Tips for Event Manager users

I have a large conference with several different registration packages at different prices, and each package involves a different set of add-ons. With several hundred people involved, our data entry is likely to get bogged down as the event approaches.

This is one of those situations in which Event Manager excels. It is easy to handle any number of recurring combinations of registration types, add-ons, sessions, and accommodation and travel arrangements using the Copy Activity button on the Personal Details form.

Use "The Usual" buttons on the Setup menu. Put your most frequently used combination of registration, add-on, travel and lodging data here.
Use a typical person as a data source. If you need to use several combinations, as the question above suggests, you might make note of the first person you register with each frequently used combination of items. When you click the Copy Activity button (on the Personal Details form), you can select which of these people's information most closely matches that of the new registrant.
Use a dummy record for each combination. If your situation is more complex, and especially if there are several people putting data in, it may be helpful to enter a dummy person for each combination. Give each dummy records a name starting with “AA-,“ such as “AA-Standard Package,” so the names will appear at the top of the alphabetical drop-down list in the Copy Activity form. Then you'll be reminded about them each time, and you won't have to scroll to find them. Once you’re through using these records to copy from, delete them so they don’t appear in your reports.

Remember that shortcuts like "Copy Activity" can be handy even if you need to tweak the imported information a bit because of minor differences. You'll still have most of it correct with a minimum of typing time.

When I wanted to begin registration, I got a message saying I couldn’t enter registration details until I had locked the event fees. What if your event fees change after registration begins?

If event fees were to change during the course of the event, it would confuse the accounting portion of the software (any software)—and the user as well! For instance, you would not be able to multiply the number of early registrations times the early registration fee to get an amount collected from early registrations if you had more than one fee. Therefore, each registration type or add-on can have only one fee. That does not mean that everyone who purchases a T-shirt or a dinner ticket must pay the same price, though; it merely means that the different prices must be entered into the software as different items. For example:

Add-on 1: T-shirt @ $15
Add-on 2: T-shirt @ $17

You may modify the fees at any time until you start registering people or signing them up for add-ons. After that point, in order to protect the integrity of the accounting, the fees must not change for items that have been sold. New registration types and add-ons can still be added, but those for which a sale is on the books cannot be changed.

Backing up the event file at the point of locking fees allows you to return to this point if you need to make extensive changes. (Yes, you may have to re-enter some people who have registered, but that may be easier than the alternative.) But either way, if you adjust fees after money has been collected, you’re going to have a discrepancy that you’ll have to fix manually! Back it up instead.

I have a client with over 20 different classes listed under their course offerings. These classes are offered at different times during the year, and at different rates. Do I need to open a separate event for each one?

Without knowing exactly what you need to get OUT from the software (which has a great deal to do with deciding how to put it IN), I can suggest this: You might set up the group of classes as your event file, then enter each class as a separate registration type or add-on. Keep in mind the rule that, outside of the trade categories (Exhibitor, Sponsor, Advertiser), EVERYTHING for which money is collected must be one or the other of those—a registration type or an add-on.

When deciding whether to use registration types or add-ons, keep in mind the main difference between them: a registration type entitles the registrant to certain things, such as attending sessions and certain catering events that might be included, while an add-on doesn’t involve any entitlements other than the add-on itself. Reporting on each of them is somewhat different, and so you’ll need to look through the reports to see if you can get the output you want from the different ways of inputting data.

If the classes are grouped as series, you might enter each series as a registration type, and each separate class as a session. Sessions enable you to attach dates, times and places to the record so you can track those, as well

The choice of fonts for name badges seems very limited. Can we add fonts to the list?

Arial, Courier, Modern, MS Sans Serif, MS Serif, Roman, Script, System, Terminal, Times New Roman —these are the font choices that are presented to you when you design a name badge or a ticket. They’re a nice utilitarian lot, but there’s not much flair there.

You’re not limited to those choices, though. The user manual covers the fact in a single sentence, so it’s easy to overlook that you can use any font on your system just by typing its name into the combo box. For that toga party, don’t you wish you had Caesar available, or for an arty affair, Euterpe. A computer conference? Nametags with Digital would be oh-so-clever. Don’t get me started on all the possibilities.

And if you have a few favorite fonts you’d like to add to the drop-down list, that’s easy, too. Here’s how:

If you open up MS Word’s Format>Font dialog, you can see all the fonts installed on your system as they appear when printed. Make a list of the fonts you want to add. I liked Euterpe, so let’s assume you do, too.

To add Euterpe to the drop-down list, follow these steps:

Open Event Manager’s Main Menu (that’s the first one you see).
Type F11 to open the database window
Click on “Forms” in the pane to the left.
Find the form called BadgePicture. Right-click on it and select Design View.
At the bottom, where you normally select the font, you’ll see the box with the word Font in it. Just to its right is a white box with the word Unbound in it. Double-click that white box. The properties window will open. (If it doesn’t, try again by clicking somewhere ELSE , then double-clicking here again.)
Click the Data tab.
The fourth line of the form has the names of the fonts that appear in the drop-down list when you select a font for a badge field.
In that line of text, find where your font name should go to keep the list alphabetical (easier for you to find your choices later). After the semicolon following (in our case) “Courier”, type “Euterpe”; (with quotation marks and semicolon just as in the existing list).
Click on the close gadget to close the BadgePicture form. (The properties dialogue will close, too.)
Confirm that you want to save your changes.
Minimize the database window and try your new badge font. (If you accidentally close the database window entirely, it will exit Event Manager, leaving Access running. No problem, just close Access and restart Event Manager in the usual way.)

What's Express ClickYes all about?

Microsoft’s fix for Outlook’s security holes creates a nuisance when a legitimate program wants to send email through Outlook: each outgoing message has to be individually confirmed by the sender so that a virus cannot take control and send messages on its own. Luckily, there is a freeware tool to take over this confirmation process.

Express ClickYes is a small tool that sits in your system tray and does just what its name implies; when you're asked to consent to an email going out, it clicks the Yes button and sends your message on its way without any further action from you. And it does it quickly.

Of course, it only works if you install it, but that part is ridiculously easy. Download this file, then double-click its icon. Installation is quick and the email problem is fixed.

So what are the checkboxes in Global Options for? Well, don’t forget that Express ClickYes is circumventing a security feature that Microsoft thinks is useful—you may, too. If you have installed Express ClickYes, you no doubt want to use it, so the Resume Express ClickYes box should be checked. If you want the automatic “yes-clicking” turned back off after your Event Manager session, so that Outlook's security precautions are back in place, then check the bottom box as well. If you’re happy to be rid of MS’s security check, leave it off—but don’t blame MS if your computer becomes the unwitting accomplice of a spammer or virus writer.

Many event managers never go beyond the Summit interface, never explore the power tricks that are available just beneath the surface.

Here’s a very simple, very useful one:

Re-ordering records— i.e. sorting.

All the data you see displayed in the forms and reports in Event Manager are contained in tables. For instance, when you view the Personal Details form, the information you see is drawn from the Personal Details table. You can tell which record you’re viewing and how many records there are in a table by looking at the navigation gadget at the bottom of the form.

By default, the records are sorted by PIN. Suppose you want to page through the records of everyone who lives in a certain city. If those records were grouped together in the table, you could easily go from one to another. It's simple to do!

Here’s How:

Click in the City field.

Click on one of the sort icons in the menu bar:
You’re done! At this point you’ll be looking at a new Record 1 in the new sort order.

Hold the page button down and ROAR through the list until you see the city you want!

This simple trick lets you group your PD table almost any way you want to. It also lets you pull booths together into groups by description. Or try it on the Description field of the Registration Types, Catering Events, or Sessions forms. Want to see which sessions are being chaired by whom without producing a report? Go to the Sessions form, click on the Sessions Chair field, and sort it!

In the organizer, what is the difference between a contact task and a follow up task?

A follow-up task does not necessarily involve contacting someone. A contact record includes a field for recording the type of contact i.e. phone call, bulk mail, or any level of detail you want to make a part of the list you select from. For instance, my contact types for Eventek include Initial Phone Inquiry, Capterra RFI, Web Form Inquiry, Follow-up Phone Call, Support Phone Call, etc.

Follow-up Tasks, by the nature of the software, are related to the people in your records, but don’t require actual contact. The distinction may seem a fine one, and you can certainly bend the definitions to suit yourself.

How do Profiles and Groups differ?

Profiles and Groups are very similar. When Profiles are labeled identically in Event Manager and Summit Central, the information they contain can be exchanged between the two programs. During registration, your registrant can be presented with the profile list and assign him-or herself to appropriate profiles, and that information can become part of the permanent record when the event file is imported into Summit Central.

The Group field is more limited in Event Manager than in Summit Central. In EM you can create any number of mutually exclusive groups, i.e. the person goes into no more than one group. In CM the Groups are like an unlimited number of Profiles which you can define and the person may be placed in any number of them.