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Creating your first event

Fill in the event form, save and publish, and what happens when you change or cancel an event later.

Filling in the event form

Step 1: Start the event

On the dashboard, click Create event. Type the event name straight into the large heading at the top of the form.

The top of the event form, with the event name heading, the three dropdowns, the description and the featured image

Step 2: Type, category and division

The three dropdowns under the name are Event type, Event category and Event division/group.

Event type is Online, Hybrid or In Person. Choosing Online swaps the venue fields for a single Online Event URL field. It describes the event, and it never decides whether people can register. That's a separate setting, covered in Step 6.

Category and division come from the lists you set during install. Both dropdowns have an add option at the bottom, so you can create a new one without leaving the form. Setting your categories and divisions explains what each one is for.

Step 3: Description and featured image

Add a short overview in the description box. It appears on the event's page and on its tile in the listing.

The featured image is optional. Drag one onto the box or click to choose a file. Use a PNG or JPG.

Step 4: Dates

Fill in the start and end dates and times.

Keep them in the future. Events that have already ended don't appear in the upcoming listing on your website, and on a first event this is the most common reason for "I published it and it isn't there".

Step 5: Location, or the online link

For in-person and hybrid events, fill in the venue: street, city, region, country and postcode. Put the city in as well as the country, because the Location filter on your listing page is built from it, and a filter that only reads "United Kingdom" isn't much use to anyone.

For online events the venue fields are replaced by Online Event URL. Paste the meeting link there. It goes to each registrant in their confirmation email rather than being displayed on the page.

If the meeting is on Zoom and you want EventEngine to work out who attended afterwards, create the meeting with Require registration on, and make sure Zoom is connected on the Integrations tab in the app. Confirmation and reminder emails explains how the attendance lists are built.

Step 6: The optional sections

Everything under About this event is optional, and each item you add becomes a section on the event page:

  • Text and image sections, for the description in full
  • Agenda items
  • Speakers
  • Partners and sponsors

You can come back and add these after publishing.

Step 7: Registration information

The Registration Information section of the event form

Set a maximum capacity above zero, or tick No capacity restrictions for this event. The form won't save without one or the other.

Set a registrations close date, or tick Registrations close on the day of the event.

Tick Catering provided at this event if you're feeding people. It only affects what the event page shows.

Leave Event Role on Hosting unless you're listing someone else's event that you're attending or sponsoring.

Leave Registration Method on HubSpot Form unless you have a reason to change it. It controls what visitors see at the bottom of the event page, and Choosing how people register covers the other two options and the URL fields around it.

Step 8: Save, then publish

Click Save. If something's missing, EventEngine scrolls you to the problem. Fix it and save again until you see Event saved successfully.

Then click Publish. The toolbar changes to Unpublish and Update, and a Cancel Event option appears at the bottom of the form.

Publishing also creates a matching Marketing Event in your HubSpot CRM, under CRM › Marketing Events. That's where registration and attendance counts build up as people register.

How to check it worked

Your event shows on the dashboard with a green published status.

The events dashboard with a published event listed

Open your events page on the live site. The event appears in the listing, and clicking it opens its own page with a working registration form at the side.

Changing an event after it's live

Edit the form and click Update. The live page picks up the change.

Unpublish takes the event off your website and leaves it in the app, so you can publish it again later. Registrants aren't emailed.

Cancel Event does email them. Everyone who has registered gets the Event Canceled email, and the event comes off the site.

Troubleshooting

Save or Publish does nothing. There's a validation error further down the form. The usual one is maximum capacity, which has to be above zero unless you've ticked the no-restrictions box. Saving scrolls you to whatever is wrong.

The event is published but not on the website. Check the dates are in the future. Then check your events page has its data source set, which is Step 4 of Setting up your events pages.

The Location filter shows only country names. The filter is built from the venue on each event. Fill in the city and it reads properly. For regions, use the division field instead.

The event shows a Register Here button instead of a form, or nothing at all. That's the Registration Method setting. See Choosing how people register.