31. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Before you use CiviEvent to support your event management, we recommend you read this chapter to understand the concepts and address key questions. T ake time to assess the kind of information you need to run your events effectively, as well as what information would be useful to collect during events and from event participants. Many organisations run recurring events that are very similar, in which case templates can make event set-up processes easier. Below are the key concepts that you need to understand, followed by a list of concrete questions that will help you to use CiviEvent effectively. You'll also find mentions of other CiviCRM components that are needed to use CiviEvent. At the end of this chapter, Other Considerations gives suggestions for promoting, managing, and following up after your event.
KEY CONCEPTS Review the following concepts before you begin to set up your event. You will put these concepts into practical use when following the step-by-step tasks in the next chapters of this section.
Event Type CiviCRM allows you to define different types of events, such as conference, meeting or fundraiser. Event types are useful when searching through event participants or generating an event listing feed. For example, Arts in Action may find it useful to search for everyone who has attended a youth leadership workshop, or generate a list of meetings for volunteers. You can create custom fields to store and display additional data about an event by its event type. See the chapter Creating Custom Fields in the section Your Data and CiviCRM for more information about this.
Participant Roles and Statuses Every individual is assigned a participant role, such as attendee, volunteer or speaker, at the time of registration. T his field allows you to segment participants into meaningful categories based on their involvement in the event. You can also collect certain information, for example relevant only to volunteers. Participant status tracks individuals' registration before, during and after the event. T his allows you to identify pending or canceled registrations, people on a waiting list, no-shows, confirmed attendance or any other status that you choose to define.
Custom data and Profiles CiviCRM provides ample flexibility for you to collect exactly the information you want from participants during the event management process. T his is done using custom fields. Participants must provide at least an email address when registering online, but many organisations find it useful to collect additional information at the same time. T his might include first and last name, as well as event-specific information such as meal preference. For example, Arts in Action asks participants to select which workshops they want to register for. You must create a profile to collect this additional information. Creating a profile groups these fields together and associates them with the event to collect this information. You may also define your own custom fields and associate them with certain event types or participant roles. You'll be able to view participant custom data fields automatically when you access the information through CiviEvent. You can also let participants fill them out in the online event registration via profiles. See the chapter Creating Custom Fields in the section Your Data and CiviCRM for more information about this. Payments
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