How to Setup Event Smart
After logging in you’ll be viewing the dashboard for your Event Smart dashboard (Event Smart admin).
Update the General Settings Page
From your Event Smart dashboard, go to Settings --> General. This will take you to the general settings screen. Then update at least the following fields and be sure to save changes:
- Site title - this is the name of your Event Smart website
- Tagline - a few words about what your site is about
- Timezone (important) - this should be set to a city/region near you. UTC options are not supported and a region/city is needed to show the correct time for your events.
Update the Your Organization Page
The Your Organization page allows you to customize information for Event Smart. This page can be found by locating Event Smart in the admin menus and then locating Settings and clicking on General Settings. This page has the following areas: Your Contact Information, Company Logo, Social Links.
Now we need to update the information about our business / organization. This can be done in the next section of the page for Contact Information. Go ahead and update all fields and remove any information that is not needed. Note: the country that is selected will affect the currency options that are used through out Event Smart.
IMPORTANT: Please be sure to select the Country of where your business is located/registered, as this setting affects the currency that is displayed throughout your website. This also affects the currency that will be used when accepting payments for registration.
Next you can upload a logo for your organization (if available) using the option in the Company Logo area. A size of 400 pixels wide or smaller is recommended. Additionally, you can add links to your social networks using the fields in the Social Links area.
Now you are done updating the Your Organization page and you can click on the blue Save button to save your changes. We are now ready to setup a payment method so that we can accept payments for our event registrations.
Setup a Payment Method
The Payment Methods page can be found by locating Event Smart in the admin menus and then locating Settings and clicking on Payment Methods. For this guide, we'll setup PayPal Standard which is a popular payment gateway that is used with Event Smart. More information about payments for Event Smart can be found in the article for: How to Accept Payments with Event Smart.
Locate PayPal Standard in the list of payment methods and click on it. Then click on the Activate PayPal Standard Payments button. This will activate PayPal Standard payments on your site and you'll be shown the following options:
- PayPal Email
- Country Currency
- Image URL
- Use the Debugging Feature and the PayPal Sandbox
- Shipping Address Options
- Button Image URL
Enter your Email for your PayPal account. It is recommended that you use a PayPal Premier or Business account (preferred).
The Image URL option allows you to add a logo for your organization/business to the PayPal payment page.
Next, you can enable the Debugging Feature (keep disabled when not needed). The Shipping Address Options setting allows you to specify if you would like a shipping address to be collected during registration checkout. The Button Image URL shows the current image that will be shown for PayPal Standard during registration.
You can upload and select a new image or leave it as is. Now double-check that you have updated all fields as needed and then click on the Update PayPal Standard Settings button. We are now ready to create our first event with Event Espresso.
Set up your Website Navigation
Begin by logging into your Event Smart admin. Then locate Appearance in the Event Smart admin menus and click on Menus. This will take you to the Appearance Menus Screen.
Click on the option for Event Smart Pages. This will expand to show available options. Now place a checkmark next to Event List and click on the Add to Menu button. This will add a link to your Event List page to your current menu. You can further customize the navigation label and setup a title for your event list page.
Once you are done making changes, be sure to click on the Save Changes button. Then visit your website on the front end and you should see your event list page as part of your website navigation.
Read more about the Event Smart menu/navigation system.
Next: Publish Your First Event