How can attendee's retrieve/access an existing registration for an event

When using a SpotMe registration page for your event, whether you are using public (open), private (RSVP), or a combination of public and private registration, it can occur that some of your registrants follow a slightly alternative approach when they register.

In this article we'll explore some of the most frequent use cases, and explain how the registration will take place.

Registrants can use the registration page to retrieve their existing registration if they have already registered to the event.

Previously, RSVP registration was not possible for registrants unless they were specifically invited to do so first: only registrants accessing the RSVP page via a tailored link in their invitation email could respond to the RSVP and update their status. With this update, any registrant (whatever their status, except if they are "cancelled") can now go to a registration page, follow the retrieve registration process that includes verification with the PIN code as described in this article, and reply to an RSVP invitation (without being specifically invited to do so / using a tailored link in an invitation email).

When setting up the registration page in your workspace and testing it (by registering to the event), please note that you will by default experience the retrieve registration with the request for an access code. This is because you are already added as a user in the workspace. Attendees who register to the event for the first time will not experience the retrieve registration, they will only experience it in the cases explained below. You can if needed enable or disable the sending of the PIN code for Backstage team members, in order to facilitate the testing of the registration page from the perspective of first-time registrants as well as that of existing users.

- Please be aware that the below described retrieve registration functionality will not work if the use of shared email addresses is enabled at the app level.
- Registered users can only retrieve their registration for the specific event that they try to register to again, and never for any other events.

You can edit the email template ("Existing user - retrieve profile") that is used for sending the retrieve registration PIN codes to align with your event app branding.

What happens if an attendee tries to register for an event that they have already registered for?

Your registrants may forget that they have already registered for your event, and may try to re-register for it.

Should this happen, this will be smoothly handled by the system, and the registration landing page will identify that the registrant's email address has already been used to register for the event.

In order to confirm that the registrant is indeed the owner of the email address associated with the existing registration, the system will send a unique confirmation code to that email address.

By accessing the email address, the registrant can receive and provide the unique code in order to retrieve their registration. This is process is explained in detail below.

STEP 1: The registrant enters their email address and clicks on Register now, or if they realize that they have already registered, they click on the Retrieve your registration link and the result is the same (they will be requested by the system to provide their email address):

STEP 2: Here the system recognizes that the email address has already been used to register to this event, and sends a unique code to the email address:

STEP 3: The registrant will receive and retrieve the unique 8-digit code in the inbox associated with the provided email address:

STEP 4: The registrant will now return to the registration page and enter the received unique code, in order to retrieve the existing registration:

STEP 5: The entered code is verified, and the registrant can access, edit (if enabled), and proceed with completing their registration, by selecting Next:

Note: If attendees are already logged into the registration page, for example by following a magic link in an email that includes authentication, they will not be prompted to receive an access code as described above. The access code is only used for attendees who are trying to log-in or access their profile via the registration page itself.

What happens if an attendee that is on the user RSVP list tries to register to your event via a public (open) registration page?

Remember that a registrant who has or will be invited to register to your event via a private RSVP invitation email (with a tailored "Will you attend" link) will already by default be added to the user list in the workspace.

If you are using a combined public (open) and private (RSVP) registration page, it can however occur that your RSVP attendees attempt to register via the event's public registration page (instead of responding via the RSVP invitation email link).

If this occurs, the registration landing page will identify that the registrant's email address is associated with an "RSVP" user in the event, and will send a unique confirmation code to that email address, exactly as explained above.

By accessing the email address, the registrant can access and provide the unique code in order to retrieve, respond to (or edit, if enabled) their RSVP registration ( with "Yes, I will attend"  or "No, I will not attend"), and pursue by selecting Next:

What happens if an uninvited invited person tries to register for an event that is only meant for RSVP invited participants?

As mentioned above, an attendee who is invited to register to your event via a private RSVP invitation email will receive an email containing tailored "Will you attend: YES / NO" RSVP buttons, as well as a link to the registration landing page.

As such, if the RSVP registration page link is shared, through forwarding the invitation email or by copying/pasting/sharing the registration page URL, the person will not be able to register for the event with an email address that is not on the invitee RSVP list, and will see the following:

How does this registration retrieval work if SSO (Single Sign On) is enabled?

If your registration page has SSO (Single Sign On) enabled, please see below the behavior for attendees who register. The below is applicable whatever the registration page type (hybrid or not):

Public (open) registration with SSO:

Attendee registers for the first time via the open (public) registration page using SSO.	User is registered.
Attendee who has already registered via the public (open) registration returns to the registration landing page and tries to register again using SSO.	User public registration is retrieved without having to provide the verification code.

 

Private (RSVP) registration with SSO:

Attendee registers for the first time via the private (RSVP) registration using SSO.	User is registered.
Attendee registers for the first time via the private (RSVP) registration using SSO. Attendee who has already registered via the private (RSVP) registration access the registration landing page and tries to register again using SSO.	User RSVP registration is retrieved without having to provide the verification code.

 

Available starting June 4, 2025 - Disable the retrieve registration for Backstage team members on a workspace - end-to-end registration testing

Backstage users that are added as team members in a workspace in order to configure and test it, are always added as users in the workspace user list.

This means that, in theory, just like an attendee who has already registered to an event, whenever the Backstage user uses their email address to try to go through the registration process in order to test how the registration page works for new registrants, they cannot. They will always be prompted to retrieve an existing registration and provide the necessary PIN code (as explained above).

In order to facilitate the testing of the registration page from the perspective of first-time registrants as well as that of existing users, we have added a setting to the registration page that will allow Backstage users to deactivate the retrieve registration process for workspace team members only, and more specifically the requirement to receive and provide the verification PIN code.

The setting is called Skip PIN code for Backstage users, and is available in the Access code section of the registration page's Settings:

With this setting enabled, Backstage team members will not go through the registration retrieval process, even though they are existing users in the Backstage user list. This enables team members to test the registration experience for both new and existing registrants.

This setting is disabled by default on workspaces, and can be enabled if needed for testing purposes.

This setting does not in any way affect the registration experience of standard attendees who are not Backstage team members in the workspace. 

To see a full list of the Backstage team members for a workspace, go to the Settings > Team section in the workspace. More information on adding team members to a workspace.