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Configure Registration for Invite-Only Events

Invite Only registration means only the people already on your event may register. It is the default for new events, and it applies wherever registration is offered — from the Event Website, from an invitation email, or from a direct registration link.

What invite-only actually controls

Two settings work together in Edit Event, and they answer different questions:

Setting Question it answers Options
Event Visibility Who may see the event's details? Invitees Only / Everyone
Event Registration Who may register? Invite Only / Open

Invite Only restricts registration. It does not, on its own, hide your event — an event can be publicly readable and still invite-only to register for. See What is an Event Website? for the combinations.

Who counts as invited

Being invited is a matter of membership, not of having received an email. Someone can register when their email address is on the event's main People group.

That means the practical way to invite someone is to add them to the group your event uses — by import, by adding them individually, or by including a group that already contains them. Sending the invitation email is a separate, optional step. See Invite Participants.

What an invited attendee experiences

From the Event Website:

  1. They press Register
  2. They enter their email address
  3. Because Eventene already knows the address, they verify it with a 6-digit code
  4. They continue into their registration

From an invitation email or a direct registration link: the link opens their registration directly.

Once they have registered, the Event Website button reads View Registration, and returning takes the same verification step.

What an unrecognized email sees

If the address isn't on the event, the attendee gets We couldn't find an invitation, telling them to check that they used the same address the invitation was sent to, and to contact the organizer for help. They can press Try a different email or close the panel.

Two things worth knowing:

  • No one is created. An address that isn't invited never becomes a person on your event, so your roster stays exactly as you built it.
  • The wording is identical for every uninvited address, whether or not that address exists elsewhere in Eventene. That is intentional: it stops the registration form being used to find out who is on your list.

The most common real cause is simply the wrong mailbox — someone typing a personal address when the invitation went to their work one. Adding the address they actually use resolves it.

Set an event to invite-only

  1. Open your event in the Eventene web app
  2. Click the pencil icon in the event header to open Edit Event
  3. Set Event Registration to Invite Only
  4. Set Event Visibility to Invitees Only to hide the details as well, or Everyone to let anyone read about the event while keeping registration closed
  5. Save

You can change either setting at any time, including mid-event — for example running pre-registration invite-only and opening it up later.

Invite-only and standalone registration

Nothing about invite-only depends on having an Event Website. If you would rather not publish a page at all, keep the event Invitees Only and send direct registration links in your invitations. Standalone registration forms are fully supported for exactly this case. See Choose How Attendees Register.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause
An invited person sees "We couldn't find an invitation" They're using a different address than the one on the event
Everyone sees it The event's main People group is empty, or the invitees were added to a group the event doesn't use
An invited person registers but sees "Registration isn't available" They're on the event but in no group that any activity targets — see Pre-Registration Questions and Registration Routing
Strangers are registering Event Registration is set to Open, not Invite Only

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