if a registration capacity is configured). Waitlisting is not available for attendees who are invited to register via RSVP. Waitlisting is only available on public (open) registration pages and on public & private registration (combined) registration pages (for attendees going through the open registration process).

In Backstage, if a registration capacity is set and fully reached with waitlisting is enabled, event organizers can access the list of attendees who have registered but only been added to the waitlist.

Waitlisted attendees are added to the Pending registration requests tab in the Users module, where Backstage users can select the waitlisted registration request and approve or deny their registration in order to fill any available spaces in the capacity:

In the pending registration request list, the oldest registration requests are placed at the top, however Backstage users can approve the registrants in any sequence that they like.

For waitlisted registration requests that are approved, the attendees will immediately receive a confirmation (login) email with a link to access the event.

To tailor the experience for the registrant, you can use a different email than the default one, by accessing the "Email" section of the registration page, and choosing another template under the "Login email". This default email template can also be edited if you wish via the Emails module.

Once waitlisted registrants are approved, they are removed from the Pending registration requests list and are added to the main users list in the workspace. For waitlisted registrations that are denied or simply not approved, no email is sent to them and they do not gain access to the event.

You can approve as many waitlisted registrations as you wish. You will not be blocked or warned when you reach the capacity set.

How to manage notifications regarding registration capacity and waitlist, for the event organizer and registrant

Organizer notification when capacity is reached

You can configure your registration page so that it sends out automatic email notifications to specified email addresses once the full capacity is reached.

To do so, go to the registration page > Settings > Organizer notifications section.

Here you can use the Registration capacity field to enter the email addresses that will receive a notification once the configured full registration capacity is reached:

Remember to click Save to save your changes.

The email is sent as soon as the full capacity is reached. For example if the capacity is set to 200, then email is sent when the 200th attendee has registered.

The default email that is received looks as follows:

This default email template cannot be viewed or edited in the workspace, however Backstage users can select a custom email to be sent once the capacity is reached via the Emails section. More information on how to select what emails will be sent out by the registration page.

Organizer daily notification to see how many people are on the waitlist

In the registration page > Settings > Organizer notifications section, you can use the Summary notification in order to receive updates on your registrations:

The "Pending registrations" number in the summary email will give you the total number of people on the waiting list, as well as the newly once added since the previous day. More information on the summary email.

Registrant notification when registration submitted and added to waitlist

With a waitlist enabled, attendees who register after the configured registration capacity is reached are added to the waitlist, and simultaneously receive an email notifying them that they are added to the waitlist.

This email is set up in the registration "Email section". By default, the "Pending registration" email is sent, but another email can be selected, or the default template can be edited as needed.

Registrant notification when registration is approved from waitlist

When waitlisted attendees are approved by the event organizer, they will receive an email informing that they are now fully registered to the event.

This email is also set up in the registration "Email section". By default, the "Log-in" is email template is used, but another email can be selected and used if needed: