You can leverage your CampusESP Parent Portal for event management. Parents can register for events like Family Weekend or Orientation directly in the portal.
NOTE: If you do not have e-commerce turned on in the portal (which means that you cannot see the Tickets & Add-ons tab) and you would like it turned on, please email support@campusesp.com so that we can turn it on for you.
1. Create a new event
Visit the event management page here: https://[yourportalname].campusesp.com/admin/events. You can also get here by navigating to Content > Events. Click “New Event with Registration” in the top right corner of the page.
2. Enter Event Details
Enter the main details for your event, including:
Event name
Event location
Event start and end times
A short description of the event
The event registration window (when event registration opens and closes)
Select which users will see and be able to register for the event. You can select specific communities or make the event public to every user.
TIP: You can make your event available for only a select group of parents. This is useful for First-Year Family Orientation, Parents Council meetings, special volunteer opportunities, and more!
Remember to enable registering for the event!
TIP: If you’re not ready to publicize the event to users just yet, you can keep the Communities field blank. Once you’re ready for users to see the event, then add in your designated communities, and event registration will become available!
Click “Next, Registration Instructions”
3. Enter Registration Instructions
Enter instructions for users to register for your event. You’ll want to include:
Registration page title (i.e. Registration for Family Weekend)
An optional photo to serve as a banner picture on the event page
Instructions for how to register (optional)
By selecting a community under “Join Communities,” the portal will place any registrants into this community if they are not already.
This is helpful for users whose account is created when they register for your event.
A confirmation message (optional, but recommended)
A confirmation email users will receive after they register (optional, but recommended)
The confirmation message and confirmation email are both completely customizable. When you click either of these boxes, you’ll see a box appear to type a message you would like to send to parents after they register.
4. Enter Registration Page Information
This section serves as your way to collect information about your event’s attendees. It is similar to the onboarding contact information form. You may want to include:
First/last name
Email address
Relationship to student
Student’s name
Planned arrival date
Guest information (for users to denote whether they’re bringing guests and how many)
You can also add multiple sections to the Registration form. You could use this to allow an RSVP section for a brunch or performance, along with plenty of other opportunities.
If you would like to add tickets and/or add-ons (even if they are free) and/or manage your number of event attendees, click on “Tickets & Add-ons.” Please note that if you want to sell something directly through the portal, we will need to integrate with your payment provider. Reach out to support@campusesp.com for more information.
5. Add Tickets & Add-ons (optional)
This section (if turned on) allows you to set up tickets and add-ons items for the event. Start by clicking on “Set up tickets for this event.”
The page that appears should prompt you to set up the event ticket. Here, you can add:
Section Label
Image (optional)
Description (optional)
When you are ready, click Next.
The next page allows you to provide more event ticket details:
Name (General Admission, Orientation Ticket, etc.)
SKU (optional)
Image (optional)
Price ($0.00 means it’s free)
Total Available (allows you to limit the number of tickets)
Minimum Order Quantity
Maximum Order Quantity
Description (optional)
If you have multiple tickets, click “Save & Add Another” to repeat the process for each ticket. When you are done, click “Save.”
If you would like to add an event add-on, click “Add an add-on item.” The page that appears should prompt you to set up the add-on. Here, you can add:
Section Label
Image (optional)
Description
Click Next.
The next page allows you to provide more details:
Name
SKU (optional)
Image (optional)
Price
Total Available
Minimum Order Quantity
Maximum Order Quantity
Description (optional)
If you have multiple add-ons, click “Save & Add Another” to repeat the process for each add-on. When you are done, click “Save.”
If you would like to set Form Rules, click on “Optionally Set Form Rules” or if you’re done with your event registration and ready to get attendees signed up, click on “Done, Publish!”
6. Set Form Rules (optional)
You can use this section to place users into communities based on their answers in the form. By clicking on “Optionally Set Form Rules,” you will be taken to this page to set rules.
Here you can add a rule to move a user to a community based on an answer. For example, if a user answers “yes” to the question “Are you an alumni?” they will join the college’s alumni community.
Congratulations! You’ve created an event with registration!
You can view your event in Content > Events.
Below, there is information about:
1) How to view who has registered for the event
2) How to publicize the event to drive registration
Keep reading to get instructions and tips on these topics. As always, if you have questions, you can reach out to support@campusesp.com!
Viewing Who Has Registered for Your Event
There are two ways to view and download a list of those who have registered for your event.
First, you will want to go to https://yourportalname.campusesp.com/admin/events (or navigate to Content > Events) and find your event.
1) To simply download a list, you can click on “Download” on the right side and choose Excel or CSV format for the file type you will download.
2) To see more information, you can click on the title of the Event, in this case “Parent and Family Orientation.” This will bring you to the following page with event details.
On this page, you can click “Attendees” and then you can either Download as a CSV or Excel file. Also on this page, you will see the information of anyone who has registered for your event.
TIP: Click “view registration form in portal” to see what your event looks like in your portal. It is a good idea to view the event as parents will see it using this feature to make sure everything looks as expected!
Best Practices for Publicizing Your Event to Drive Registration!
Now that you’ve created an event and enabled registration, maybe you’re having trouble getting parents to register? This section will help you to publicize your event and drive registration within CampusESP.
There are three main ways to make your event more visible to parents and increase exposure:
Put a link on your website
Creating a featured post about the event in the newsfeed
Creating an announcement to push event registration via email
Creating a campaign to advertise your event in newsletters and the newsfeed
1. Put a link on your website
If you have the opportunity to put a link to the portal or to your Event Registration form onto your website, this could do three main great things:
Raise awareness of the portal among incoming families who are on your website
Get more users into the portal by telling parents they will use the portal to register
Diversify where information about your portal is found so that families who do not have accounts in the portal are still able to access the information about upcoming events.
You could simply put a link to your Parent and Family Portal and direct families there (where they will see the featured post on their newsfeed) to register for Orientation.
OR
You could put a link directly to the Event Registration Form on your website, which will bring them to CampusESP and instruct them to register for the portal before completing the event form.
2. Create a Featured Post
Featured Posts show at the top of the News Feed and at the top of Newsletters during the time that you set the post to be featured. To see a step-by-step guide, check out our Guide to Posts.
3. Create an Announcement
Announcements are the best way to send out quick information to parents in your portal. You can send announcements out to all users in your portal or select communities to which you want to direct an announcement. They are delivered in the form of an email. To see a step-by-step guide to creating an announcement, check out our Guide to Announcements.
4. Creating a Campaign
Campaigns are ways that you can advertise events, sales, etc. in the portal. Campaigns can consist of advertisements in the Newsletter or on the Newsfeed within the portal (or both if you want maximum views!) To see a step-by-step guide to creating a campaign, check out our Guide to Campaigns.