Managing Event Guests

When the "Use Named Guests" Setting is Enabled 

If the Use Named Guests setting is enabled, the public-facing registration experience will be as follows:

• The Primary Registrant will first be asked how many people, including him/herself, attend.
• On the "Event Specific Questions" page, registrants will see three radio button options when specifying attendees:
  • Name of primary registrant
  • Guests previously associated with the primary registrant during a past registration
  • A New Guest 
• Event Specific Questions will be asked for each Named Guest.
• The Primary Registrant completing the registration form is no longer required to be an attendee for all events but rather can specify which Named Guests are attending which events. 

A Primary Registrant and two named guests plan to attend an Open House. The Primary Registrant and both guests are registered for the Welcome Session, but only the Primary Registrant is attending Breakout Session 1, whereas the two guests are attending Breakout Session 2 and 3, respectively.

Note: If the primary registrant removes his/her name from an event, he/she will be asked to confirm the action before registering additional guests. To control the behavior of this feature, please see Configuring Custom Settings for Events for more information on using the Force Registrant Attendance setting.

The following apply to the CRM when Use Named Guests is enabled:

• A Contact Record is created for each Named Guest. The "Lead Source" and "Account" for guest contacts is set based on the defined values in the Custom Setting for the event. Each guest contact record is related to the primary registrant who specified the named guest. A Contact Related List can be added to the Contact Page Layout to view guests. 

• Each Named Guest will have an individual Contact Schedule Items for each event, and responses to any Event Specific Questions will be stored on the Contact Schedule Item. 
• Names Guests can be added in the CRM on the Organization Events tab, in the Attendees section, by clicking the + icon in the Guests column: 
  • Users can choose whether to create a New Contact, indicate if the Fee is paid, select a Status, and enter any information for related Questions.
  • The icon to Add Named Guests is only available for Registrants, NOT guests.

When the "Use Named Guests" Setting is not Enabled 

• For events with no child/sub-events, Event Specific Registration URLs will bypass the Events Search Page. If the Contact ID is also included in the URL, the registration form will be bypassed, making Event Specific Questions the first page in the registration process.
• The Primary Registrant will be asked how many people, including him/herself, attend.
• The primary registrant and his/her guests are all included in event capacity calculations
• A Contact Record will be created for the Primary Registrant only
• Event Specific Questions are asked only of the Primary Registrant. To capture answers for any guests, additional event-specific questions must be asked.

Wait List Logic for Registrations with Guests 

• If, during registration, the number of tickets being selected for a given event places the registrant and his/her guests on the waitlist, the ticket will change to reflect this. The registrant can then proceed with registration and be placed on the waitlist or decrease the number of guests/tickets to avoid the waitlist.
• If one or more seats become available for a wait-listed event, the first group in line that matches the available seats will be confirmed.

Example: If Sam Scholar (with two guests) is first on the waitlist and Ann Athlete (with one guest) is second in line when Lisa Legacy (with one guest) cancels her confirmed reservation, the waitlist logic will skip over Sam and confirm Ann because her party fits.

Important Notes

• A Contact Record is created for each guest registered. The "Guest Account" field in the Event Custom Settings will determine which Account is assigned to guest Contact records. 
• A default source value can be defined in the Events custom settings for all guest Contact records.
• The field Guest Of provides a data point to use for reporting purposes (including emails based on Reports). Guest Contact records will show the related primary registrant in the field, whereas non-guest Contact records will have a null value. 

Note: If enabling Use Named Guests, existing Reports and queries may need to be modified to ensure that only primary contacts, not guest contacts, receive print/email communication and are pulled for reporting purposes.