Creating your Registration Categories

Categories are the foundation of your event’s registration process. This article will walk you through the purpose of Categories as well as how to create and test them. 

Knowing how to use Registration Categories is vital for hassle free management experience. A proper set up will easily allow for information collection, group registrations, enforcing ticket availability, and much more. 

When testing out the registration process, the default categories available for selection are: Attendee, Sponsor, Exhibitor, and Speaker.

These default categories are not required to be used and can be removed or renamed depending on your organization's needs. Some common examples of unique Registration Categories are: 

• Member and Non-Member categorizations
• VIP
• In-Person Attendance
• Virtual Attendance

Each Registration Category will have its own set of Tickets. That means if a registrant selects a “Member” Category, they will be able to select Tickets that are assigned to the “Member” Category. Tickets can be assigned to multiple Categories.

Contents

• Step 1 - Create A Registration Category
• Step 2 - Check your Registration Categories
• Quick Tips
• Conclusion

Step 1 - Create A Registration Category

When you have decided on what registration categories to use for your event, you can create them in the Event Dashboard. Each category comes with individual settings so you can customize each based on your needs. While there are many different settings available for categories, we will go over some of the essential ones you should be aware of when creating them. 

1.1 - From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Registration > Categories and select the Create button

1.2 - Ensure the Active checkbox is toggled on, otherwise the category will not be available on the Event Website

1.3 - Under the Name field and the Description field, enter the the name and description of your category

1.4 - Under the Thumbnail Image field, select Choose File to upload a personalized image for the category. The recommended size is 150 x 150 pixels. This will replace the default image for the category on the Event Website.

1.5 - Navigate to Details and toggle on the following checkboxes:

• Collect Organization and Require Organization: This will include the option/requirement for registrants to fill out their organization information.
• Collect Title and Require Title: This will include the option/requirement for registrants to fill out their title.
• Collect Address and Require Address: This will include the option/requirement for registrants to fill out their address.

• Collect Designations: This will include the option for the registrant to enter any designations they may possess.
• Collect Pronouns: This will include the option for the registrant to enter their preferred pronouns.
• Collect Dietary Restrictions: This will include the option for the registrant to enter any dietary restrictions they may possess.
• Collect Accessibility Requirements: This will include the option for the registrant to enter any accessibility requirements they may need accommodated.

1.6 - Navigate to Other and under the Notification Emails field, add any email addresses that should receive email notifications each time a registrant registers under this Category. If you have multiple email addresses, use commas to separate. 

1.7 - Select Save Changes

1.8 - Repeat the above steps for the remainder of your Registration Categories.

Step 2 - Test your Registration Categories

If you have not set up your tickets yet, please do so before proceeding. For instructions on Tickets, please review our Creating your Registration Ticket Types article. 

Once your registration categories and tickets are set up, it is time to check your work and view them from the perspective of a registrant. We strongly recommend conducting a few test registrations on the Event Website to confirm everything is working as intended.

2.1 - From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Event Portals > Event Website > Register Now

2.2 - Select the desired Registration Category and note any Category descriptions and thumbnail images that were added. 

2.3 - Input your email address and proceed to the next step. Please note that if your email address has already been inputted into PheedLoop you will be prompted to verify your email address via a one time code. 

2.4 - Proceed with the registration process and note any discrepancies you may encounter. 

Quick Tips

For registration processes with only one registration category: Smaller and/or simpler events oftentimes group all of their Tickets together, meaning that they don’t necessarily need multiple Registration Categories. In this case, you can create only one Registration Category and link all of your Tickets to it. 

Multiple registration categories can be created simultaneously for convenience. For instructions, please review our How can I create multiple Registration Categories at once? article.

Conclusion

After reading this article, you should now understand the purpose of Registration Categories as well as how to create and test them in your event.