The Details Dance: A Simple Three-Step for Event Planners Wanting to get Online Registration Right

A couple of weeks ago I attended an event planners Christmas function. The turnout was decent, there was no shortage of skewered prawns or celebratory cocktails and a good amount of effort had gone into the costumes worn by circulating serving staff.

A few minutes into it however, I noticed one lady propped on a bar stool, looking tired and unimpressed. An ex-planner, with a career lifetime in the industry, she commented "They always get it wrong with the music at the beginning of these things". She was right. The funk band on stage was a class act, but the evening's organizers had given no thought to warming up the crowd, so this prematurely loud performance meant an empty dance floor and more than one headache.

This kind of got-it-wrong pain is familiar to anyone who's had an online event registration form go live without all the necessary details. The good news is it's avoidable, with a little careful stepping.

So take your positions please...

A One... Make a list of all your requirements and triple check these are included before the form goes live. Why?

• It's so much harder to make changes to a form once it's active, as the possibility of mucking up registrations already in the system increases when new requests are added, because the data fields may not match up.
• Additional changes to a live form could cost you more money, because the time involved in amending and retesting a form can be lengthy. It may also be necessary to close off online registration while this is happening and you could miss out on the people wanting to signup.

Two... Don't load up the registration form with too much information. Why?

• Because attention spans are short and too much information can be distracting, confusing and could result in people abandoning the task altogether. If you want to include things like detailed agendas, speaker bios etc, they can go on the event website, in the confirmation email or in a separate page linked from the registration form.

Three... It's true that there are times in life when it pays to be subtle. This is not one of them. When it comes to your "Register" button make it as obvious as white on red. How?

• It needs to be clearly visible on first glance at the event website. Use a different color, white space or a graphic image if you like, just don't have registrants needing to scroll down or search around for it.
• Use "Register" or "Register Now" instead of "Click here", because people respond better to language that tells them clearly what it is they're doing, instead of leading them into the unknown. You can also make use of any reference made to registering on your event website, by having the text set up as a link to your registration form.

And with a final flourish... Consider including a link to the registration form in your promotional material if you think some people will be happy to sign up without receiving more information. And bear in mind that your form should lead people smoothly to the point of registration, conveying the seamlessness you're hoping for on the day or night of your event.

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