EventForm Help
Find quick answers to common questions and issues with the FAQs below:
What is EventForm?
EventForm is an extension (Add-on) for Google Forms, enhancing its capabilities for event registration. By integrating EventForm with Google Forms, event organizers can efficiently manage registrations for both business and personal events, accommodating up to 500 attendees. It's important to note that EventForm is not developed by Google; rather, it is a product of Gleeda Software LLC.
Is EventForm Free to Use?
EventForm is currently free while in Beta. If we do charge in the future, it will be significantly more cost-effective than our competitors.
Why do I need a Google account?
EventForm enhances the functionality of Google Forms, which are stored in your Google Drive account. Therefore, a Gmail or Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) account is required for use. Additionally, EventForm automatically generates a Google Calendar entry for your event, facilitates exporting registration data to Google Sheets, and sends event notifications and reminders to your registered guests through your Gmail account.
Why do I need Gmail and Google Calendar to use EventForm?
EventForm leverages the functionality of your Google account. It automatically generates a Google Calendar entry for your event and sends invitations to approved attendees, utilizing Google Calendar as a vital notification and reminder tool to enhance event attendance. EventForm relies on your Gmail to notify and remind event attendees about their registration and any updates to the event. Without a Gmail account, EventForm would be unable to email attendees, significantly diminishing its functionality.
Why must I authorize EventForm to run in my account?
To do its job, EventForm has to interact with certain files in your Google Drive, send email to attendees, and perform other tasks essential to its operation. Google requires that EventForm ask your permission for this type of access.
We only ask for this access so we can:
Store event information and registrations in your Google Drive.
Process event registrations as your guests fill out your registration form (Google Form).
Create a Google Calendar entry for your event and invite all approved event attendees.
Allow you to export your registrations data to Google Sheets within your Google Drive.
Send emails to participants (as you).
Track anonymous usage statistics (shown as "connect to an external service") to help improve EventForm.
Does EventForm look at or share my data?
EventForm will never share your information. In fact, all of your information stays in your Google account (Drive, Calendar and Gmail) and never resides on our servers. And EventForm will never look at files in your Google Drive other than those it creates itself. Please also see EventForm’s Privacy Policy.
Does EventForm offer support?
Email questions to eventform-support@gleeda.net.
Is EventForm GDPR compliant?
Yes. Per GDPR, EventForm is a Data Controller for individuals using it. All of your EventForm related data resides in your Google Drive. EventForm only acts on this data, and doesn't store any of it itself. So as far as GDPR goes for things like data portability, right to be forgotten, and access & restriction, EventForm is GDPR compliant because Google Drive is. EventForm also asks for all consent/permission upon install, and can be uninstalled by the user at any time, with all data remaining only in the user’s Google Drive account afterwards.
Is EventForm COPPA and FERPA compliant?
Yes. EventForm doesn't store any data from the Google Forms or Form Responses it processes. All data lives only in the user's Google Drive. EventForm also asks for all consent/permission upon install, and can be uninstalled by the user (i.e. event admin) at any time, with all information remaining only in the user's Google Drive account afterwards.
As such, yes, EventForm can be used in a FERPA and COPPA compliant fashion.
How to Create an Event?
Follow these instructions.
How to Add a Custom Event Theme (Header Image) to Your Event
EventForm offers a selection of standard themes for your event, each with its own header image. You may select one of those themes during event creation and under the “Event” tab.
To provide your own, custom header image, you'll need to add it to your Google Form. To do so, open your registration Google Form and follow the instructions below:
Click "Customize Theme" at the top-right of your Google Form.
Under the “Header” section of the Theme panel, click the “Choose Image” button.
Either select from the header images provided by Google Forms, or click the “Upload” tab and then "Browse" to upload your own image. For best results, you should use an image that is 3 to 4 times wider than it is tall.
Once done, you'll see your new theme header image in your Google Form. To ensure EventForm is updated with it too, just re-open the EventForm Add-on in your Form. If you still don't see your new header image in the Event tab of EventForm, click the “Event Theme” icon in the Event tab and select it from the images shown there.
Be sure to save your event once you select your new, custom banner. If you’d like to replace an existing custom banner with another one, just update your custom banner on your registration Google Form and restart EventForm. Your event will automatically update with your latest custom banner.
Instructions:
(1) Select "Customize Theme" in your Google Form:
(2) Click "Choose Image":
(3) Select from the header images provided by Google, or select "Upload" to add your own:
How to Host Online Events?
To host an online event, create an event with the “Location” field set to either “Online Event”, if your event will be fully remote, or “Both In-Person and Online Event”, if your event will support remote and in-person participation. Populate the “Online Event Instructions” field with the information your guests will require to attend your event remotely. You may provide video conferencing information links (i.e. Zoom, Webex, or Google Meet), phone numbers and passcodes.
If you would like to use Google Meet video conferencing for your event, leave the Online Event Instructions field empty during event creation. Once you create your event, EventForm will automatically generate an entry on your Google Calendar. You can edit the Google Calendar entry and choose to add a Google Meet video conference information to the Google Calendar entry (if your Google Calendar settings are not yet set to automatically add Google Meet to all of your meetings. See more on how to add or remove a video conference from your Calendar event.). Copy the generated Google Meet video conference information and be sure to save the updated Google Calendar event. Then edit your EventForm event by populating the Online Event Instructions field with the Google Meet video conference information. For security reasons we will not display Online Event Instructions on the event website. This information will be available only to approved attendees for your event via email and Google Calendar entry.
How to Embed a Video Within Your Event Website?
In order to embed a video within your event website, you need to add the video to your event. You can do so during event creation or after the event has been created. To add a video to your event post-event creation, open the Event Console and navigate to the “Event” tab. Scroll down to the “Video” field and click the “Add Video” button.
You may add a video from YouTube or Vimeo. No other video hosted providers are supported at the moment. To add a video to your event, you will need to locate the embed tag for that video.
To locate the embed tag for your video on YouTube, navigate to your video and click the “Share” button:
Then click the “Embed” icon.
Copy the embed tag.
Then switch back to the EventForm event edit screen and paste the copied embed tag into the “Video” field.
Click the “Save” button on the “Edit Video” layer and then click the “Save” button on the “Edit” tab.
To locate the embed tag for your video on Vimeo, navigate to your video and click the “Share” icon:
Click the embed icon.
And copy the embed tag.
Complete the same steps on the EventForm as described above for YouTube.
To replace an existing video or to remove a video from your event, on the “Event” tab, click the edit icon to the right of the embedded video image. Replace the existing embed tag with a new one to replace the existing video with a new video. To remove the video, just clear out the embed tag completely. Click the “Save” button on the “Edit Video” layer and then click the “Save” button on the “Edit” tab.
How to Edit Your Event After Event Creation?
Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Event” tab. Edit event details for your event. This information will appear on the event website, which you can view by clicking the “View Website” button. Be sure to first save the changes before clicking the “View Website” button.
Event Theme - select an event theme that best represents the context of your event.
Title - provide a brief event title that encapsulates the purpose of your event. This should be similar to an email subject or a calendar invitation.
Brief Description - provide a concise event description that encapsulates the purpose of your event and sets high level expectations for your attendees.
Event Date and Time - specify dates and times for when your event will start and end. These dates and times must be in the future.
Location - specify whether your event will be in-person, online, or both in-person and online. Depending on your selection, you will see additional fields to provide a physical in-person location and online event instructions. For online event instructions you can provide video conferencing information links, passcodes and phone numbers. Learn how to use Google Meet video conferencing for your event.
Additional Event Information - this is your opportunity to provide all relevant details about your event such as agenda, presenters, menu, activities and so on. You may organize your information with the available HTML formatting.
Video - you may embed a video that is currently hosted on YouTube or Vimeo by copying an embed tag for that video from the respective website. Learn how to locate the embed tag for YouTube and Vimeo videos.
Click the “Save” button if you modify any of the fields.
Note: Be sure to save all changes before clicking the “View Website” button if you’d like to see your changes reflected on the event website.
How to Manage Registrations?
Once you have created and shared your event with your audience, the next step is to monitor incoming registrations in preparation for your upcoming event. Depending on a number of settings under the “Settings” tab, your registration monitoring experience and activities may differ.
Your event will be open to new registrations if the following conditions are met:
Current date and time are within your registration period. Learn more about how to set and modify the registration period.
Your event has available event capacity or available waitlist capacity. Learn more about how to set and modify event capacity and waitlist capacity.
Your registration is open. Learn more how to close and reopen registration for your event.
Open Event Console and navigate to the “Overview” tab.
On the “Overview” tab, review the information in the following widgets and take appropriate actions:
“Awaiting Approval” highlights the number of recent registrations that require your approval. This is only used for events with the “Process New Registration” setting set to “Only after manual approval”. Click “View” to be taken to the “Registrations” tab which will filter the list of registrations for those with “Pending” status. You can review the details of each registration by clicking “Select Action” in the “Actions” column and then “View Reg. Details”. To approve the registration, select “Approve Pending” . EventForm will place the registration into the Attending list if there is sufficient event capacity, or into the waitlist if not. To reject the registration request, choose the “Mark as Not Approved” instead.
“Registered Attendees” highlights the number of registrations that have been approved for your event. Click “View”to be taken to the “Registrations” tab which will filter the list for those with “Attending” status. You can review the details of each registration by clicking the “Select Action” in the “Actions” column and then “View Reg. Details”.
“Waitlisted'' highlights the number of registrations that have been waitlisted for your event. Registrations will be placed on a waitlist only when the event capacity is exceeded and the waitlist is enabled for the event. Learn more about setting event capacity and enabling the waitlist. Click the “View” link to be taken to the “Registrations” tab which will filter the list of registrations for“Waitlisted” status. You can review the details of each registration by clicking “Select Action” in the “Actions” column and then “View Reg. Details”.
“Checked In Attendees” highlights the number of registrations that have been checked in by the event admin. The widget will appear only 1 hour before the event starts in place of the “Registered Attendees” widget. Click the “View” to be taken to the “Registrations” tab which will filter the list of registrations for those with “Checked In” status. You can check in any registrations with the “Attending” status by selecting “Mark as Checked In” from the “Select Action” menu.
Additionally, you may navigate directly to the “Registrations” tab to manage your registrations. Besides the actions described above, you can perform the following actions on the page:
Filter registrations by “Status”, “Email” and “Full Name”. For “Email” and “Full Name” you can type in any text that you’d like to look up. If you choose to filter by more than one field, only registrations that meet all of the provided filter criteria will be returned. Click the “Apply Filter” button when ready. When done, click the “Clear Filter” button to clear the filter.
Sort registrations by “Status”, “Reg. Date”, “Email”, and “Full Name”. To sort registrations by one of these fields, click the title of the corresponding column. Registrations will first sort in descending order. Clicking the same column again will re-sort the registrations in ascending order.
The “Change Status” button at the bottom allows you to change the status of multiple registrations in bulk. Select one or more registrations by clicking respective checkboxes for each registration. Then select a new registration status.
“Add Note” button allows you to add a note for each selected registration. Registration notes help you keep track of important information per Registration (i.e. allergies, special instructions, seating assignments, etc.)
“Export” allows you to export all of your registrations to a Google Sheet. After clicking the button, a new Google Sheet will be created in your “My Drive” folder in Google Drive. The Google Sheet will be named with the name of your event and the current time. Tip: To export a subset of the registrations, filter your registrations first and then export just the resulting set.
How to Manage Event Settings?
Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab.
Registration Period - Specify dates and times for the registration period. If you leave the start date and time empty, registration will be enabled right away. If you leave the end date and time empty, registration will be enabled until the event start time. Registration will be closed outside of the registration period you set.
Event Capacity - Specify the maximum number of attendees for your event. Unless the waitlist is enabled (see below), registration will be closed as soon as the number of approved registrations meets this threshold. Registration can open again if a previously approved attendee cancels, or if you increase the event capacity. If left blank, there is no limit for the number of registrations.
Enable Registration Waitlist - Enable a waitlist for your event. Once the event capacity is reached, additional approved registrations will be placed onto the waitlist. Once event capacity becomes available, either due to cancellations or due to you increasing event capacity, waitlisted registrations will be automatically processed in the order received and moved off of the waitlist into the attending list.
Maximum Waitlist Capacity - Specify the maximum number of registrations that may be added to the waitlist. If left blank, there is no limit for the number of registrations that can be waitlisted. Once the waitlisted is full, registration will be closed.
Enable Ticket Sales - Enable the ability to collect and process payment information for event registrations.
Process New Registrations - Specify whether registrations should be auto-approved as long as there’s sufficient event or waitlist capacity (default behavior) or instead whether you will need to approve each new registration manually.
Website Password - specify a password for accessing the event website if you’d like to have an additional layer of protection for your event. You will need to share the password with all of the people which you’d like to register for your event. Upon accessing the website, people will be required to enter the password.
Hide Online Event Instructions Until 1 Day Before Event - Choose to withhold information from approved attendees on how to join your online event until 1 day before your event.
Display Number of Spots Remaining - Choose to display remaining spots for reservation on your event’s website.
Include a Custom Message in Registration Email - Choose to add a custom message to registration emails that approved attendees receive.
Include a Custom Message in Reminder Emails - Choose to add a custom message to reminder emails that approved attendees receive 7 days and 1 day prior to your event.
Enable Post-event Email - Choose to send a post-event email to attendees who joined your event. Add a custom message, links to documents and a post-event survey to the email.
Enable New Registrations Daily Summary Email - Choose to receive a daily summary email of new registrations.
Click the “Save” button if you modify any of the settings.
How to Share Your Event?
To share your event website, open the Event Console and click the “Share Event” button to the right of the “Settings'' tab. Click the “Copy” button to copy the event website URL as well as the website password if present. Share the copied information with your audience. For example, you could email it, post it to your website, or share it on social media. Also consider using a QR code generator to make the event’s website more easily accessible on mobile devices.
How to Close/Open Event Registration, Disable Event Website?
If your registration is currently open, but you’d like to pause it due to some circumstances, you may do so in the “Registrations” tab by . clicking the “Close Registration” button at the bottom-left corner. You will be presented with a few options before closing registration.
On the “Close Event Registration” layer you may optionally provide a brief reason for closing the event registration. This information will be displayed to the people looking to register on your event website (next to the disabled “Register” button). Additionally, you may choose to disable your event website. In that case users will see a message informing them that the event website is unavailable at the moment. Users will not be able to see any information about your event on the website. Note: disabling your event website does not delete any of the event website information, but only hides it until you choose to reopen registration.
To re-open registration and to activate your website if you have previously disabled it, open the Event Console and click the “Open Registration” button to the right of the “Settings” tab.
Note: Even when the event website is activated and registration is re-opened, the registration might still be disabled unless the following conditions are met:
Current date and time are within the registration period you specified. Learn more about how to set and modify the registration period.
Your event has available event capacity or available waitlist capacity. Learn more about how to set and modify event capacity and waitlist capacity.
How to Manage Google Calendar Entry for Your Event?
Upon event creation, EventForm also creates a corresponding Google Calendar entry for your event. During event creation, EventForm selects the default Google Calendar associated with your Google account. If you happen to have more than one Google Calendar with edit privileges associated with your Google account, you will be presented with a dropdown field to select the Google Calendar you’d like to use for this event. There is no way to modify the selected Google Calendar for your event post-event creation. All approved attendees will also be invited via this Google Calendar entry. This creates another reminder and notification mechanism to ensure event attendance. EventForm continuously keeps the Google Calendar entry synchronized with your event. Any updates to the event information via EventForm (i.e. title, brief description, event date and time, location) will also update the Google Calendar entry for all of the approved attendees. If you remove an attendee from the approved list (i.e. Mark as Not Approved), then the attendee will be removed from the Google Calendar entry and notified accordingly. Conversely, if an attendee declines the Google Calendar invitation, the attendee will be marked as “Declined” on your event.
Note: Your event and the corresponding Google Calendar entry are synchronized asynchronously every 10 minutes. Please be patient if you don’t see your changes reflected immediately on your event or on the Google Calendar entry.
Note: Do NOT update the Google Calendar entry directly as this will result in a discrepancy between the Google Calendar entry and your event. All changes to the event should be made only via EventForm. Also, do NOT delete the Google Calendar entry directly. If you no longer wish to maintain your event, you may discard your event, which will also result in the deletion of your Google Calendar entry. Learn how to discard an event.
To locate the Google Calendar entry, open the Event Console and navigate to the “Overview” tab. Click the “View Calendar” link at the bottom of the “Time Until Your Event” widget to launch a new browser window/tab with your Google Calendar account scrolled to the event’s corresponding Google Calendar entry.
How to Manage Registration Period?
Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab. Registration Period fields specify dates and times for the registration period. If you leave the start date and time empty, registration will be enabled right away. If you leave the end date and time empty, registration will be enabled until the event start time. Registration will be closed outside of the registration period.
Click the “Save” button if you modify any of the settings.
How to Manage Event Capacity and Waitlist?
Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab.
The “Event Capacity” field allows you to specify the maximum number of attendees for your event. Unless the waitlist is enabled (see below), registration will be closed as soon as the number of approved registrations meets this threshold and until a previously approved attendee cancels, or you increase the event capacity. If left blank, there is no limit for the number of registrations.
The “Enable Registration Waitlist” field enables the waitlist for your event. Once the event capacity is reached, additional approved registrations will be placed onto the waitlist. Once event capacity becomes available, either due to cancellations or due to you increasing event capacity, waitlisted registrations will be automatically processed in the order received and moved off of the waitlist into the attending list.
The “Maximum Waitlist Capacity” field allows you to specify the maximum number of registrations that may be added to the waitlist. If left blank, there is no limit for the number of registrations that can be waitlisted. Once the waitlisted is maxed out, registration will be closed.
Click the “Save” button if you modify any of the settings.
How to Increase Security for Your Event?
You can add additional security for your event by choosing to approve each new registration manually and by protecting access to your event website with a password. To select these additional security options for your event, open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab.
The “Process New Registrations” field allows you to specify whether registrations should be auto-approved as long as there’s sufficient event or waitlist capacity vs. you deciding on whether to approve each new registration. Select the “Only after manual approval” option for additional security for your event.
The “Website Password” allows you to specify a password for accessing the event website if you’d like to have an additional layer of protection for your event. You will need to share the password with all of the people which you’d like to register for your event. Upon accessing the website, people will be required to enter the password. Learn more about how to share your event with your audience.
Click the “Save” button if you modify any of the settings.
How to Permanently Discard Your Event?
Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Registrations” tab. Select all of the records and choose the “Mark as Not Approved” action from the “Change Status” menu. EventForm will notify your attendees that they are no longer approved to attend the event. Navigate to the “Settings” tab. Click the “Discard” button at the bottom-left of the Event Console and confirm your action. Your event will be permanently discarded. Your Calendar Entry will be deleted.
Note: You will NOT be able to restore your event after discarding it.
How is Event and Registrations Data Stored?
Event and registrations data is stored within your Google account’s Google Drive. EventForm does not store your data anywhere else. You can find two files per event on your Google Drive under My Drive -> EventForm Data folder. It is extremely important that you DO NOT remove or modify these files as this will likely result in irreparable damage to your data and your event.
How to Check In Attendees Manually Outside of EventForm?
There are times when you or your coworkers might not have access to EventForm during your events. You can follow these steps to take attendance and check in those attendees who are present:
Export all “Attending” registrations from EventForm prior to the event - Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Registrations” tab. Select “Attending” in the “Status” dropdown of the filter row (first row under the “Registrations” table header) and click “Apply Filter”. Then click the “Export” button to export only the registrations with the “Attending” status.
Share the generated Google Sheet, digitally or as a printed copy, with the event administrator who will be responsible for tracking event attendance.
Mark registrations as Checked In within the Google Sheet document.
After the event, update registration records within EventForm manually to reflect what you have captured within your Google Sheet. (See how to manage registrations.)
How to Include a Custom Message within Registration Emails?
EventForm automatically sends a registration email to all approved attendees. Registration email contains event specific information. You may choose to include a custom message within the registration email for all of your approved attendees. Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab. Select the “Include a Custom Message in Registration Email” and click the “Edit Custom Message” button. Review the standard text on the presented dialog and add your custom message within the provided space. Click “Save”. Click “Send Test Email” button if you’d like to receive a sample registration email.
How to Include a Custom Message within Reminder Emails?
EventForm automatically sends reminder emails to all approved attendees 7 days and 1 day prior to the event. You may choose to include a custom message within the reminder email for all of your approved attendees. Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab. Select the “Include a Custom Message in Reminder Emails” and click the “Edit Custom Message” button. Review the standard text on the presented dialog and add your custom message within the provided space. Click “Save”. Click “Send Test Email” button if you’d like to receive a sample registration email.
How to Enable and Customize a Post-Event Email?
EventForm does NOT automatically send an email after a completed event. If you’d like to send a post-event survey or some additional information, you may enable and customize a post-event email. Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab. Select the “Enable Post-event Email” and click the “Edit Custom Message” button. Review the standard text on the presented dialog and add your custom message within the provided space. You may include any number of links to a post-event survey and other documents. Click “Save”. Click the “Send Test Email” button if you’d like to receive a sample registration email. Select whether you want your email to go to all approved attendees, or only those you marked as “Checked In”. Click “Save” on the “Settings” tab.
How to Manage the New Registrations Daily Summary Email?
EventForm automatically sends you daily summary emails if you receive new registrations for your event. You may turn off these notifications. Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab. Uncheck the “Enable New Registrations Daily Summary Email” checkbox and click “Save”.
How to Withhold Online Event Instructions Until One Day Before the Event?
If you are hosting an online event or an event that is both physical and online, you will need to provide information on how to attend your event online. Information for online attendees should be provided via the “Online Event Instructions” field available during event creation and under the “Event” tab. EventForm does not display this information on the event’s website. EventForm shares this information only with approved attendees via the registration and reminder emails, as well as via the Google Calendar invitation. You might want to withhold online event instructions from approved attendees until right before the event. This might be necessary so that you have time to collect payment from approved attendees or to reduce chances of such information being shared widely with non-registered attendees. To withhold online event instructions from approved attendees until one day before the event open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab. Select “Hide Online Event Instructions Until 1 Day Before Event” and click “Save”.
How to Display the Number of Spots Remaining on the Event Website?
At times it’s helpful to demonstrate an urgency to register for an event asap by displaying remaining spots on your event’s website. Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab. Specify “Event Capacity” and then select “Display Number of Spots Remaining” and click “Save”. Note: number of spots remaining will not be displayed on the event’s website if “Event Capacity” is not specified.
How to Enable Ticket Sales?
EventForm currently supports ticket sales via offline (manual) payment processing*. In other words, you will need to collect payment from guests yourself (i.e. via cash, check, Venmo, PayPal, etc), but you can still use EventForm to keep a record of their payment.
To enable ticket sales with offline payment processing:
Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab. Click the “Enable Ticket Sales” checkbox and click “Save”.
Update your registration Google Form to include either:
Information about how much it costs to attend your event, and how guests should submit payment.
- or -One or more questions that identify all available ticket types, with the associated cost of each. Also include information about how guests should submit payment.
After a guest registers for your event, collect their payment via your preferred means (i.e. cash, check, Venmo, PayPal, etc).
Once you've received payment from a guest, you can record the details of their payment. To do so, open the Event Console and navigate to the “Registrations” tab. Locate the registration record for the guest and choose the “Edit Payment Info” option from that row's “Select Action” menu. Fill-in their payment information (all fields are optional), and click “Save”.
Tip: Want to prevent registration until a guest has successfully paid? Follow these instructions:
Open the Event Console and navigate to the “Settings” tab.
For the option "Process New Registrations", select the “Only after manual approval” option and click Save. This will prevent guests from having an "Attending" status until you've manually approved their registration.
Once their payment is received, mark their registration as approved on the "Registrations" tab via the “Select Action” menu (or do so in bulk via the “Change Status” button)
*We are working on letting guests to make a payment at the time of their registration. Check back!