CRM Software for Economic Development Organizations

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How do I publish a conference or other training event on eCenter Direct?

Current and prospective clients can sign up for your program's conferences and training events right from eCenter Direct. In this FAQ, we'll discuss the following topics:

Posting the Details of an Event to eCenter Direct

When eCenter Direct is installed, your conference records display a section that is devoted entirely to eCenter, as shown in the next graphic. 

The fields found under the "eCenter" heading, as well as some others found throughout the conference record that significantly impact an eCenter Direct posting, are highlighted next:

  • Post this conference on eCenter? This field must have a selection other than "No" in order for an event to be available for viewing on eCenter. Events can be posted for the entire public, or only a select few, depending upon which option you select:
    • Public. When "Public" is selected, the event displays in eCenter's training events calendar page.
    • Private (Unlisted). When "Private (Unlisted)" is selected, the event does NOT display on eCenter's training events calendar page, but it is still available on eCenter to anyone that you've given its unique URL to. So, for example, you could invite a select group of prospective attendees, provide them with the unique link, and this group would be able to register via eCenter. The unique URL is located to the right of the Post this conference on eCenter? field.
  • Title & Description. Be as descriptive as possible in your title and description so that potential attendees can evaluate whether or not the event is right for them.
  • Registration Deadline. The registration deadline determines how long the event remains open on eCenter Direct for online registration. Once the deadline date has passed, eCenter visitors are no longer able to register for the event.
  • Conference Status. From a conference record's Conference Status field, you must assign one of five statuses to the conference:
    • Open. When "Open" is assigned as the status, the conference is available for viewing and registration via eCenter's training events calendar page.
    • Full. When "Full" is assigned as the status, the conference is either available for viewing only via eCenter's training events calendar page or, if the Allow Waitlist? option is selected in the conference record, interested attendees are allowed to add their names to the event's waitlist. When a conference record reaches its maximum number of registered attendees (as entered into the Maximum Number of Attendees field, the conference's status will automatically update to "Full."
    • Postponed. When "Postponed" is assigned as the status, the conference is available for viewing only via eCenter's training events calendar page. eCenter visitors will not be able to register for a postponed conference.
    • Phone Registration Required. When "Phone Registration Required" is the event status, the conference is available for viewing only via eCenter's training events calendar page.
    • Cancelled. When "Cancelled" is assigned as the status, the conference is available for viewing only via eCenter's training events calendar page. As with postponed and phone registration conferences, eCenter visitors will not be able to register for a conference that has been cancelled.
  • Maximum Number of Attendees. When you provide a maximum number of attendees, WebCATS will track the number of registered attendees in the conference record's attendee list. When the maximum number of attendees is reached, the event's status automatically switches to full, disallowing any more registrations. If the event allows waitlisting, eCenter visitors will be able to add their names to a waitlist.
  • Allow Waitlist? When this option is selected, events that have reached their maximum number of registered attendees will allow eCenter visitors to place themselves on the waitlist.
  • Event Location. When a valid and complete physical location is entered into the conference record's Address, City, State, and Zip fields, the resulting event listing on eCenter will display a Google map of the event location.
  • Expose fee on eCenter? By default, the fee information displayed for a conference on eCenter's training events calendar page is pulled from the conference record's Full Fee field. If you don't want the full fee to display due to a multiple-fee structure, you have two options:
    • You can deselect the Expose fee on eCenter? option. When this option is deselected, eCenter displays the phrase "(contact center)" where it would otherwise display the full fee amount.
    • Or, you can leave the option selected and create a prospective attendee list for the event and mark all attendees with their appropriate fee level before advertising the event on eCenter. When expected fee levels are designated in the attendee list, each logged-in contact sees the fee level assigned to them. For more information on assigning expected fee levels, see the FAQ titled How do I create and manage conference attendee lists?.
  • Publishing Center. Found in the "eCenter" area of a conference record, the Publishing Center field displays the name of the center that eCenter will display as the training event's hosting center. Only centers that have been designated as public centers (designated in the center record) are available for selection from this field's drop-down menu. It is possible for a conference record to be published under a center other than the center that displays in the Center field.
  • Scheduled Time(s). The scheduled time displayed for a conference on eCenter's training events calendar page is pulled from the conference record's Scheduled Time(s) field. This field is a free-form text field, allowing you to be as descriptive as necessary since there could be varying start and finish times for training events that last multiple days.
  • Conference Contact, Phone, and E-mail. Found in the "eCenter" area of a conference record, the Conference Contact field and its associated E-mail and Phone fields determine the conference contact information that will display on eCenter. This person may or may not be the actual instructor but rather the person handling all registration related questions. The e-mail address provided here plays a very important role in eCenter's operations. The automated registration status e-mail a visitor receives upon completing an eCenter training event registration arrives from this e-mail address as does the follow-up confirmation e-mail or rejection e-mail that is sent upon the acceptance or rejection of the registrant's conference request record. In addition, all conference request notifications are sent to this e-mail address.
  • Additional Instructions/Information. The free-form text Additional instructions/information for prospective attendees field lets you expand upon the events description or provide any necessary instructions to attendees.
  • Online Payment. When a fee is associate with a conference and exposed on eCenter, WebCATS and eCenter can be configured to allow registrants to pay online. For more information on this, see the FAQ titled How do I set up eCenter Direct event payment to a PayPal or other online payment system account?.
  • Attached Documents. When attached to conference records, conference materials can be downloaded from eCenter. For detailed information on this, see the FAQ titled How do I post Documents to eCenter Direct?.
  • Pre- or Post-conference Surveys. From the "Attendees" area of a conference record, you can associate survey definition records to act as pre- or post-conference surveys for the event. For detailed information on this, see the FAQ titled How do I create, post, and advertise surveys?.

After saving a conference record that is enabled for eCenter Direct posting, it's always a good idea to review the event listing on eCenter Direct to ensure it looks and reads as intended. An easy way to do this is to click on the hyperlink located to the right of the Post this conference on eCenter? field. This link can also be provided to potential attendees as a way to easily direct them straight to the event listing.

Note: If you'd like to create an attendee list for your newly-created conference record for the purpose of advertising the event or taking advantage of other convenient event management features, see the FAQ titled How do I create and manage conference attendee lists?.

Customizing Various Aspects of eCenter Direct's Event Registration Functionality

There are several global configurations that you can use to customize aspects of eCenter's event registration functionality:

Note: You must be a WebCATS administrator in order to access these global configurations. These configurations are global only; they cannot be overriden on a per-center basis.

Display SBA Classification Fields on Conference Sign-Up?

If someone who is not currently in your WebCATS database as a contact signs up for an event, eCenter prompts them for basic information such as name, address, and phone. Basically, eCenter is getting just enough information to create a contact record for the registrant once you accept them into the database as an attendee. However, you can optionally enable six fields commonly used by programs to determine more about the demographics of the contact, as shown next.

To enable these six additional fields, go to Manage|eCenter Configuration|Conferences and set the Display SBA classification fields (Gender, Race, etc.) on conference sign-up? field to "Yes." By default, these six fields will be set to "Choose not to respond" on the client sign-up form and are not mandated, but those new registrants who do not mind giving out this information will be able to complete them.

Default Upcoming Conference Dates

By default, the training events listing on eCenter displays the training events scheduled over the next 90 days. However, you can make this duration longer or shorter by going to Manage|eCenter Configuration|Conferences and entering a different number of days into the Default Upcoming Conference Dates fields. Regardless of the number of days you have set here, visitors of eCenter can always change the date range for which they are viewing upcoming conferences, as shown next.

Accept Online Payment from Non-logged-in Users?

As discussed in the FAQ titled How do I set up eCenter Direct event payment to a PayPal or other online payment system account?, you can allow people to register and pay for events from eCenter. Once you activate online payment, you have a decision to make: whether or not to allow registrants who are not yet members of your WebCATS database to pay online. The pros of allowing non-logged-in users to pay online while registering for an event is that, of course, you have payment in hand. However, the cons are that you're accepting payment from someone before you've approved their registration. If, in the end, you determine that the user shouldn't attend the conference, you'll need to deal with refunding the payment.

The Accept Online Payment from Non-logged-in Users? setting can be found under Manage|eCenter Configuration|Conferences.

Note: Even if you don't allow online payment from non-logged-in users, the registrant can always log back into eCenter after you've accepted their conference registration request and pay online at that time. In fact, the default text for the confirmation e-mail that WebCATS generates upon acceptance of a conference request for an event that requires payment specifies that the registrant do exactly that.

Prompt to Create Pre-client on Conference Sign-up Acceptance?

When accepting conference requests from WebCATS, the first prompt you see is one telling you that this registrant will be added to the database as a contact record and that they will also be inserted into the attendee list for the conference. By default, there is a second prompt that appears asking if you would like to make a pre-client record for the new contact. This second pre-client prompt can be disabled by deselecting the Prompt to Create Pre-client on Conference Sign-up Acceptance? checkbox, which is located under Manage|eCenter Configuration|Conferences.



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