Overview : Event Registration

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Event Registration is Chamber Nation's tool for handling everything that goes into running an event — from collecting sign-ups and payments to communicating with attendees, tracking attendance, and reporting on the results. Whether you're running a one-night dinner, a multi-day conference with breakouts, a recurring webinar, or a trade show with booth assignments, the same module handles all of it.

This article is the starting point for the Event Registration documentation. It explains what the module can do, walks through the lifecycle of a typical event, and points you to the detailed articles for each piece. If you're new to Chamber Nation or new to event registration, start here.

What Event Registration Does

At its core, Event Registration handles four jobs: collecting registrations, processing payments, communicating with attendees, and tracking what happened. Around those four jobs are dozens of optional features you can turn on as needed:

• Tiered pricing. Sell different pricing packages (member, non-member, early bird, late, student, sponsor) on the same event.
• Custom questions. Ask attendees anything you need to know during sign-up — dietary needs, t-shirt size, session preferences, accessibility requirements.
• Sessions and breakouts. Let attendees pick from concurrent sessions or workshops, with capacity caps per session.
• Exhibit booths. Visual booth selection for trade shows, with an interactive floor-plan editor.
• Payment processing. Accept credit cards, eChecks, PayPal, checks, purchase orders, or "bill me" invoicing. Multi-payment plans and partial payments are supported.
• Discount codes. Per-event or org-wide codes with usage limits, expiration dates, percent or flat-dollar discounts, and threshold-based group discounts.
• Confirmation and reminder emails. Automatic confirmations on registration plus scheduled reminders before the event.
• Surveys. Pre-event or post-event surveys tied to the registration.
• Attendance tracking. Mark who actually showed up, by event or by individual session, with optional CEU credit assignment.
• Attendee Portal. A self-service area where registrants can view their itinerary, attendee list, surveys, and certificates.
• Badges and certificates. Print attendee badges with custom layouts, then issue completion certificates after the event.
• Reporting. Comprehensive reports for registration counts, revenue, package breakdowns, payment status, and GL allocations.

You don't have to use any of this. A free event with one package, no custom fields, and no payment is a perfectly valid use of the module. Most events use a handful of features, not all of them.

The Lifecycle of an Event

Every event in MemberLeap moves through the same general phases. You'll spend most of your time in the first two; the rest mostly run themselves once configured.

1. Setup
   You create the event and configure it — basic info, pricing packages, custom questions, capacity limits, and any optional features you want enabled. This all happens in the Event Configuration editor, accessed by clicking the edit icon on the event card in the event list.
   
   Setup is done through tabs in the editor: General Information, Event Packages, Custom Fields, Advanced Options, Verbiage & Labels, and Preview. Almost every field autosaves as you edit, so you can leave mid-setup and pick up later. New events can be built from scratch, copied from an existing event, started from a saved template, or built by the AI assistant (Gabi) from a plain-English description or uploaded flyer.
   
   
2. Registration
   Attendees register through the public registration form (linked from your website, your Calendar of Events, or a direct URL). Depending on how you've configured the event, they may need to log in as a member first, enter a discount code, pick a session, fill out custom fields, or pay during checkout.
   
   You can also register people manually from the admin side — useful for phone registrations, comped attendees, or correcting mistakes. Admin registrations go through the same flow with extra options exposed.
   
   
3. Communication
   Confirmation emails go out automatically when registration completes. Beyond that, you can send:
4. Reminders. Scheduled emails that go out a set number of days before the event. Useful for "see you next week" reminders, parking info, or last-minute updates.
5. Event Registration Messages. Broadcast emails sent to all (or filtered) registrants. Used for last-minute changes, weather cancellations, post-event thank-yous.
6. Survey invitations. Pre-event or post-event survey links sent to attendees on a schedule..
   
   
7. At the Event
   On the day of, MemberLeap supports check-in and attendance tracking. Print badges from the Badge Builder, scan attendees in at the door (USB scanner or mobile camera scanner), and mark attendance by event or by individual session.
   
   If the event has CEU credits attached, attendance marking automatically credits the attendee's transcript. See Section 7.16: Attendance Tracking By Field and Section 7.25: Badge Builder.
   
   
8. After the Event
   Once the event is over, you can issue completion certificates, send post-event surveys, run reports on revenue and attendance, and audit any changes that were made to attendee records. Registration history stays in the system permanently and is searchable through the various reports.

Key Concepts

A few terms appear throughout the rest of the Event Registration documentation. Understanding these up front will make the other articles easier to follow.

• Event. The container for everything — one calendar entry, one registration form, one set of packages and custom fields. Every event has a name, a date, and a URL where attendees can sign up.
• Package. A pricing tier. Every event has at least one package (even if it's free). Members and non-members can be charged different package prices on the same event. Packages can also be restricted to specific member types, certifications, or be designated as "table packages" for group registrations.
• Contact. The person who completed the registration — the one who entered their name, paid, and receives the invoice. One contact can register multiple attendees.
• Attendee. Each person actually attending. A contact registering themselves and three colleagues creates one contact record and four attendee records.
• Custom field. An additional question on the registration form, beyond standard contact info. Six types are available: text, selection (dropdown/radio), checkbox, multiline text, numeric, and donation. Each attendee answers them individually.
• Invoice. The financial record for the registration, stored in the Ledger. One invoice per contact, even if there are multiple attendees. Payments are recorded against the invoice.
• Status. Most records in MemberLeap have a status field. For event records the values you'll see are A (Active), I (Incomplete — registration started but never finished), V (Voided), and W (Waitlisted).
  
  

Where to Go Next

If you're setting up your first event, start with Section 7.1: Setting Up a Registration and work through the tabs as you build it out. The rest of this section's articles cover individual features in depth:

• Setting Up a Registration — the core walkthrough
• Packages — pricing tiers, including member vs non-member pricing and table packages
• Custom Fields — all six field types and how to configure them
• Restricted Fields for Admins — fields only admins can see and edit
• Editing Attendees and Payments — managing existing registrations
• Event Reporting — reports, exports, and reconciliation
• Discount Codes — setting up and using codes
• Event Registration Messages — broadcast emails to registrants
• Configuration — advanced options reference
• Event Billing — how event billing differs from dues billing
• Interactive Exhibit Booth Editor — trade show booth setup
• Event Registration Surveys — pre- and post-event surveys
• Event Registration Reminders — scheduled reminder emails
• Attendance Tracking By Field — session-level attendance and CEUs
• RSVP — the lightweight RSVP-only mode
• Event Attendee Portal — self-service portal for registrants
• Member Token Purchase and Use — pre-purchased event credits
• Tasks — internal task tracking per event
• Auditing — history of changes to records
• Badge Builder — designing and printing attendee badges