What is Event Registration Software?
Event registration software enables users to manage event registration, ticket purchases, print name labels, and guest check-in.
What challenge are we trying to solve?
1. Issue refunds
2. Easily manage discount codes
3. Create a seamless paperless check-in process
4. Easily generate name tags - prior to this integration we were spending 1-2 hours creating name tags.
5. Easily email guest list.
What were we looking for?
We were looking for a registration system that helped us achieve the following:
1. Payment system - We were looking for an event management system that enabled users to integrate PayPal as that is the payment portal used to sell Timeraiser tickets
2. Discount codes - Timeraiser issues a number of discount codes to sponsors. Managing discounted tickets from regular tickets has been a challenge at past Timeraisers so it was essential to create one system that could accommodate multiple types of tickets
3. Refunds - Our prior ticketing system did not enable users to easily issue refunds instead we needed a system that made refunding easy
4. Website widget - a system that allows us to embed the registration widget on our website
5. Exportable data - a website that will enable us to export our data easily into Salesforce
6. QR Codes/Mobile App - Currently guest-check in involves paper. A system that accommodate QR codes and has a mobile application will make event check-in an easy process
7. Waitlisting - because of the demand for tickets in major cities such as Toronto it is essential that our registration system accommodates waitlisting.
8. Name tags - our current system forces us export our data and set-up name tags before we print them out. This can take up to 2 hours depending on the data. Eventbrite will enable us to print name tags in less than half the time.
Challenges:
1. Although we are able to generate a French-Canadian registration page Eventbrite asks us to choose between French or English event pages making it challenging to create a bilingual event registration page.
2. We had to adjust the ticket price so that when tax and fees were added in it became a flat rate.
Cost per transaction:
1. Standard credit card processing: 3% of ticket value PayPal: 2.9% of ticket value + $.30 per transaction Google Checkout: 2.9% of ticket value + $.30 per transaction.
Eventbrite alternative: Guestlist app
Guestlist app is another tool we really liked but we are waiting for them to include waitlist feature and activate their QR code feature.