If you run a user group, a meetup or a community day, you probably juggle a ticket site, a spreadsheet, a form for speakers and a group chat. Each tool is free until it is not. This guide shows how to run all of it on one free event management platform, the AttendBeacon event platform, and what to check before you choose any tool.
What "free" should mean
Before you choose a platform, read its pricing page, not its home page. Ask four questions:
- Is there a fee per ticket or per registration, even for free tickets?
- Are features held back for a paid plan?
- What happens when the event grows?
- Who holds the money for paid tickets?
For the AttendBeacon event platform, the answers are on the pricing page:
- An event where every ticket is free is always free, at any size.
- Any other event, with free or paid tickets, is free up to 1,000 participants.
- Above that, there is a one-off licence of €500 per event, excluding VAT.
- There is no fee per registrant, and every module is included in every event.
- Paid tickets go through your own Mollie or Stripe account, so the money is yours. Your payment provider charges its own fees.
If you want to give something back, you can support the platform with a donation from €5. You never have to.
Step 1: Start from the right shape
When you create an event, start from a preset. "Community meetup" switches on what a meetup needs and leaves the rest off. A community day with several tracks is closer to "Conference".
You can switch any feature on or off later. A feature you switch off disappears from the workspace, the app, the event page and the emails. Nothing is deleted, so switching it back on brings everything back.
Step 2: Set up tickets
For a free meetup, one ticket type is often enough. Give it a capacity that matches the room.
Then add what saves you work later:
- A waiting list. When somebody cancels, the freed place is offered to the first person in line. No-shows are common at free events, so this matters.
- Hidden tickets for speakers, crew and sponsors, so they do not take public places.
- Access codes for a ticket only some people may take.
- Short registration questions. Name and email are always asked. Company and job title can be switched off. Ask only what you will use.
Step 3: Run a recurring meetup as a community
If your group meets every month, use Communities. You get a public page at an address like attendbeacon.com/c/your-group. It shows the upcoming meetups with a countdown, earlier meetups with photos, slides and replays, the organisers, and a calendar feed people can subscribe to.
Set up a series such as "every first Thursday, 18:30 to 21:00". Each meetup is copied from a template event with its agenda, tickets, capacity and waiting list. You can skip or move a single date, holidays included.
Members join with their email address and a code. They choose what they hear about and can leave whenever they like. A new meetup is announced by email and on the phone, in each member's language. For a closed group, you approve each request.
You also see your members over time, their attendance rate and no-shows, and new and returning attendees per meetup.
Step 4: Find speakers
Open a call for speakers with its own page in your event's colours. Speakers sign in with a code sent by email and write a proposal with a live preview. They can start from one of their own earlier proposals, or bring in a talk from a Sessionize event.
Your team votes and comments, then moves proposals across a selection board. Selected speakers confirm and answer your questions, such as travel, T-shirt size or dietary needs. When a speaker declines, the next proposal on the waiting list is suggested.
Already using Sessionize? Keep it. See Import your Sessionize speakers.
Step 5: Sign in without passwords
Attendees never create a password. They sign in with a six-digit code sent to their email. Organisers sign in to the workspace with a Microsoft work account, Google or GitHub. For a Microsoft community group, that means your crew can use the work account they already have.
Step 6: On the day
The event app runs in any browser and installs on the home screen. It holds the ticket and the agenda, and opens without a network. The scanner at the door runs on your volunteers' own phones. See phone check-in for a 300-person conference for a full plan.
Running it online or hybrid? Add a Teams, Zoom, Meet, Webex, YouTube or Vimeo link to the event or to each session. Only ticket holders see it, shortly before the session starts.
Step 7: After the event
Send a short survey while the day is fresh. Session surveys collect an overall score, speaker ratings and your own questions. You can share anonymised results with speakers once enough people have answered.
If you recorded the sessions, add the replay links and choose who may watch them. Then thank your sponsors with their own results, and write down what you would change next time.
A checklist for volunteer organisers
- Choose a platform without per-ticket fees for free events.
- Use a waiting list, and send a reminder the day before.
- Keep registration questions to what you use.
- Give speakers and crew hidden tickets.
- Plan check-in on phones, and test it once.
- Ask for feedback the same day.
- Keep the template event, so next month starts from it.
Is your group part of a larger community, such as the Microsoft community? The same setup works for a one-day conference with several tracks. You only switch on more features.