Online and In-Person Event Registration
While many church communicators were familiar with event registration platforms before March, COVID-19 has solidified their importance. These platforms make it easy for parishioners to sign-up for services, and allow church communicators to get an accurate headcount and send out reminder emails.
Easy go-to options:
Squarespace Forms forms Google Sheets:
If you are using Squarespace for your website platform, using the built in form module is incredibly easy to use. Simply create a form with necessary information needed and connect your form to Google Sheets to store in a spreadsheet to keep track. You can also insert an email address in the form settings to send the form results to. Squarespace Tutorial
Collect and organize information big and small with Google Forms for free. Set up your form and collect the results in a Google Sheet. Learn More
More options:
Formerly known as ASC, Realm is the most popular church management software and is an all-around stellar tool for church communicators.
Realm’s church event management software makes it easy to schedule events and can even display a personalized event list for parishioners. Realm makes it easy to get a headcount for Sunday services, and capture additional information, and can easily be used to set up recurring events for services and small group meetings.
Use of Realm’s event planning is available as part of their Connect plan which varies by church size for pricing. For a church with an average weekly attendance of 50, Realm charges $49 monthly, with a $109 activation fee.
SignUp’s biggest attractor is how easy it is to use. You can sign up for a free account, make an event, and send out registration within a few minutes.
Invite participants via email or social media (they never need a password!), and rely on automated reminders to keep everyone on track. Plus, you can use one page for all of your sign-up links, making it easy for parishioners to sign up for multiple services. SignUp’s messaging features allows you to send a message or alert to attendees, as well as thank you messages and invitations.
As you can guess from it’s name, this platform was made specifically to help churches re-open safely in the age of COVID-19 by providing a free registration form that distributes people across multiple services and rooms. You can limit capacity at each service, see who has registered for each service, and members are emailed a confirmation of their selection. The site was created by Breeze ChMS who made Reopen church in the wake of COVID and is committed to keeping the platform free.
Eventzilla can handle registration for in-person and virtual events. Create an event registration page in minutes, with options for participants to register, modify, and cancel. Eventzilla can also automate wait lists and approvals, and send out registration emails and reminders.
After you’re done, you can embed it on your website for easier registration. And, there’s an app for event attendees to access details, a location map, and schedule all on the go! It’s free to set up an account, with a management system similar to Wordpress or Squarespace. Upload your logo or image, enter in basic info, time, RSVP, and you’re event is live!
Eventzilla is free if your event is free for your attendees, making it perfect for registering for church services.
The go-to for many, Eventbrite is an easy-to-use platform, making it the world’s largest event technology platform. Eventbrite is one of the fastest platforms to publish an event, Eventbrite makes it easy to set up your event, create tickets, and share your event. Eventbrite is always free if your event is free, making it a great fit for churches.
Custom questions on the sign-up form help if you are offering communion for a church service, and you can have group tickets, helpful for families wanting to attend, while getting you the correct number of attendees.
After you publish your event, you can use the event dashboard to see how many people have signed up, information about your attendees, and responses to any questions you asked in your sign-up form.
Reviews of options:
Jason Franklin, Director of Communications at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina reports about Events Calendar: It’s extremely robust, but it costs money. It can auto schedule zoom meetings, provide seating charts for people to select their seats, cut off and start times for rsvp, registration forms (including health screening), and if you integrate Eventbrite or WooCommerce, you can include events that charge admission. You can also make the calendar read iCal, Google Cal, and Facebook events and post them on your page. Here’s an event with registration from our website: https://stpaulswinstonsalem.org/event/personal-prayer-in-the-nave/2020-11-18/