Import People into a Group

Importing is the fastest way to populate or update a group at scale. You can upload a CSV file or paste data from the clipboard to add new contacts, append people to an existing group, or update existing contacts in bulk — all from the same Import People action.

Overview

In Eventene, contacts live inside groups (see What is a Group?). When you create a new group, you can seed it with contacts at that time. For an existing group, Import People lets you:

Add new contacts to the group
Append people to a group that already has members, without disturbing the originals
Update existing contacts in bulk (sometimes called a "bulk update")

Who can use it

Import People is available only to the account Owner and Admin users.
The action only appears on the People tab of a main group — not on subgroups. To change membership in a subgroup, see What is a Subgroup?.

Preparing Your Data

Arrange your data as a table of rows and columns. The first row is the header row with column names; each remaining row is one contact.

First Name	Last Name	Email
Johanna	Arias	johanna.arias@example.com
Layton	Drake	layton.drake@example.com
Emilio	Stone	emilio.stone@example.com
Cayden	Decker	cayden.decker@example.com
Dominique	Dean	dominique.dean@example.com

Every contact in Eventene has First Name, Last Name, and Email fields, but only one of the three is required to create a new contact. That can be useful if you have a list of emails but no names yet — you can fill in the rest later.

Unique IDs

To update existing contacts (rather than add new ones), Eventene needs a way to match each row in your file to a specific contact already in the group. That's the Unique ID.

You can use any field whose values are unique — for example, Email, phone number, or a company ID carried over from a CRM. The cleanest option is the built-in EVENTENE_ID: every contact in a main group already has one, it's visible on the contact's profile in the group, and the Backup action on the People tab includes it as a column for every contact.

What `EVENTENE_ID` is, in plain terms

Think of EVENTENE_ID as the contact's identifier for the main group they're in. A few things follow from that:

Every EVENTENE_ID is unique across all of Eventene — no two contacts share one — so it's a safe key to use for updates.
Each contact's EVENTENE_ID is assigned by Eventene when the contact is first added to the group. You don't pick it, and you can't change it.
If the same person is also a contact in a different main group, they'll have a different EVENTENE_ID over there. The ID belongs to the contact-in-this-group, not to the person in the abstract — so always use EVENTENE_ID values from the same group you're importing into. (Running Backup on that group is the easiest way to get them.)

First Name	Last Name	Email
Johanna	Arias	johanna.arias@example.com
Layton	Drake	layton.drake@example.com
Emilio	Stone	emilio.stone@example.com

Leave the EVENTENE_ID cell blank on any row you want added as a new contact. Rows whose EVENTENE_ID matches an existing contact in the group will update that contact in place — every other field on the row overwrites the current value.

Custom fields

Any extra column in your file becomes a custom field on the group. If a column header doesn't match an existing field, Eventene creates a new one — as type Text — using the header name.

If you want fields of other types (Number, Date & Time, Phone, Address, Single Choice, etc.), create the custom field first on the group's Layout tab so the import can convert your data into the right type. See Use Custom Fields.

Step 1 — Choose a Data Source

Open the group, go to the People tab, and click Import People. The Import side panel opens with two source options.

Upload a CSV File

CSV Separator — choose the character separating values in your file. Comma is the default; semicolon and Tab are also supported.
My data contains a header row — checked by default. Uncheck only if your file has no header row.
Upload CSV — pick the file from your computer.

Click Import to proceed to Step 2.

Paste from Clipboard

Useful when you want to import just a few rows, or just the changed rows from a larger spreadsheet.

CSV Separator — same options as above.
My data contains a header row — same default as above.
Data input box — paste the rows directly.

Click Import to proceed.

Step 2 — Map Fields and Pick the Unique ID

Map the fields

For each column in your imported data, choose the corresponding field on the group under Existing Field. Eventene auto-selects matches for column names it recognizes (First Name, Last Name, Email, and any existing custom fields).

To skip a column entirely, uncheck the green checkmark to the left of its name.
If a column doesn't match any existing field, Eventene will create a new Text field with that header name when you confirm.

Gotcha when importing from a Backup file: the Backup export includes columns called Full Name and Tags. Uncheck both during mapping, otherwise the import will create new custom fields with those names. Full Name is derived from First/Last Name automatically, and Tags are managed separately (see Use Tags).

Select the Unique ID field

Eventene needs to know which column identifies each contact uniquely so it can match rows to existing contacts.

If your data includes the EVENTENE_ID column, it is selected automatically.
Otherwise, pick any field whose values are unique — Email is the most common choice.
If the existing group contains duplicate values in the field you choose, Eventene shows an error and the import aborts.
If the imported data contains duplicates, Eventene processes them in order — the last occurrence wins.

Step 3 — Confirm and Convert

Click Confirm to run the import. Eventene processes each row, converting values into the type defined by each destination field. Rows whose Unique ID doesn't match any existing contact are appended to the group as new contacts.

Field type conversion reference

Field Type	Conversion	Sample CSV value
Text	No change	`Chris Smith`
Email	No change	`csmith@example.com`
Number	Converts text to a whole or decimal number	`8.2`
Yes/No	Accepts `y`, `yes`, `n`, `no` (case-insensitive)	`yes`
True/False	Accepts `t`, `true`, `f`, `false` (case-insensitive)	`false`
Single Choice	Replaces the old value with the new one	`Light Green`
Multiple Choice	Separate values with the pipe character (`\|`). Replaces all old values with the new ones.	`Red\|Dark Blue\|Green`
Rank Choice	Order of values determines the rank. Separate with the pipe character (`\|`). Replaces all old values.	`Pancakes\|French Toast\|Eggs`
Date & Time	Converts date and/or time using the local timezone	`4/19/2019 7:45 pm`
Comment	No change	`The quick brown fox jumps.`
Phone	Trims surrounding whitespace; supports international formats	`310-555-1212`
Address	Six values separated by pipes: Street1, Street2, City, State, Postal Code, Country. Must contain exactly 5 pipes, even if some values are blank.	`1234 Main Street\|Apt. F\|Santa Monica\|CA\|90405\|`

Notes on choice fields

Single Choice — if an imported value isn't in the field's list of choices, Eventene replaces the cell with a blank. Verify your imported values match the choice list before importing.
Multiple Choice and Rank Choice — if an imported value isn't in the choices list, Eventene keeps the value on the contact but does not add it to the field's choices. You'll need to add it to the choices list manually if you want it selectable elsewhere.

Bulk-Update Workflow (Backup → Edit → Import)

When you need to change many existing contacts at once, this round-trip is the cleanest path:

On the group's People tab, run Backup to download the full group as a CSV (Owner and Admin only). The export includes EVENTENE_ID plus every field on the group.
Open the CSV in a spreadsheet and edit the cells that need to change.
Copy just the changed rows — including the header row — to your clipboard. (Or save the edited file as CSV and upload it.)
Run Import People on the same group and paste from the clipboard (or upload the CSV).
In Step 2, uncheck Full Name and Tags, and confirm that EVENTENE_ID is selected as the Unique ID.
Confirm the import.

Because every row carries its EVENTENE_ID, each one updates its existing contact in place. Rows you didn't include are untouched.

See Export & Backup Group for more on the Backup action.

Tips for Successful Imports

Create non-Text custom fields on the group before importing, so values land in the right type instead of as Text.
Test with 5–10 representative rows before running a large file — mapping or formatting issues show up immediately on a small sample.
Keep column names consistent across recurring imports so the mapping step requires no manual work.
Back up the group before any large update import. If something goes wrong, you can restore by re-importing the backup.
Double-check Single Choice values against the field's choice list — mismatches silently blank the cell.

Common Use Cases

Seed a new group with a guest list from a spreadsheet
Sync contacts from a CRM, using the CRM's record ID as the Unique ID
Bulk update roles, locations, or other custom fields after an annual review
Append a fresh batch of registrants to an existing group