Create an Event

Follow these step by step instructions to do the main set-up.

The whole event module is found in the main menu under events.

If you click on events, you will open up two options: "event lists" or "settings".

The settings are DEFAULT settings which will apply to all your events, and once you've set that up, it's kind of set and forget, unless you want to make a change.

Inside settings, you will have your event type options, or set how long before the event to send a reminder email.

It is where you set all the default settings that apply to ALL the events you create.

In events, and event list, you will see all your upcoming and past events.

All past events will be listed at the bottom, and all your future events will be listed as: "upcoming events".

To create a new event, you would navigate to the right corner and click on "add".

This is the page where you can set up a new event, and we will now go through the MAIN settings.

The first setting you would be asked to put in is an event name.

This could be something like: open day, 12th of September, 2024.

Next, you can put in an image if you want to style the booking page for parents.

What type of event is it?

In this case, it would be an open day, so we add that as an event type.

If you have a school with campuses, you would also put in a campus: "here". Which campus is this event restricted to?

You can also set your ATTENDEE LIMIT. This will restrict how many attendees each family are allowed to register via the booking form.

By default, it is set to 10.

In this case, I'm going to restrict this event to allow four attendees in addition to the parent.

Have a look at these settings before continuing.

Below this, we have some other main settings.

The first setting is called: Private, Hide.

The event can be private, which means that it won't be visible for the general public on the event link.

If the parents go on your website and they click on book into an event, if that event is private, it won't be visible via this link.

You would use this setting if it is a private event, and you want to book specific families in. Or if you are just not ready to make it public quite yet.

The next setting is: "allow canceling by parent".

If a parent logs onto their parent dashboard, they can book into an event through there. If you allow cancellation, the parent will see their booking details and we will allow them to cancel their booking from the parent dashboard, directly.

What this setting does is add a "cancel" button inside the event details page for the parents.

The next tick box is called: "allow public kiosk form submissions".

This public kiosk is a QR code that you can enable.

It would be used for check-in and taking attendance.

The parent would scan the QR code upon arrival, and basically take their own attendance, confirming that they have attended this event.

If you are enabling the public kiosk QR code, then we recommend always using the next setting: "send parent an auto-response email when public kiosk form is submitted".

This would enable a different email version to be sent to the parents.

The email would read something like: "thank you for checking into this event TODAY", instead of "we look forward to seeing you IN THE FUTURE".

Finally, sending an ICS file in the parent autoresponder will make this event a calendar link.

This setting would remind parents that they have an upcoming event by adding it directly to their calendar.

These are the main settings that we need to set and will decide what features this event has.

Once we've chosen which settings should be ON or OFF, we also have some additional event settings on the right side.

By default, we have the two top settings: "enable automated emails based on attendance", and "Enable automated reminder emails", ON.

These would allow automatic reminders going out to parents for this particular event.

If you have it set up, an automatic reminder email will be sent to the parent saying "you have a booking, SEVEN days from now, at X o'clock."

In order for those automatic reminders to go out, these settings need to be enabled.

Finally, if you have a children-only or parent-only event, you would need to tick one of these tick boxes.

In that case, we would restrict the attendance accordingly, to allow for parent or children bookings only.

Further down, we can also add in a description of the event, by clicking on the red box and enabling the editor.

and we can choose where that description should show.

If you have an online or virtual event, you can add in a meeting link and send this in an email to those that book.

After the submission, we can choose to redirect the parent.

This event is set to be redirected to a default URL that we have set up inside our customisation settings.

You can also redirect to a specific URL. For example, if you want to redirect the parents back to a page on your website.

The "Show confirmation" option would show a thank you page with customised text.

Now that we have looked at all our main event settings, we can finally set up the capacity and sessions for the event.

Put in the session name. In this case, Open Day, 12th of September, 2024.

Next, choose the date. 12th of September, 2024.

Then, put in a start time.

Let's say we start the event at 8 in the morning and finish the event at 10.

Finally, set the total capacity.

In this case, we allow 100 people to attend the event.

And remember how we already have a restriction that four attendees can show up per family.

We can also set a restriction on how many families are allowed to attend this event.

And whichever one will be completed first, either 100 people in total or 20 families have booked in, will mark the event as fully booked.

When you have set these, click "save" and your event is created.