Attendee Pre-approval Process

The Attendee Pre-approval Process from Event Smart will let you collect online event registrations from attendees and set them to pending so you can review and approve select guests that are a good fit for your next event.

The Business plan includes the required upgrades to access the Attendee Pre-Approval Process. You can subscribe to the Business plan from your My Account page on your Event Smart website. At a minimum the Advanced Event Editor is required.

The pre-approval process for attendees can be enabled on your Event Smart website with a couple of changes:

- The Default Registration Status for Not Approved is enabled, so attendees are held for review

- The Not Approved email notification is enabled so that an event organizer letting them know that an attendee has registered

You'll also have the flexibility to customize the email notifications that are sent to attendees.

Update the Default Registration Status to Not Approved

From your Event Smart dashboard, go to your event in the event editor. Then look to the right of your screen for the Event Registration Options. Next, update the Default Registration Status to Not Approved and save changes.

If you do not see the Default Registration Status setting, then you may be on the Basic plan. Upgrade your event website to the Business plan through your My Account page so you can use the Attendee Pre-approval Process for your upcoming event.

Enable the Not Approved email notification for event admins

From your Event Smart dashboard, look to the left of your screen at the admin menus and click on Messages & Tickets. Then click on the Default Message Templates tab. 

You'll now see a list of the notifications. Look for the Not Approved Registration and then click on the Edit Event Admin link (appears in grey). Add the following shortcode to the TO field at the top of the page and save changes.

[EVENT_AUTHOR_EMAIL]

Other changes that may be helpful for your private events

Would you like to collect custom registration details from your attendees so you can better understand who is interested in attending? See this tutorial on how to set up custom registration questions.

The following email notifications are available through the Default Message Templates tab and are used during the registration process:

- Not Approved (Event Admin & Primary Registrant): this is sent right after the initial registration

- Registration Pending Payment (Event Admin & Primary Registrant): this is sent after you update a paid registration and it allows an attendee pay online for their registration or ticket

- Registration Approved (Event Admin & Registrant): this is sent after you update a free registration and lets an attendee know that they are confirmed for the upcoming event. It is also used after an attendee completes their online payment for their ticket or registration.

- Ticket Notice (Registrant): this delivers access to a ticket and is used after an attendee completes their online payment for their ticket or registration

An Event Admin is the event organizer who created the event through the event editor on Event Smart. Primary Registrant & Registrant are the attendees who have registered for an event.

How do I review my pending attendees?

As attendees start their registrations for your event, then they'll appear in your Event Smart dashboard in the Registrations Overview screen.

There are two ways to update registrations. 

You can click on an attendee from the Registrations Overview screen, and you'll be taken to their registration details screen. If they are a good fit, then make these changes for a paid registration:

- Set Change Registration Status to Pending Payment

- Set Send Related Messages to Yes

Then click on the Update Registration Status button. Event Smart will then send them an email asking them to pay for their registration or ticket.

If this is a free event, then you can update them to Approved instead of Pending Payment.

The Bulk Actions option on the Registrations Overview screen can also be used to update multiple registrations at once. This is useful if you recognize a batch of guest names and you don't need to review them one by one.

- Select the attendees that you want to update by placing a checkmark next to each of them

- Click on the Bulk Actions dropdown menu which appears near the top of the page. Then select Set Registrations to Pending and Notify

Then click on the Apply button. Event Smart will send each of the attendees an email asking them to pay for their registration or ticket.

And if this is a free event, then you can update them to Approve and Notify Registrations instead.