Waitlist Manager
The Waitlist Manager for Event Smart helps keep your events full by offering a waiting list after an event becomes full from selling out. An attendee or guest that is interested in your event can then share their contact details and if a spot opens up, then the Waitlist Manager will automatically reach out to the next guest on the waitlist so they can complete their online registration.
An active subscription for the Waitlist Manager feature upgrade is needed to use waiting lists on your Event Smart website.
The Waitlist Manager is also included in the business plan. Want to upgrade to this plan? Make the switch from your My Account page on EventSmart.com.
Overview
Here is an example of the registration flow to help you understand how the Waitlist Manager works:
1) The Waitlist Manager springs into action as soon as an event becomes sold out
2) It then collects a name and an email address from attendees that are interested (up to a limit that you choose)
3) Behind the scenes, it monitors an event for open spots, and when a spot opens up, then it reaches out to the next attendee in line through email and asks them to confirm their registration.
Think of the Waitlist Manager as an online assistant that helps keep your events full.
Set up and Configuration
The Waitlist Manager can be found in the event editor within your Event Smart dashboard. It appears about midway down the page after the Venue Details area.
Here is an introduction to the settings in the Event Wait List area of the event editor:
- Wait List Registrations: the number of registrations that are currently on the waitlist
- Total Available Event Spaces: the remaining number of spaces available for this event
- Wait List Registrants Previously Promoted: the number of attendees that have been transferred from the waiting list
- Wait List Spaces: the number of spots that you would like to offer on your waiting list
- Auto Promote Registrants? If set to "No", then you’ll manually move attendees from the waiting list. If set to "Yes", then the system will transfer attendees from the waiting list as spots open up.
- Manually Controlled Spaces: the number of spots that you want to manually handle on your own.
Usage
The Waitlist Manager has three common scenarios available:
1) Off (this is the default setting for an event)
2) Offer a waiting list for up to X number of attendees and promote the next attendee when a spot opens up
3) A hybrid option which combines the automated option above + allows you to handpick the rest
Example of the off state
The waiting list is disabled in the example above because Wait List Spaces is set to zero.
Example of offering a waitlist for up to X attendees
There are 24 spaces remaining for the event. Once all spaces are gone, then the event will collect information from up to 10 potential attendees because Wait List Spaces is set to 10.
Example of the hybrid option where the system handles a certain number of attendees while you take care of the remainder
There are 20 spaces remaining for the event. After that limit is reached, then the event will automatically collect details for up to 5 potential attendees. This is because there are up to 10 spots available but the Manually Controlled Spaces is set to 5.