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Build an event management app
Keep the program, registrations and the door list in one app. Give every session its own seat limit and waitlist, pass lunch and access needs to the people who handle them, and check guests in from a phone's browser.
Built around a purpose
One program, six workshops and a single list at the door.
For organizers of a one-day or weekend event with a program, several rooms and a list of who is coming: a trade group's conference, a volunteer training day, a school's open house. If you only need sign-ups for one offer with a closing date, the landing page guide below is enough. If customers book the same kind of slot again and again, see the online booking guide below.
For illustration: a network of community gardens in Sacramento, California runs a free Saturday training day for its volunteers, lunch included. The hall seats 150 for the morning keynote. In the afternoon, six workshops run in two rounds across three rooms that hold 60, 50 and 40. The 40-seat room is upstairs with no elevator. Last year, sign-ups went into a spreadsheet, the door team worked from a printed list, and room changes went out as a reply-all email.
An event page shows the program by round and room. A form fills each workshop to its limit and keeps a waitlist behind it, and two volunteers search one door list on their phones. The lunch counts for the caterer and a list for each room host come from the same registrations, behind sign-in.
Saving registrations and waitlists, a door list behind sign-in, confirmation and reminder emails and scheduled reminders are backend capabilities, so this is an app with data. A program-only page, with the schedule, the venue and a link to a form you already run elsewhere, would be a one-page site. Build and preview it on any plan. Putting it live needs Go or Pro. See pricing
Enter each session with its room and seat limit
Make every session a record with its round, start time, room, host and seat limit, using the venue's figure for each room rather than a guess. Mark the upstairs room as having no step-free route. Ask Studio to build the program page, the form's workshop choices and the door list from these records, so moving a workshop should take one edit.
Collect a second choice for each round
The three rooms hold 150 between them, the same as the hall, so each round has a seat for everyone but not always their first choice. Ask for a first and second choice per round. Write the rule for Studio. When a first choice is full, the person gets their second choice and a place on the first choice's waitlist, in the order they registered. If both are full, they get the workshop with seats left. Once all 150 places are taken, new sign-ups join an event waitlist instead. Decide whether a freed seat goes straight to the next person or waits for you to offer it.
Ask about lunch and access at sign-up
Add a lunch question with standard, vegetarian, vegan and no lunch, plus a line for allergies. Add an access question offering a step-free route, a reserved seat near the front and American Sign Language interpreting, with room for a note. Say on the form who reads each answer.
Build a door list two volunteers can share
Plan a check-in screen that opens in a phone's browser: a search box that finds a registrant by last name or registration number, their two workshops, a lunch marker and one check-in button. Two volunteers work the door at once, so a guest checked in on one phone should show as checked in on the other. Add a short walk-in form that only offers workshops with seats left.
Write the three messages around the day
Draft the confirmation, the reminder and the thank-you before you build. The confirmation carries the registration number, both workshops and a link to change or cancel. The reminder, a week out, asks anyone who can't come to cancel so the waitlists move. The thank-you links the slides from the two workshops each guest was assigned. The app can email all three, and a scheduled task you set can send the reminder.
Scope the first version
What a first version includes.
Event and venue page
The date, the address, the step-free entrance, parking and bus stops, the program by round and room, and a named contact for access questions. People read it before they decide to register.
Session records
Title, round, start time, room, host, seat limit and whether the room has a step-free route. The form shows seats left beside each workshop.
Registration record
A registration number, name, email, garden, the choices per round, the workshops assigned, lunch option, allergy and access notes, and a status: registered, on the event waitlist, canceled or checked in.
Event and workshop waitlists
One waitlist for sign-ups after all 150 places are taken, and one per workshop for people holding their second choice. Each keeps registration order and has the button you press to move someone in.
Door list
Search by last name or registration number, each guest's workshops and lunch marker, one check-in button, a walk-in form, and a running count of guests checked in against registrations.
Caterer and room sheets
Lunch counts by option with the allergy lines for the caterer. For each room host, who is expected in each round and the access notes that room needs.
After-event record
Who checked in, the workshops each guest was assigned, the slides each host uploaded, and the date on which you delete the allergy and access notes.
Test it in the preview
Before you share it.
- Lower the upstairs room's limit to 2 in the preview and register three test guests who choose it first. The third should get their second choice and a waitlist place. Cancel one of the first two and confirm the seat goes where your rule says.
- Check in the same test guest on two phones a few seconds apart. The count should rise by one, and the second phone should say the guest is already checked in.
- Search the door list for Nunez when the registration says Núñez, and for half of a hyphenated last name. If either misses, ask Studio to ignore accents and match part of a name, then search again.
- A week before, stand where the check-in table will go and open the door list on the venue's Wi-Fi and on cellular data. Print the list the night before in case the connection fails on the day.
- Register a test guest who needs a step-free route and give them a workshop in the upstairs room. Confirm the clash reaches you before the day, not only that room host's sheet, so you can swap rooms or contact the guest.
- Sign in as a room host and confirm you see only your room's guests and their access notes, with no allergy lines. Then sign out and open the door list's address. You should reach a sign-in screen, not names.
- Send the confirmation, reminder and thank-you to two addresses at different email providers, and look in the spam folders. Cancel a test registration first and confirm it gets no reminder.
Together in your app cloud
The pieces behind the possibility.
Choose the models and services that support the experience you want to create.
Database
Keep data and context for apps and agents
Authentication
Give the right people access
Email
Keep conversations moving
File storage
A home for your documents and media
Shape the details
Make it work for your world.
- Put access information on the event page, not only in the confirmation: the step-free entrance, which room is upstairs, the nearest accessible restroom and who to call. People who need it decide from that page whether to register.
- Don't register more people than the hall holds to cover no-shows. Ask in the reminder for cancellations instead, so seats reach the event waitlist before the day rather than sitting empty.
- Allergy and access notes are personal. Ask only what the caterer and the hosts need, and keep the notes behind the access you describe for each collection. Door volunteers and room hosts sign in to the published app as app users. State on the form when you will delete the notes, then delete them on that date.
- When a workshop moves room or time, edit its session record rather than a copy of the program. Confirm the program page, the form and the door list all show the new room, then write only to the guests assigned to that workshop.
A little more context
Good questions.
Can an agent answer attendees' questions?
A support agent can answer routine questions from the program and the venue page, such as where a workshop meets or whether lunch has a vegan option. Test it with questions from last year's inbox and check each answer against the program. Design it to pass anything about access or cancellations to a named organizer, and confirm that it does.
Can I reuse the app for next year's event?
Yes, if sessions and registrations belong to an event record. Ask Studio for a copy action on that record, so next year starts from this year's rooms and questions with a new date and program. Keep last year's registrations as attendance history, without the notes you promised to delete. Ask at registration whether people want to hear about future events, and write only to those who said yes.
Can I sell tickets?
Link to the ticketing or payment page you already use, and record each paid registration in the app. Decide the ticket types, whether a waitlisted guest pays only once a seat is theirs, and until what date a cancellation gets a refund. If member prices depend on a current membership, the membership guide below covers renewal dates.
Do I need an event app or a sign-up page?
A sign-up page fits one offer with one list and a closing date. Choose an event app when sessions have their own seat limits, the door team needs a list, and guests get messages before and after. For courts, rooms or rentals that people book repeatedly, the online booking guide fits better.
Explore Pricing for plans, included capabilities, and usage details.
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