Choosing event registration software — and running the work
How to choose event registration software, what it costs at your volumes, and how the work runs on site — money, check-in, compliance. Useful whether or not you ever use BagEvent.
New to the terms? Read the glossary →
01For buyers
Buying & choosing
10 guidesWhat the software does, how to compare price at your own volume, how to leave a vendor, and who should be merchant of record.
- Updated 19 September 2026
What is event management software?
What the category covers, how it differs from registration, ticketing and planning tools, and how to tell which one your event actually needs.
- Updated 19 September 2026
Event planning software or event registration software — which do you need?
The two tools solve different halves of an event. Which half is your hard part, what each one is weak at, and what to buy first if you can only buy one.
- Updated 19 September 2026
Marketplace ticketing or your own registration — when do you outgrow it?
What you trade when tickets sell through a marketplace, the events where that trade is still the right one, and the five signals that you have outgrown it.
- Updated 19 September 2026
What does “0% platform fee” actually mean for ticket sales?
Three fees sit on a ticket and only one is the platform fee. What the phrase covers, what it never covers, and how to check any claim in five minutes.
- Updated 17 September 2026
What does event registration software do?
Publishes the event, takes names and usually money, confirms people, and gets them through the door — and where the product stops.
- Updated 14 September 2026
What should you look for in event registration software?
A demo shows the happy path. What to check instead: the real cost at your volume, where the money sits, the checkout, the event day, and leaving.
- Updated 17 September 2026
How much does event registration software cost?
Why there is no single price — and how to put your own events through subscription, percentage, and per-registration pricing.
- Updated 17 September 2026
How do you move to a new event registration platform?
What to export, what you will rebuild by hand, how to switch sales, and what usually breaks when you leave an event registration tool.
- Updated 9 September 2026
Who is selling the ticket, and where does the money land?
Merchant of record, invoice, refund source and payout account have to name one entity. What to settle before sales open, and what it costs when they disagree.
- Updated 16 September 2026
How do you turn an enterprise offline event into a measurable revenue system?
Four breaks that kill event ROI, three enterprise event types with different scorecards, and a before / during / after operating model marketers can defend.
02For operators
Operations
18 guidesHow the work runs on site and after: check-in, badges, agendas, refunds, invitation lists, session access, and GDPR for organisers.
- Updated 19 September 2026
How do you design a registration form that does not create work later?
Every field is paid for three times — by the attendee, by whoever cleans the data, and by whoever protects it. What to ask, when, and what to leave out.
- Updated 19 September 2026
How do you build a multi-track agenda that does not collide?
The three kinds of collision in a parallel programme, how to find them before attendees do, and what to measure so next year's grid is better.
- Updated 24 September 2026
What should be on a conference badge, and when should you print it?
What a badge is actually for, the four things worth printing, why the QR code should carry a token and nothing else, and on-demand versus pre-printed.
- Updated 19 September 2026
What happens to check-in when the venue Wi-Fi fails?
Four different things vendors mean by offline check-in, what actually fails at a venue, and what still breaks even when scanning keeps working.
- Updated 19 September 2026
Why does one organisation end up with several payment accounts?
Where multiple legal entities come from, what breaks when one platform pools their ticket money, and the four models teams use to keep it straight.
- Updated 25 September 2026
What has to be decided when, when planning a conference?
The order conference decisions have to be made in — what each depends on and what it blocks — and how to work your own timeline back from the event date.
- Updated 25 September 2026
How do you build a conference budget?
How to structure a conference budget, work out break-even attendance, plan cash flow and track actuals — with a free Excel budget template.
- Updated 16 September 2026
How do you run a large-scale conference from brief to close?
A phase map for large offline conferences: the decisions that lock early, what each phase owns, and where to dig deeper — without industry averages.
- Updated 9 September 2026
What happens when you have to give the money back?
By the time a refund is asked for, the money is committed to the venue. Refund deadlines, the fee you never get back, postponements, and chargebacks.
- Updated 14 September 2026
How do you price tickets for a conference?
Break-even from your own costs, the average price your tiers really produce, early-bird deadlines, and the rules on showing fees in the EU, UK and US.
- Updated 24 September 2026
How do you run on-site check-in for a conference across multiple hotels?
A staffed check-in lane sustains about 200 people an hour. Sizing lanes, spreading the arrival peak, training volunteers, and the eight things that go wrong.
- Updated 21 August 2026
How do you run check-in at a hosted, invitation-only conference?
When you pay for the rooms, the desk stops being a bottleneck and becomes a ninety-second briefing. Scripting the venue's staff, and the midnight arrival.
- Updated 21 August 2026
How do you run registration when the guest list is controlled?
At most conferences buying a ticket is not what gets you in — someone decides. Ticket types as identity, two registration rounds, and what approval costs.
- Updated 21 August 2026
How do you track who attended which session at a conference?
Session capture is a different problem from check-in, and the difference is exit. Collection points, sizing session doors, and what the data is really worth.
- Updated 21 September 2026
How do you run matchmaking at a conference?
What matchmaking needs from you before it works, why one controlled topic list decides everything, and how to tell rules from the AI label on top.
- Updated 25 September 2026
How do you run a call for papers?
How to set call-for-papers deadlines, what to ask speakers, how to organise peer review and track chairs, and how to decide and communicate fairly.
- Updated 21 September 2026
How do you get attendees to visit more stands?
Why the floor plan beats every incentive, how to design a stamp trail that produces conversations rather than queues, and what to measure per stand.
- Updated 13 September 2026
What does GDPR actually require of an event organiser?
You are the controller; your platform is the processor. The eight clauses a DPA must contain, why a dietary field is special-category data, and the deadlines.