Online event registration is the simplest and quickest way to put together your event guest list. Planning an event – whether it is a birhtday party, a company event or a large-scale conference – is much easier when you know who’s coming without having to invest a lot of time and effort into it. Creating an event registration form is  as easy as 1-2-3. And so is the registration process.

To begin with, your online event registration form can both present the event and provide the means for registration. Thanks to the wonderful online registration tools out there on the web, you can use the first part of your registration form to give information on what, where and when is happening. Google Maps can also be included in your event registration form to pinpoint the event venue.

Next, your online event registration form will be requesting data from your future guests. What is great about online registration forms is that the entire phone or email confirmation phase is skipped, which is, most of the time, a welcomed aspect for everybody. Guests only have to provide the data that you ask for and submit the registration form. You’ll have a new entry on your guest list.

Tipically, online registration forms request guests’ names and contact data, such as phone numbers and email addresses. However, you may want to add some other fields to your event registration form. With professional online event registration software, you can ask for other specific details. How many people will be accompanying the person who registers directly? What is their favorit food, drink, band or group activity? Are they allergic to anything? How much time will they spend at your event? On what subject are they giving a presentation? Event registration tools provide various form fields – dropdown lists, radio buttons, checkboxes, calendars, upload fields and many others – that will help you request and receive all this information easily.

Professional online registration software allows you to publish your event registration form wherever it is most appropriate for your target audience. You can post the registration form on your own website, on social platforms – Facebook or Twitter, on blogging platforms – Wordpress and Blogger, on Google Sites pages. Just make sure the form form loads very fast, so you won’t bore people that doesn’t have broadband internet and connect via smartphones. You must also keep in mind that some of those who view your registration form on mobiles don’t have unlimited internet, that they maybe opted for simplicity, so keep the forms short and simple.  Other options include hosting the event registration form on the website where you created it or sending direct links – by email, by messenger or by sms – to your future guests.

The appearance of your event registration form is highly customizable. You can choose or create themes that match your event, so as to welcome guests even before the D-day. Layout, colors, typography can be adjusted in any way best suited. Images and logos can also be integrated with your event registration form.

After you have published your event registration form, you will start receiving submissions. This is where online registration forms become magical. No more jotting down names and assembling the guest list afterwards, no more mixing up partial lists, no more omitting or neglecting guests. All of the information that you request will be centralized neatly and you will be able to view and manage it in different ways. You can receive registration entries by email, access them in the database of your chosen online registration platform or export them as Excel files or to Google Docs spreadsheets. Moreover, you can add guests’ email addressess to your Google and Yahoo Groups or to your MailChimp, VerticalResponse or SalesForce accounts.

To sum up, it is a true delight to have online event registration forms around. While they do their job, you can focus on the many other important phases of planning your event, to create a wonderful experience for your guests.