How to Manage In-person Events with MemberSpace

Hosting in-person events can benefit your brand and business in various ways. Opportunities include: 

• Attracting new members and gaining their trust
• Driving awareness to your brand
• Establishing a good rapport with current and potential members
• Boosting engagement, improving member satisfaction, and increasing retention
• Generating revenue by charging admission or offering merchandise for sale
• Offering valuable knowledge related to your niche 
• Providing additional value to your membership
• Gathering feedback and ideas for future improvement

Choosing a platform for in-person event registration

There are a ton of different ways to set up event registration. But if you choose just any third-party platform, it’s likely you won’t be able to integrate it with your membership. In other words, you’ll need to manage your membership and events in completely separate places (which means more work for you and possible confusion for members).

Event-specific platforms may require you to:

• Host and manage your events directly on their platform, not your own website
• Collect specific and limited information during registration
• Use a basic template that doesn’t match your brand
• Use their domain

By setting up your in-person events with MemberSpace, you can:

• Build out your event information directly on your existing website and domain
• Collect the exact info you need with custom sign up fields
• Host event materials on your website and protect them for attendees only
• Export an attendee list to use during event check-in

Plus, MemberSpace is affordable regardless of how long you’ve been running your business. Start using MemberSpace for free and host endless events for unlimited attendees.

Setting up your in-person event with MemberSpace

Step 1: Choose the type of event you want to host

There are a couple of different event types people typically organize: public events and member-only events.

Public events are exactly how they sound — open to the public. This means anyone who visits your website can register for and attend your event. In other words, they don’t need to be an existing customer or member.

Member-only events also live up to their name — only members who are currently signed up for your membership are able to register and attend. In most cases, website visitors won’t even know about the event unless you add it to your website with the requirement that they first join your membership before being able to register for the event (which is a great way to get new members!).

Step 2: Determine the purpose of your event

It likely goes without saying, but you’ll need to make sure you have a clear understanding of the purpose behind your event. In other words, establish exactly why you’re hosting the event and build the itinerary around that.

It’s generally a good practice to host an event that compliments your membership business niche. For example, if your membership is primarily a content library of on-demand yoga classes, a good idea for an in-person event would be a live yoga class. This would give potential members the opportunity to experience your classes in a fun and engaging environment. And if they enjoy themselves, they’re likely to sign up for your membership so they can continue taking your classes on a regular basis. 

While the yoga class would be the main focus of the event, it’s always a good idea to add extra touches to make it extra special. Continuing with the yoga class example, you could also offer light refreshments after the class, some extra mingling time for attendees, and maybe even a couple of freebies like a water bottle and/or a small sweat towel with your logo. Plus, it could be a great idea to have attendees enter a raffle to win a prize such as X free months of your membership content or even a discount on your next event — the opportunities are endless!

Step 3: Build an event registration page on your website

After you finalize the details for your event, it’s time to start building out the event registration. This will be hosted directly on your current website. Simply create and design a new page and add all of your event info.

Now, the exact information you decide to include on the registration page is up to you. You may consider only including the basic information people will need to know in order to register. But just keep in mind that you’ll also want to incorporate enticing info that will actually compel people to sign up. For example, you could include an exciting description of the event, the date and time, location, price, what’s included, and maybe some fun pictures that help people visualize the event.

If the event is a public one, you’ll keep this page on your website open to the public and accessible to all visitors. But if it’s a member-only event, you’ll use MemberSpace to protect this registration page so only members can sign up.

Step 4: Build an event registration confirmation page on your website

The page you built in Step 3 is where people can actually register for the event. However, this registration confirmation page is where people will land immediately after they register for the event. This makes it clear to attendees that their registration was successful.

While it’s recommended to include some sort of message that clearly confirms the status of the registration, it’s also a good idea to include further details to help the attendee prepare. For example, you could post a detailed itinerary so people know exactly what to expect. You can also provide a dress code (e.g. yoga attire) and list out anything else attendees should take to the event (e.g. yoga mat, water, etc.).

This registration confirmation page will be protected so only those who register for your event can see it.

Step 5: Protect the event registration page with MemberSpace

If you’re hosting a member-only event, you’ll need to protect the event registration page so it’s only available to members. Otherwise, if your event is open to the public, you can skip ahead to Step 6.

Because registration for member-only events is only open to current members, you’ll need to place the registration page behind a paywall (or just behind a login screen if it’s a free event). You can do this by adding it as a Member Page in MemberSpace.

First, log into your MemberSpace dashboard and navigate to Member Pages > Protect Member Pages.

Enter the URL for the registration page on your website. Then, choose which of your existing Member Plans should have access to sign up for the event and click Add Now at the bottom.

Now, choose where you want that page to live in your members-only area. For example, you could create a general “Events” page and add it to your Member Menu. Then, you could link out to the individual registration pages (like the one you just created) from that Events page. Or, you could simply add that registration page directly to your Member Menu by toggling ON the Include this page in your Member Menu? option in the Member Page’s settings and entering a title for that page (e.g. the name of the event).

Step 6: Protect the registration confirmation page with MemberSpace

Next, you’ll need to protect the event registration confirmation page by adding it as a Member Page in MemberSpace. As a reminder, this is the page that contains attendee-specific details for the event like what to expect and how to prepare.

In your MemberSpace account, navigate to Member Pages > Protect Member Pages.

Enter the URL for the registration confirmation page on your website and click Add Now at the bottom (don’t choose any Member Plans yet).

Step 7: Create the event

Now, it’s time to create the actual event in MemberSpace. The event will be added as a Member Plan, and people will join the plan to register for the event.

In your MemberSpace account, go to Member Plans > Create Member Plans.

Choose which type of plan you’d like to create. You can create free or paid plans (i.e. events).

Fill out the Member Plan details and be sure to choose the Member Page (i.e. registration confirmation page) you just created under Which Member Page(s) can be accessed?

Enter the registration confirmation Member Page URL for both After Sign Up and After Log In.

If your event is members-only, you’ll also want to toggle OFF Make Plan Public?

After, click Create this plan at the bottom.

Step 8: Add the event registration link to your website

Once you’ve created the event in MemberSpace, you can add the official signup link to the event registration page on your website! This is where people will go to sign up for your in-person event.

In MemberSpace, go to Member Plans and click Get Sign-up Link next to the plan (i.e. event) you just created.

Then, click Copy.

Add the event (i.e. Member Plan) signup link to the event registration page on your website. You could also include this signup link in an email or anywhere else you plan to promote your event.

Step 9: Create a confirmation email

When someone successfully registers for your event, it’s a good idea to send them a confirmation email. This email can include similar information as the registration confirmation page on your website (where you send attendees after they register). And you can also use this email as the ticket people need to show before they enter the event.

In your MemberSpace account, click Customize (at the top). Then, click Member Emails.

After, scroll to the bottom and click Add Welcome Email per Plan.

Select the Member Plan you created for your event, customize the email body for your event, and be sure to click Save Now at the bottom.

And that’s it! People can now visit the event registration page on your website and sign up for your in-person event! If the event is a public one, anyone can visit the event registration page on your website and sign up for the event since you didn’t protect it. On the other hand, if the event is exclusive to members, only members on the existing plans you selected in Step 5 will be able to visit the registration page and sign up.

Once people sign up for your event, they’ll be redirected to the protected registration confirmation Member Page with further attendee-specific info about the event (e.g. what to expect and how to prepare). They’ll also receive the event-specific Welcome Email you created in Step 9.  

Managing your event attendees

You can easily keep track of who has registered for your event in your MemberSpace account. Simply go to Members at the top, choose the event Member Plan from the Member Plan filter dropdown, and click Search Now. 

If you’d like to pull this list of attendees to use outside of MemberSpace (e.g. during event check-in), you can export your event signups.

Click Export Options on the left, and choose Members & Plans.

Uploading and protecting event materials

Depending on the type of event you host, you may have certain digital materials for your attendees before and/or after the event. This could include resources like workbooks, notes/outlines, recordings, photos, etc. And with MemberSpace, it’s easy to upload and protect those files so they’re only available to event attendees.

The most secure way to protect event materials is by adding Content Links for each. When using Content Links, MemberSpace generates a unique URL for each file which you can then add to your website, send in an email, etc.

Create Content Links

To create a Content Link, click Member Pages at the top of your MemberSpace dashboard. Then, click Manage Content Links.

You may also have a direct Content Links option at the top if you’ve previously added Content Links to your account.

Click Add Content Links on the left. After, drag and drop any files (e.g. pdfs, images, etc.) into the middle of the screen.

Once your files are uploaded, click Edit access next to each separate file.

Here, you can specify who should be allowed to view this content, how you’d like it to be viewed, and when. Be sure to select your event Member Plan as the one that gets access! Once you’re done, click Update Now at the bottom to save your changes. 

Be sure to do this for each of your uploaded files. And when you’re done, click Done Uploading at the top.

If you have any video files to include for event attendees, click Add Content Links again and choose Add Videos at the top.

Your video must be hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia. These services allow you to upload videos without making them public in the video streaming app itself.

Copy and paste your video link into MemberSpace. Then, decide how you would like your video to display on your website (popup or embed), select your event Member Plan, and click Add Now at the bottom.

Finally, click Done Uploading.

You will now see a list of all the files/videos you added for your event. To add them to your website, click Copy next to each file. This automatically copies a unique, protected MemberSpace Content Link.

When placing event materials or videos on your website, use Content Links instead of the original document or video links. This way, your content can only be accessed by event attendees.

Promote your in-person event

Congratulations! You have now successfully set up your first in-person event with MemberSpace.

First things first — it’s a good idea to test signing up for your event before promoting to the public. Set up a free test plan or temporary 100% off coupon and use it to register for your event.

Once you are happy with how everything looks and flows, it’s time to let people know about your event! There are no limits to how you can promote your in-person event when using MemberSpace, so share your registration page link on social media, in an email, or anywhere else you can paste a URL. And if it’s a members-only event, simply share the registration page with your existing members.

Show us your in-person event registration page on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or in the MemberSpace community. We’d love to see what you create!