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Pre-Registration Questions and Registration Routing

Some events need to know something about an attendee before they can be given the right registration — whether they're a student or an adult, which chapter they belong to, whether they're a returning member. Pre-registration questions ask for exactly that, at the start of registration, and their answers can decide which registration experience the attendee gets.

How it works

  1. You choose up to three existing fields from your event's main People group as pre-registration fields
  2. An attendee who has no value for one of those fields is asked for it before registration begins
  3. The answer is saved on the person, and any Event Groups whose rules use that field are re-evaluated straight away
  4. The attendee lands in the groups their answers put them in — and therefore sees the activities and questions those groups are offered

The last step is what "routing" means: the answers decide the path.

Set up pre-registration questions

  1. Open your event in the Eventene web app
  2. Click the pencil icon in the event header to open Edit Event
  3. Open the Registration tab
  4. Under Pre-registration Fields, choose a field for Field 1, and optionally Field 2 and Field 3
  5. Save

The order of the slots is the order attendees are asked. Leaving a slot blank simply removes that question.

TODO (screenshot): The Registration tab of Edit Event, showing the three Pre-registration Fields slots and the Registration Routing note. To be captured once the release UI is final.

Which fields you can choose

Pre-registration fields are ordinary custom fields on the event's main People group. Eligible types are:

  • Single-choice (multiple choice)
  • Yes / No
  • True / False
  • Whole number

Free-text and other field types can't be used, because routing rules need a value they can match on reliably. If the group has no eligible fields, Eventene tells you so on the Registration tab — add a field of one of the types above to the group first.

Next to each field, Eventene shows how many Event Groups actually use it in their rules. A field marked as used by no Event Group will be asked but won't route anybody — usually a sign the question or the group rule is missing something.

One People group per event

Registration routing can only be configured when all of the event's activities point at a single People group. If they point at more than one, the Registration tab says so, and you'll need to consolidate before pre-registration questions can be used.

What the attendee sees

Attendees reach the questions under the heading A few questions, with a note that the organizer needs the answers before registration can continue.

Only questions they have not already answered appear. If you already know someone's chapter or age group — because you imported it, or because they answered on a previous event — they're never asked again.

Answers can't be changed by the attendee afterwards from this screen. Reclassifying yourself after the fact would be a way to switch registration paths, so corrections go through you.

Attendees already part-way through registration are not asked new pre-registration questions you add later. A field added mid-event applies to people who haven't started yet.

Building the routing itself

Pre-registration questions only route attendees if something acts on the answers. That something is an Event Group whose rule references the field:

  1. Create a Subgroup on the main People group with a rule such as Attendee Type is Student — see Create a Subgroup
  2. Assign that Subgroup to the activities meant for students
  3. Do the same for each other answer
  4. Select the field as a pre-registration field, as above

An attendee who answers Student is placed in the Student subgroup and offered the student activities; an attendee who answers Adult gets the adult path. See What is a Subgroup? and Invite Participants for how group assignment drives access.

When attendees match no activity

If an attendee ends up in no group that any live activity targets, they see Registration isn't available, with a note to contact the organizer. The same message covers every reason, so nothing about your segmentation is exposed.

The Registration tab warns you about this before attendees hit it: when people on the event are eligible for no activities, it reports how many. Common causes:

  • A rule that no answer satisfies — for example, options in the field that no subgroup covers
  • A subgroup that exists but isn't assigned to any activity
  • Activities that were unpublished or deleted after the groups were built

Fix the group or activity assignment and the attendee can continue; there is nothing they can do from their side.

Keeping the configuration healthy

  • If a field you selected is deleted, converted to an ineligible type, or belongs to a group the event no longer uses, the Registration tab flags it as no longer available and it is simply ignored — registration is never blocked by a stale setting.
  • Cover every answer. An option that leads to no group is a dead end for whoever picks it.
  • Keep it short. Three questions is the maximum, and most events need one.

What to Do Next