One of the new features of netFORUM 2010 that has been eagerly awaited is a baseline option to register guests for events on eWeb. Historically, this has been an area where associations have had to develop something custom, or simply accept that they would have to manually register all guests. With 2010, individuals registering online can now also add a guest (or multiple guests) as a part of the baseline eWeb registration process.
Probably the biggest bone of contention surrounding guests in the past (both in iWeb and eWeb) has been whether or not to create a Customer record for each guest. Some associations wanted the Customer record, others (the majority, I’d say) did not.
The new functionality on eWeb does NOT require that the guest have an existing Customer (Individual) record in the database, nor does it create one. The registrant simply enters badge information for their guest, selects a fee, and continues to checkout. If there is a fee for the guest, it is included in the shopping cart along with the individual’s registration, allowing a single payment for both registrations.
This functionality can also be taken advantage of in iWeb, if desired. netFORUM 2010 introduces a new system option (UseCustomerRecordsForGuestRegistrations). If disabled (unchecked) guests may be registered in iWeb using a Badge Name only. If enabled (checked) then guest registration will work as it did prior to the 2010 release – allowing the user to select an existing Individual record from the database. This gives associations the choice as to whether or not to add records for guests in iWeb.
I think this is a valuable addition to baseline… customization is still an option (as always), but it’s great to see Avectra come up with a baseline method to handle guest registration on eWeb.