Create advanced event

How to create an advanced event in Wild Apricot

Below are instructions on how to create an advanced Wild Apricot event. The advanced event process must be used for any avent that requires more than just an RSVP.  If your event only requires an RSVP you should use the simple event process.

The Wild Apricot event creation module uses six tabs in a gray horizontal menu bar to control movement between the various tasks that need to be accomplished. Note, some event types, e.g., Pre-retirement seminars and most Affiliated events, do not require completing all the tabs. 

The tabs are:

  • Event details – where the event’s web page is created
  • Registration form – where the event registration form is defined
  • Registration types & settings – where registration restrictions are set
  • Emails – where event announcements are created
  • Registrants & Invitees – where a list of registrants and registrant reports is located
  • Waitlist & settings – where those on a waitlist are shown if a waitlist has been created.

Create Advance Event

Before starting to add an event it is important to have all the necessary materials on hand. At minimum you will want to have:

  1. A description of the event. This will come from the event committee chair.
  2. The date, time, and location of the event and any restriction on the number of registrations. This will come from the event committee chair.
  3. A graphic for the event. You will need to locate an appropriate graphic and save it at a known location on your computer. There are a variety of places to get a graphic. If the event is a presentation a picture of the presenter may be available from ASU, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. For some events a picture from a past ASURA event makes sense and these can be found in the ASURA Photo Gallery. Another source of pictures is clipart – enter “event topic clipart” in your browser search engine to get pages of possible graphics, e.g., “stress clipart”.
  4. Any paid event that uses Wild Apricot to handle registration must have a Mail-in Registration form. You can create the form from scratch (not recommended) or you can download one of the following sample fliers and modify it.
  • Download sample flier with no options
  • Download sample flier with options



    When you have completed the form create a PDF version of the file. The easiest way to do this is to use the “Save as” command in Word and save as PDF. The file name should now be Year_Month_Event.pdf (e.g. 2012_9_MeetGreet.pdf). If you are not the event organizer, send the PDF file to the organizer for comment.

Once you have all your materials log onto Wild Apricot switch to Admin view. If you cannot remember how to do this see Navigating WA's public and admin menus.

The Events detail page is used to create and edit the event's webpage.

  1. Click on “Events” on the vertical gray menu bar
  2. What you do next depends on whether you are creating new, duplicating or editing the event.
    1. Creating new - Click on the green “Create new event” button. This brings up the “Choose event type” page. Select “Advanced” which brings up the “Events details” editing page, the starting point for creating the event.
    2. Duplicating - It is often easiest to duplicate a similar past event and then edit it to match the new conditions. To duplicate a past event:
      1. from the event list seach for the desired previous event and click on the event
      2. open the "Edit" pulldown menu and select "Duplicate event"
      3. the event is now ready for editing.
    3. Editing - scroll down the list of event until you find your event. Click on the event. The event opens up in the Event details page.

There are only a few things that you need to do to define the event. Since you are already in edit mode you can start immediately adding event details. Following is a list of places to enter information.

  1. Title - enter the name of the event.
  2. Event URL - will already be set.
  3. Tags - tags are used to organize the event types and define which calenar the event will be displayed on. Enter one of the following tags:
    1. free - for events that are free
    2. paid - for events that cost
    3. international travel - for all international travel
    4. pre-retirement - for the pre-retirement seminars.
    5. non-asura-event - for affiliated events
  4. Location - enter the event location.
  5. Time zone – skip.
  6. Start date - enter the “Start date” using the pull down calendar to select the date
  7. Time  - enter the starting Time.
  8. End date - skip except for travel events that last more than one day
  9. End time - enter if known
  10. List of event registrants - Check the “Show registrants who want to be listed” box and then select  the “to everyone” option.
  11. Guest registration - Make sure the “Do not add new guests to contacts list” is selected.
  12. Description (right column) - Insert an appropriate graphic at the top of the event description. The goal is to have a graphic that covers the event description. If your graphic is too small you will need to get a second graphic. You can adjust the size and border of the graphics by mousing over the graphic and clicking on “settings” in the upper left of the graphic. See Advanced WA editing techniques to see how to upload and where to save an image.



    There are a variety of places to get appropirate graphics:  a) ASURA photo gallery on Zenfolio, b) the event location, c) free clip art, d) from the event organizer.

     
  13. Description (right column) - Enter the description of your event. You will have something from the event organizer which you may want to edit. Typically for seminars the description is written in the third person and presents “facts, just the facts mam”; for the social events a first person or more personable tone is used. 



    There is generally no need to include the event name, date, time, location in the event description. This information is already displayed on the webpage to the left of the description in the orange/gold box.



    If you plan to go public once you have finished the Registration types and settings tab (recommended), then you will need to add, at the bottom, information on how to register. It is recommended that use a heading, e.g., Registration followed by the ways a member can register. For example, You can register by
    1. clicking on the registration button on this page
    2. (paid events only) downloading and completing an event flier. You will need to link the work "flier" to the PDF flier you created before stating creating the event. See Advanced WA editing techniques for help.
    3. calling the Office at 480-965-7668



      If you are posting the event before registration “officially” opens, not recommended, you will leave the how to register material off, to be added later and include a sentence at the bottom indicating when registration will open. Generally, once an event is defined and made public registration is enabled (see Registration types and settings in a following accordion to set registration dates).



      If you want to include the event organizer’s phone and email that is fine but this has typically not been done.
  14. Click on the “Save” button.
  15. At this point it is generally a good idea to take a look at what you have created. To do this:
    1. Click on the “Website” menu item in the left column
    2. Click on “ASURA Events” in the black “Events” menu
    3. Scroll down until you see your event and click on the link and review the page you have created. There is almost always something not quite right.
    4. Click on the House icon at the left side of the gray horizonal menu. This will bring you back to your “Event details” page for your event.
    5. If there were edits to be made, make the edits and repeat this step.

All event registrations are done online; some by the member and some by the Office volunteers when the member calls in or sends in a paper form (generally only done for paid events). You can customize the form to collect only the information you need.

  1. Click on the gray “Registration form” tab and then on the edit button. You should now see a list of possible items to be included on the registration form.
  2. If you want to include all the common fields then click on the “All common fields” box. This is generally more data than you need and so unclick the “All common fields” box and select the few items you want. It is recommended that you only select “First Name”, “Last Name”, “Phone” and perhaps “Cell Phone”. You cannot remove “Email”. The fewer items you select the quicker it is to register and if it turns out the Office needs more details, the membership database is available.
  3. You can add an additional field if you want, e.g., “Bring cake” Yes or No by clicking on “Add new field”. For paid events that have food or transportation choices this where you add the choices and you need to remember to make them required.
  4. Once your satisfied click on the “Save” button.

Registration cannot begin until there is at least one registration type defined. Registration types are used, among other things, to:

  • define the different types of registrants, e.g., ASURA member, non-member, NAU member, etc.,
  • set the cost and registration dates,
  • set attendance limits for both the event and the various registrant types, and
  • whether guests are allowed.

Completing the creating / updating of Registration types is a two-step process. Step 1 updates the event registration settings and Step 2 updates the registration types. 

Updating Event Registration Settings
  1. Click on the “Edit” button
  2. If there is a limit to registration click in the “Event registration limit” box and enter the maximum registration number. When you enter a number, a new option appears “Enable waitlist when limit is reached”. This box should be checked.
  3. Check the “Multiple registrations” box (this allows to office to register attendees who call in).
  4. At the bottom of the page is an information box for payment instructions. This is not necessary for free events. 
  5. Click on the “Save” button.
Updating Registration Types
  1. Select the type to be edited by either:
    1. Clicking on the “Add type” button, or
    2. Clicking on the type name you want to update.
  2. Click on the “Edit” button.
  3. Status Make sure the Status is “Enabled”
  4. Name – Add the name of the type
  5. Description – Enter a description of the type, if desired.
  6. Base price - Enter zero.
  7. Taxes - unclick the box and then click on Disable taxes.
  8. Registration limit - If there is a limit on the number of this type of registrant, enter the number in the box.
  9. Cancelation - Select “Do not allow cancellation by registrant”. We want cancelations to pass through the Office.
  10. Guests: Except for member only events, the “Allow guest registrations” box should be checked and you then need to decide on how much information to collect about the guests. You have several options:
    1. If you only want a number of guests, then select “Only collect total number of guests”. This is the most common selection for free events.
    2. If you would like the names of the guests, then you will need to select “Collect contact information for each guest”.
    3. If the event has options on the registration form, e.g., meat vs fish, then you will need to select the last option, “Full registration information for each guest”. 
  11. Guest pricing – Select “Base price” which is the default.
  12. Guest Limit – enter any limits on the number of guests.
  13. Availability – Set any restrictions on who can use this registration type. The default value is” Everyone” but you may want to have one type for members and one type for others in which case you would select the “Members only” option for one of the types.
  14. Available period – Set the beginning and ending dates for registration. These may be left blank if you want registration to be open from the current date to the event. If you want to limit registration then chick on the calendar button just to the right of the date and select the date you want registration to begin and end. Typically, the starting registration date will be the current date and the ending date some few days before the event.
  15. Click on the “Save” button
  16. Click on the blue “back” link
  17. Repeat steps 1-11 if there are more registration types that need to be added or modified.

Once you complete the tasks in Events details, Registration form, and Registration types & settings, you are in a position to make the event public, i.e., make the event's webpage visible to all and turn on the registration. It is not necessary to wait until the event emails have been created before doing this. However before going public you should have the event's chair look at the webpage and you should discuss the various registration restrictions to make sure they are acceptable. Once you get the thumbs up from the chair to proceed:

  1. Click on the “Admin only” link towards the top of the page.
  2. Select “Public” from the popup window and then “save” – this access allows anyone to view the event and is what you will generally eventually want.
  3. Click on the “Allow registration” button which will move and turn blue. 
  4. Once this is done, a registration button will magically appear on the webpage.

    Two notes
    1. while not required, common practice has been to have registration open at the same time the webpage goes public; this saves having to add a caveat about when registration will open on the webpage, and
    2. registration will only be open for the dates you have selected when working with registration types in the Registration types and settings tab. So, if the current date is not within this window registration will not be open and you will need to add a note to the webpage. On the other hand, if you did not enter any registration dates, then registration is now open.
  5. Once the event's registration has opened your need to:
    1. alert the Office Coordinator(s) to let them know that the Office may be getting questions about the event and requests to register. You need to let the Office know if the event is a free or paid event.
    2. alert the Technology Manager that the event's registration has opened and you would like the event posted on the ASURA Home page. 

Advertise - manage advanced events

The emails tab is where the event email announcements are created and scheduled. There are two types of emails associated with an event; those used to advertise the event and those generated by Wild Apricot as part of the registration process. For ease of presentation the tasks have been broken up into three major tasks:

  • Task 1 - Administrative Housekeeping (who gets what)
  • Task 2 – Advertising Message Preparation (event information)
  • Task 3 - System Message Preparation (registration information).

Task 1 is presented in this accordion panel, Tasks 2 and 3 are in the following two panels.

Administrative Housekeeping (Required)

The following tasks ensure that replies to event advertising emails will go to the event organizer, that there will be no emails automatically sent to ASURA and that the WA generated event process emails will not go to the event organizer.

  1. Once in the Emails tab click on the ”Edit” button
  2. Event Organizer - this is the person or organization that will receive email replies when a member "replies" to any of the email announcements. It should be the chair of the event. To change, click on "Change..." and enter the name of the chair in the search box. Click on the name and then on "Select" 
  3. Make sure the “Copy emails according to email routing settings” is not checked.
  4. Registration emails (right hand column) - these are event registration related emails that WA can send out as part of the registration process, e.g., thanks for all the fish.
    1. Event registration confirmed (select)

      This email is sent once the registration check has been received in the Office and processed. You should check this email (see accordion "Email tab - system message preparation" below).
    2. Event registration pending (almost never select)

      This email is sent when a registration is submitted letting the registrant know how to complete their registration. This email is generally redundant since all paid events have invoices and once an invoice is created the registrant automatically receives an email telling them how to complete their registration. . When you register online the invoice is automatically created. When the Office registers the member, the Office creates an invoice.



      If the event payments do not pass through ASURA then this email should be enabled and the automatic invoice email turned off. This is a rare situation and generally such events do not use ASURA Wild Apricot system to handle registration.
    3. Event registration canceled (generally not selected)

      Sent when registration is canceled by the registrant or automatically (not sent when canceled manually by an admin). If you do selected it you should review the content to make sure it is appropriate for the event.
    4. New waitlist registration ( selected when using a waitlist)

      Sent to member who has been added to a waitlist.  Be sure to check the content (see accordion "Email tab - system message preparation" below).
  5. Click on the green “Save” button.

The following material explains how to create and schedule the emails that are sent to the members advertising the event and reminding those who have registered that the event is imminent. Editing these emails is something several event chairs have learned to do.

Prepare email announcement 1

There are four messages that you will need to edit: Announcements 1, 2, & 3 and Reminder 1 (and sometimes Reminder 2). These emails are the principal method of advertising the event and you will be editing either a system generated default announcement or an old announcement if you created the event by duplicating an old event. The announcements use system macros, i.e., text enclosed in {}. The default announcements use yellow highlighting to indicate the minimum that has to be modified.



To prepare your announcement:

  1. Click on the announcement you want to edit, e.g., Announcement 1, Announcement 2, Announcement 3, or Reminder 1 (Reminder 2/3).
  2. Click on the Edit button
  3. In the gray horizonal menu stripe click on Layout ,select 1 column and then click on the Apply button. This gives a much nicer looking email.
  4. The next two things to check are whether:
    1. Reply to: this should be the event chair and if it is not this means something went wrong during the Administrative email task.
    2. Subject: -the email subject, located in a box above the body of the email should read “First/Second/Third Announcement/Reminder for {the event title}. It is best to use the {Event_Title} macro rather than typing in the title
  5. Remove any yellow highlighting as follows:
    1. select the yellowed text,
    2. click the “A” with the black boarder in the editing toolbar, and
    3. click on the white box in the pallet of colors.
    4. delete or modify any yellowed text that is information about creating the announcement and not part of the announcement.
  6. Edit / create the announcement. While creating the announcement there is one macro you don’t want to use is the {Event_Details} marco, enticing as it may seem. Using this macro is an easy way to get the event material off the webpage into an announcement but once you do this you lose control of the announcement formatting and content and typically the formatting and content on the event page is not what you want in the announcements.



    The typical announcement layout is:
    1. Begin with the email recipient’s first and last name or just the first name. Use either the {Contact_FullName} or {Contact_First_name} macro.
    2. Next insert a left justified graphic which may or may not be one of the graphics used on the events page. 
    3. Next add the event title, left justified; use the {Event_Title} macro and increase its font size to something just a bit larger than the announcement text.
    4. Next follows three lines: Date, Time, and Place or Location. These should use the appropriate event macros, e.g., Date:  {Event_Date}.
    5. Now enter the announcement text. You are free to choose any font and font size; historically the announcements have used Arial 16pt. Whatever font you use make sure all the text uses the same font.



      The tone of the announcement should be personal, an invitation from the event organizer. If you like the text on the event page than copy and paste it into the announcement. You should feel free to add material encouraging members to attend.
    6. The last part of the announcement is information on how to register. There is some introductory text followed by a numbered list showing how to register
      1. a link to the event to permit online registration, e.g., Register Online. The link should be to the appropriate page in the ASURA website. Fore example if the event is a seminar, the the link should be to the Upcoming Events page (https://asura.asu.edu/upcoming-events). Use similar links for Pre-retirement, International Travel, and Affiliated Events.
      2. (for paid events) a link to the registration flyer 
      3. the phone number for the ASURA Office, e.g., Call the ASURA Office at 480-965-7668.
    7. Finally include a closing, e.g., Best regards, followed by the event organizer with or without a title.
  7. When completed click on the green “Save” button
  8. Click on the green “Send test email” button and review the sent email announcement. You should check to make sure the formatting is ok and that any links actually link to the correct location.
  9. If there are any edits required click on the “Edit” button, make the changes, and then click on “Save”. You should again send a test email to make sure all is well.
  10. When you are satisfied forward the test email to the event organizer for approval and or suggestions.
Prepare announcement 2

The second announcement is generally the same as the first announcement. There are a couple of ways to create this announcement.

  1. Create the announcement just as you did for the first announcement
  2. Copy and paste from the first announcement to the second announcement
  3. Copy the html code for the first announcement a paste replace the html code in the second announcement with it.
Prepare announcement 3

Announcement 3 is the same as announcement 1 except the text has been replaced with a shot statement to the effect that it is not too late to register (or something like that).

Prepare reminder

Reminder emails are only sent to those who have registered and are used to alter the member that the event is close and if there are last minute instructions about parking, etc. they can be included. The default system email can be tailored as necessary but is for most events adequate. In some cases events have sent out two reminders, especially if there is a number of special instructions or documents that should be understood before attending the event.

Schedule announcements and reminders

The number of event announcements that you send is not fixed but generally two or three are recommend. If you send more than three members may begin to feel they are being spammed and select to unsubscribe (an option at the bottom of the email).

  • Event Announcement emails are only sent to members who have not already registered
  • Event Reminder emails are sent only to those who have registered for the event.

To schedule an announcement or reminder:

  1. Select the message you want to schedule, e.g., Announcement 1, Announcement 2, Announcement 3, or Reminder 1 or 2 and click on the gray “Schedule” button,
  2. Enter the number of days before the event; the send date will appear in gray just below the box you where you entered the number of days before the event. The schedule should be checked with the event's chair;  typically the schedules are:
    1. announcement 1 - 4/5 weeks before the close of event registration
    2. announcement 2 -  15 days before the close of event registration
    3. announcement 3 - 4/7 days before the close of event registration
    4. reminder 1 - 1/2 days before the event
    5. reminder 2 - 3/4 days before the event
  3. For announcements 1, 2, and 3,Select the “Selected contacts” radio button and then check the “Member levels”, box and then “All levels” box.
  4. Click on the gray “Schedule” button.

Note: if the scheduled date is not what you want repeat steps 1, 2, and 4, adjusting the days before the event until you get the desired date.

Checking annoucement delivery

Occasionally Wild Apricot has difficulty successfully sending the blast and some recipients do not get the e-mail. To check, select “Log” from the “Email” menu and find your blast. There will be statistics stating what percentage have received or failed to receive the blast. Once the percentage reaches one hundred, and this may take several minutes, if any of the e-mails failed to be delivered click on the red percentage button and then on the “Resend to selected failures” button. You need to check back to see that these redos were delivered. In most cases all the redoes will be delivered but occasionally there will still be some that were not delivered. Send the names of those who did not receive the email to the Business Manager who will find out why the email address we have is not working.

There are four Registration emails.

  • Event registration confirmed - Sent after registration was paid or confirmed by administrator
  • Event registration pending (not needed for free or paid events paid through ASURA ) - Sent after registration was submitted and payment is required; it includes payment instructions.
  • Event registration canceled - Sent when reservation is cancelled
  • New waitlist registration - Sent when registrant added to a waitlist

The default system emails are generally fine and you will not need to change anything. But, if there are some special instructions, you may want to modify one or all of these emails.

To review / edit and of these emails

  1. Click on the blue link over the desired email in the right column
  2. Review the email. At a minimum it should have an appropriate Subject, e.g., Event Registration for the event title, the ASURA logo, the person’s name, a statement to the effect that their registration has been successfully received, a statement directing them to the ASURA Office if they have questions, the events: name, date, time, and location. It may also include some registration information, e.g., name, email, phone.
  3. If the text looks good then you are done and you click on “Back”. If there are some edits needed then click on the “Edit” button, make the edits, and click on “Save”. When you click on the “Edit” button you will see that the email uses a number of Macros.
  4. It is a good idea to send a test email to confirm that the email is what you want.
  5. While the default "Event registration pending" email is generally not enabled works, there are case where it is useful and this email will need to be modified.  For example, some paid events require the member to pay the event provider directly and not go through ASURA Office. This can save ASURA some Foundation transactions fees and the Office has instructions for how to clean up the database after the event. To keep from getting the automatic invoice email, this email will need to be disabled during the period the event is being offered.

The Registrants & invitees tab makes it easy to search the attendees based on registration type, name, date, etc. There are options for generating reports. Events chairs often need the information available using this tab but they generally ask an Office volunteer to get the information. See the information on the Event registration tasks page to get instructions on how do these tasks.

The Waitlist & settings tab is accessible only if the waitlist has been enabled (see Registration types & settings in column to the left). When a waitlist is enabled the event chair needs to indicate how they want the list handles.

To set up the waitlist click on the edit button; there are two operational decisions:

  1. Waitlist management - this option address how someone on the waitlist gets moved to the event when there is an opening. The two choices are:
    1. Manually by administrator (the default) or
    2. Automatic registration where WA automatically adds the next inline to the event when an opening occurs.
  2. Information to collect - this option concerns how much information is collected when the person joins the waitlist. There are three options:
    1. Name and email (default),
    2. All contact information, or
    3. All event registration information.

 

February 22, 2023 by B McNeill

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