Managing Event Guests

Using Name Guests in Events

Named Guests allows Events to gather information on registrant guests and their guests, creating contact records for them and event registrants.

The Named Guests function allows Events to gather information on registrant guests and their guests, creating contact records for them and event registrants.

Use Named Guests: If checked, it allows the collection of detailed guest information during registration.
Guest Account Id: Salesforce Id for the Account to which Guests will be assigned
Force Registrant Attendance: When "Named Guests" is enabled, you can determine if the primary registrant must be an attendee for the events.
- 0 = Never Force: Primary registrant does not need to select themselves as an attendee for the events
- 1 = Force on all Events EXCEPT for Child Events: Primary registrant must be an attendee for all events unless they are child events. For example, a student registering for an Open House must select themselves as the attendee but does not have to be an attendee for the Parent's Lunch, a child event of the Open House.
- 2 = Always Force: Primary registrant must be an attendee for all events
Guest Source: Lead Source saved on the Contact record for all guests
Cancel Guests When Registrant Cancels: If enabled when the primary event registrant cancels their registration, their guests are automatically canceled.

Collecting contact information for event guests

The Use Named Guests preference will set up a requirement in the event registration for completed contact information for any guests. This allows Events to gather information on registrant guests and their guests, creating contact records for them and event registrants.

Use Named Guests: If checked, allows collection of additional guest information during registration. For more information, please see Using Named Guests in Events.

Guest Account ID: Salesforce ID for the Account to which Guests will be assigned.

Force Registrant Attendance: When Named Guests is enabled, you can determine if the primary registrant must be an attendee for the events.

0 = Never Force: Primary registrant does not need to select themselves as an attendee for the events

1 = Force on all Events EXCEPT for Child Events: Primary registrant must be an attendee for all events unless they are child events. For example, a student registering for an Open House must select themselves as the attendee but does not have to be an attendee for the Parent's Lunch, a child event of the Open House.

2 = Always Force: Primary registrant must be an attendee for all events

Guest Source: The value in this field will be saved to the Source field on the guest's contact record

Events 5.0 and higher include Custom Settings for Use Named Guests, an option that allows you to collect contact information and answers to event-specific questions from both the primary registrant and any guests. Below are details regarding the benefits of enabling Use Named Guests, as well as important notes to keep in mind if enabling this preference.

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.