Guide
Conference Registration: Running It on Your Own Site
How conference registration works: tiers, capacity, the data to collect, check-in on the day, and why your own site costs less than a platform.
Conference registration is the part that decides whether the day works. Everything else, the programme, the venue, the speakers, is planning. Registration is the only piece that runs while you are asleep, has to hold a finite number of places, and has to still be right when three hundred people arrive at a door.
This is what it has to do, and what it costs to do it in different places.
What registration actually has to handle
A finite number of places. The moment two people book the last seat in the same second, you find out whether your system counts properly. A form does not. Registration does, or it oversells and you discover it at the door.
Tiers that close. Early bird, standard, student, speaker. Each is a price with a cut-off and, crucially, an allocation. Tiers that close only on a date and not on a number are how organisers accidentally sell three hundred discounted places.
A record the attendee can use. Something that gets them in on the day, whether that is a name on a list or a code somebody scans.
A list you can work from. Not a database export. A list, with the information you actually need at the door, that somebody who is not you can use.
What to ask on the form, and what not to
Ask for the minimum that runs the event: name, email, tier, and the two or three things you will genuinely act on. Dietary requirements if you are feeding people. Session choice if capacity is per session. Accessibility needs, always.
Everything beyond that costs you completions and creates an obligation. Anything you collect you have to store, secure and be able to delete on request. “Company size” and “how did you hear about us” are rarely worth the drop-off or the retention question.
Where it runs, and what that costs
On a platform, registration is set up in an afternoon and charges per ticket or per attendee, every year, forever. The audience list lives with them. For a single event that is often the right trade.
On your own site, the setup is longer once and then free per event. The attendee list is yours, the pages are indexed under your own domain, and next year’s event starts with this year’s audience rather than a platform’s.
The break-even is earlier than people expect. Two conferences is usually enough, and any recurring programme is well past it.
Doing it on WordPress
If the conference site is already WordPress, registration can live in it rather than beside it. Eventonomy is free for the parts that matter here: registration with custom questions, capacity that is claimed atomically so the last seat cannot be sold twice, a waitlist that promotes the next person when somebody cancels a free registration, and confirmation emails.
Pro adds what a paid conference needs: tickets and payment, QR codes and scan-to-check-in for the door, and custom reminder timing.
On the day
Check in against arrivals, not registrations. They are different numbers, and the gap is much wider for a free event than a paid one, because a free place costs nothing to abandon. The arrival count is the one your caterer needs, so count it on the day rather than trusting the registration total.
Whatever you use to check people in, have a fallback that works without wifi. Conference venue networks fail at exactly the wrong moment, and a printed list has never once failed to boot.
Written September 2026.
Questions
What does conference registration need that a plain form does not?
Capacity that holds when two people book the last seat at the same moment, tiers with different prices and cut-off dates, a confirmation the attendee can use to get in on the day, and a list you can work from at the door. A form collects answers. Registration manages a finite number of places, which is a different problem.
Should registration live on our own site or on a platform?
On your own site if you run the conference more than once, because a platform charges per ticket or per attendee every year and takes the audience data with it. On a platform if this is a one-off and you would rather not set anything up. The break-even arrives faster than most organisers expect, usually somewhere around the second event.
How do early bird tiers work?
Each tier is a price with its own cut-off and its own allocation. The common mistake is letting early bird close only on a date, with no cap: you sell three hundred discounted places when you meant to sell fifty. Cap the allocation as well as the date.
What should the registration form actually ask?
The minimum to run the event and to let the person in. Name, email, ticket tier, and anything you genuinely act on, such as dietary needs or a session choice. Every extra field costs completions, and anything you collect you then have to store and be able to erase on request.
How do we handle check-in on the day?
Either a printed list and a pen, which works fine up to a couple of hundred people, or a scan. Eventonomy Pro issues QR tickets and scan-to-check-in, so the door queue moves and you get an arrival count rather than a registration count. They are different numbers and the second is the one that matters for catering.
What happens when we sell out?
A waitlist, if you want the places that free up. Cancellations are normal and a waitlist turns them back into attendees automatically instead of leaving seats empty. On a free registration, Eventonomy promotes the next person in line and emails them when a place opens. On a paid ticketed event the waitlist collects names only and you admit people yourself, so nobody gets in unpaid.
Do we need to show the attendee list publicly?
Only if it helps people decide to come, which at a professional conference it often does. Make it optional per attendee. Publishing who is attending without asking is a privacy problem and, in some jurisdictions, a legal one.
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