An event registration form has one job, which is to turn a visitor who is interested into a name on the list before the interest fades, and most of them fail it by asking the questions the organiser will need on the day instead of the questions needed now. Name, email, the number of places and the ticket type get someone registered; dietary needs, the company field and the survey about how they heard of you can wait for the confirmation email. This page walks the fields in the order a registrant meets them, shows a worked event registration form example, and sizes the form against the page's traffic with the free contact form design sheet.
The four fields that register somebody
Name, email, the number of places and the ticket or session type are the whole registration. Everything else is either something you can ask after they are on the list or something the ticket type already answers. On the contact form design sheet a six-field form at nine seconds a field is 54 seconds to fill, and each field removed is nine seconds back and a share of the starts that finish rather than abandon, which the sheet prints as entries a month from the page's own visitors.
An event registration form example, worked
A workshop page with 1,200 visitors a month, 5% of whom start the form and 60% of whom finish, produces 36 registrations a month and abandons 24 starts. Put a value on a registration, say the ticket price or what a seat is worth to the business, and the sheet prints what the abandoned starts were worth. That figure, not the field count, is the argument for cutting the company field and the how-did-you-hear dropdown from the first screen.
Paid places, waiting lists and the confirmation
A paid registration is a payment form with places as the quantity, so run the ticket price, the quantity and your sales tax and processor rates through the payment form calculator before the form goes up, and print the total on the confirmation. A sold-out session should keep the form open as a waiting list rather than close it, because a waiting list entry is a registrant for the next date. Every registration is kept as an entry with its status in Shortcodo Pro so the list on the day is the list the form built.
Questions people ask about event registration form
Should the registration form ask for dietary requirements?
On the confirmation email or a second short form, not on the first screen. It is a required-looking field that stops people who have not decided whether they are coming.
How do I take payment on an event registration form?
Add the ticket price as a line with the places as the quantity, and work the charge, the processor's cut and what reaches you on the payment form calculator first.
What is a good registration rate?
Your own: the sheet takes the page's visitors and your measured start and finish rates and prints entries a month, so the rate to beat is last month's, not a benchmark.