Showtime Registration
- Marina Soroka
Overview
In addition to uploading attendees to the CMS, Touchcast offers a tool for attendees to self-register for an event directly on the platform. The client is able to dictate what information is collected at registration, and how that information is displayed on the event page for other attendees to see (if at all). This document walks through the setup of Registration and managing registrants after they self-register.
Terminology
Open without approval: attendees can register for the event and immediately access the site. They will still need to re-enter their email address once their registration is complete, and may need to enter the access code if enabled.
Open with approval: all attendees can register for the event and an admin will need to provide approval for each attendee that registers from the CMS. Once approved, the admin can send an email notification to the attendee that they are now able to log into the event page.
Access type: the setting that dictates how all attendees of an event can gain entry into the event page. For more information on the access types that do not involve Touchcast registration, visit the Overview of the Touchcast Platform.
Enabling Registration
To enable registration, you’ll navigate to the Showtime panel in the CMS and select the appropriate access type (refer to the Terminology section for their definitions).
Open without approval
Open with approval
Accessing The Registration Page
Changing the access types to either of the above will create the registration page. The registration page will not exist if the event page is not set to the registration-related access types. The registration page is accessible by either:
adding /register to the end of the event URL
through the login page, you can select the Register link below the login button.
The Login field within the Login page
The default Registration fields within the Registration page
Registration Fields
By default, the registration page will include the following fields: First name, last name, company, job title, and email address.
To add additional registration fields, go to the “Attendee management” tab in the CMS and select “Registration fields“
To add a new field, select the “Add new field” button. Enter the Field label and choose the type of field control (textbox, textarea, radio button, single checkbox, etc.). If you’d like descriptive text to display in the input field, you may enter it in the Field placeholder. Selecting “Field mandatory” will not allow attendees to proceed with registration until they have inputted the information in the field. If you would like this field to appear in the attendees profile (if that is enabled for your sandbox event), select “Display on profile”.
You can rearrange the registration fields in any order by dragging and dropping as needed.
If you’d like to create a multi-step registration page, go to the Registration Field settings (within the user management tab) and indicate the number of pages, or steps, that you’d like for the registration user experience. You’ll then be able to assign additional fields to the various pages you’ve created from the “Registration fields “section.
Finding Registrants
Attendees who register for the event will appear under the “Self-registered users” tab in the Attendee management section of the CMS. If your event type is open without approval, all attendees who have registered will appear as approved automatically. If your event type is open with approval, all attendees who have registered will appear as pending.
Approving Registrants
To approve, you can either
select the check box next to the attendee and select the approve button that will appear above. This is useful if you are approving attendees in bulk.
Select the pencil icon to edit the attendees status and switch it to “approved”.
Once you approve the attendee, the “send email” option will appear. Checking this box will mean the attendee will receive a registration approval message. This message can be customized in the settings tab, under email settings. If you leave the box unchecked, the attendee will not receive an email indicating that their registration has been approved.
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Email Settings
User approval confirmation email
The user approval email can be sent for events that require an admin to approve registrants before accessing the event page (Open with approval). To reiterate from the previous section, once you approve the attendee, the “send email” option will appear. Checking this box will mean the attendee will receive a registration approval message. This message can be customized in the settings tab, under email settings. If you leave the box unchecked (in the self-registered users section), the attendee will not receive an email indicating that their registration has been approved.
It’s important to note that there can only be one version of the approval email. When a user status is changed to approved, the event admin has the option to send the registrant the approval email at that point. The approval email can be sent individually or in bulk.
Registration confirmation email
The confirmation email can be used for both registrant access types but the text should be adjusted accordingly.
Confirmation email & the Open without approval access type
For events that use Touchcast Registration but do not require an admin to approve registrants before they can access the main event page (Open without approval), it’s recommended to enable the registration confirmation email. Once an attendee registers, they would receive this email automatically confirming that they now have access to the event page. Additionally, a single email address can be added to the BCC field in the settings to notify when each attendee registers. It’s recommended that this email address is an alias or shared inbox for the event specifically as this could generate a large amount of emails depending on the amount of expected registrants.
Confirmation email & the Open with approval access type
For events with the registration access type of Open with Approval, the registration confirmation email can be enabled especially if there is a window of time between an attendee submitting their registration and an event admin providing access to the page (“approving” the registrant) manually. The default text should be updated accordingly to notify registrants that their information was received and is being reviewed for approval at a later time.
In both uses of the registration confirmation email, it’s important to note that the email enablement is a setting that affects all registrants. If it is off, no one will receive it. If it is on, registrants will receive it automatically. There can only be one version of the confirmation email.
Closing The Registration Window
If clients prefer to have a formalized end to the window of time they make registration available to attendees, the event admin can switch the event page access type from Open with or without approval to Closed. The layout of this closed registration page is the same as the Login page and the assets included are pulled from the Login settings.
Once the event is set to Closed and the user tries to go to the registration page URL (/register), they will be directed to this page. The message displayed can be customized in the Login Settings of the CMS.
For clients that prefer to keep the registration page available, even beyond the registration dates communicated to attendees, the event admin would keep the access type the same (Open with approval or Open without approval).