This article tells you how to set up an Attendee Verification integration for your interactive registration site. This adds an extra layer of security and convenience when attendees are logging into a registration site.
You can also add Attendee Single Sign-On, which is set up separately.
First, when attendees land on the registration site login screen, they’re prompted to enter their email address, and are emailed a limited-time passcode which they use to verify their login identity.
Then, they’re ‘looked up’ in your connected external database (often a CRM, e.g. Salesforce, Hubspot, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Entra ID, Membes, etc).
Alternatively, instead of an external database, you can use Attendee Verification to verify existing contacts in the event, including in a Contact Store linked to the event.
When a match is found, they’re logged in to the registration site, and any Contact details you’ve mapped to your CRM database (including Contact custom fields) will be already pre-filled in the registration site.
You don’t need to do any contact mapping for existing event contacts, or for contacts in a linked Contact Store.
You can also use logic based on pre-populated fields to control who sees what on the site.
When attendees press “Submit” or “pay” on the registration site, their record will be created in the event (or updated, if it already exists).
Setting up
Once your Account Manager has confirmed this feature's available to you, all you need to do is:
Add the Attendee Verification connection (for your connected database, e.g. CRM such as Hubspot, Salesforce etc.) to your External Connections (in Application Setup).
Add the correct contact field mapping (matching) to your event, in the Contact module (Setup Panel).
You don’t need to do steps 1 and 2 for existing contacts or those in a linked Contact Store.
Add a Sign-In page to your interactive site and configure Attendee Verification in the Sign-In page settings.
These steps are explained in more detail below. Each organization may have slightly different versions or configuration of their CRM (e.g. Hubspot, Salesforce etc.), so your setup may slightly vary to what you see here. This is a guide only and is subject to your organization's specific security and operations, as well as changes by external platforms such as Salesforce, Entra ID etc.
After your Account Manager confirms you have access to this feature, you'll see it in your new events (including cloned events). If you'd like to use it in an older event, please ask our Support team for assistance.
1. Add and configure the Attendee Verification connection in EventsAir
[only needed if mapping to an external database]
Go to Application Setup (Home screen, Global Tools menu - ‘Menu’ button).
You’ll only see Application Setup if you’re an Administrator.
Choose “External Connections”.
Look for "Attendee Verification" and use the + symbol to open up “Attendee Verification Setup”.
For "Name" - give this specific Attendee Verification connection a name. Think about whether you may want to add multiple connections later (for example, different Salesforce databases if you’re a PCO with multiple clients).
For "Integration Type", choose your CRM (e.g. Salesforce).
For "Client ID", "Client Secret", and "Token URL", you’ll need to ask your Development / IT team to help you find the details from your CRM’s API connection.
When you've completed the setup, press Save.
2. Add the correct Contact field mapping (matching) in your event
[only needed if mapping to an external database]
In your event, go to the Setup Panel, and in the Contact module, look for "Contact Mapping".
Use the + symbol to add new mapping.
Name this mapping setup (and remember the name for Step 3).
For "Type", select the name of the Attendee Verification connection you created in Step 1.
In the “Field Mapping” section, under “CRM fields”, you can choose from a dropdown selection of available contact fields in a typical setup for your CRM type, e.g. Salesforce.
For each mapping field on the left, choose the equivalent field in EventsAir on the right (from the dropdown under “EventsAir Contact Fields").
You need to map an Email field to the Email Address field in EventsAir for Attendee Verification to work.
See other information about mapping below.
Click + to add a mapped field row.
Click X to delete a mapped field row.
You also have the option to select "Data Refresh" for each mapped field (see below).
Save when you’ve finished.
Data Re-fetch
This lets you nominate which field(s) you want to re-fetch data from your external platform when the page is re-loaded.
For example, you may want a "membership status" field to update, so your attendees can pay their membership fees then come back to finish the registration process (and have access to any member-only features).
NOTES ABOUT FIELD MAPPING:
You’ll need to know which fields are valid for your CRM and contain data, and what their equivalent is in EventsAir.
Custom Salesforce fields may appear with “__c” at the end of the field name, which references Salesforce’s “API Name” for that field. The "__c" is only there to distinguish them from standard fields, so you can just map them as normal.
We highly recommend you map your CRM’s main unique identifier for each contact (e.g. Salesforce Id) to the EventsAir ExternalID field, especially if you're using a Smart Connector. This avoids having to rely on name/email matching. As shown in the example below, your contact mapping is also what will allow some fields to be pre-filled in your interactive (registration) site. You can also add logic rules based on these mapped fields (see more information below).
NOTE: You can’t map fields that are images, HTML, or Document types.
3. Add Attendee Verification to an Interactive (registration) site and configure
Go to the Online Panel, and in your interactive (registration) site builder, add a Sign-In Page component at the very top.
We can’t give legal advice, but we very strongly recommend you review your Data Processing policies and any relevant laws and regulations. Consider adding the Data Processing Consent component on your site unless you already have separate Data Consent from these attendees.
To configure the Sign-In Page Component:
Click on the cog icon for the Sign In Page component.
Expand the component with the arrow to see sign-in options including Attendee Verification.
Can't see these options on your sign-in page? Check with your Account Manager to ensure the updated sign-in page has been enabled for your event(s).
Options under “Online account settings”:
Check the box for “Enable Sign-In For Existing Online Accounts” if you want people who already have online accounts for this event to be able to sign in here. (This is same as the previous “Allow Existing Users Sign In” setting).
If you want new attendees to be able to create accounts, check the box for “Enable New Online Account Creation” (this is the same as the previous “Allow New User Creation” setting, it’s just been renamed).
You may prefer to leave “Token Users Are Required to Create an Account” unchecked, depending on your desired setup. (This is the same as the previous “Token Users Must Create Account” setting, it’s just been renamed).
Under "Authorization settings"
This is only visible if you're also using the Attendee Single Sign-On feature. Read more here.
Under "Verification Settings":
Check the box for Enable Attendee Verification
Then select how you’ll match/verify contacts.
You can choose EITHER Existing Contacts or External CRM.
Selecting Existing Contacts will allow verification for any existing contacts already in the event. You'll also have the option to add a Contact Store if one is linked to the event) - see screenshot below.
Select External CRM means you then select a Mapping (one that you already set up in Step 2). See screenshot below.
Only one mapping per registration site [for external databases]
You can have multiple contact mapping setups within an event (each connected to its own CRM). However, you can only add one sign-in page (and therefore one mapping setup) to each interactive registration site.
In this scenario (multiple CRM mappings in the same event), you should only map an external field to External ID once. You can create a custom contact field for the second and subsequent CRM IDs. See more information about how External ID can be added to your registration site.
If you have an EventsAir Smart Connector, or multiple Smart Connectors, please talk to our Integration Services team to ensure you're using the correct CRM ID / custom field CRM ID for your setup.
When Enable Attendee Verification is enabled, Enable Email Verification is enabled by default (the checkbox cannot be turned off). This is what requires the emailed passcode before an attendee can log in.
Require Password is off by default, BUT you can use it if you wish.
Under Page Text
You can leave this as is, or adjust any wording you want to change.
Duplicate contacts
If multiple matches are found (for example, if your Attendee Verification is linked to both existing attendees and a linked contact store, and an attendee email is in both), the verification won't proceed further. The attendee will see a message asking them to get in touch with the event organizer.
You can update this in Localization (the tab, under Details, on your Interactive site) in the Sign-In (New) section.
Optional: Add two Contact components – one for matching, one for the attendee to see.
You don’t have to do this, but it allows you to use fields that aren’t visible to attendees as the basis for site logic. Below is a description of how you might do that:
Add the first Contact component to the Interactive (Registration) Site:
Add a Contact component after the Sign-in page, and go into the component's Details tab to make it read-only and/or not visible.
Back in the builder tab, you may like to add a “Heading” label of “CRM Lookup” or similar. This just helps your/your colleagues to see that this Contact component isn't the normal Contact component - it's only there to help set up Attendee Verification. (Uncheck the "Show in Summary" box, too.)
You're mainly adding this so you can map it to the External Id field [or other unique identifier, such as a field in your linked Contact Store) so you can use it for Logic purposes later. When using Attendee Verification, (especially if you have a Smart Connector), you normally use the ID from your CRM as External Id in EventsAir. This is the optimal way to determine whether an attendee exists on your CRM list. (Your Smart Connector or other integration can search your CRM on that ID, rather than name and email.)
Only keep other fields in this Contact Component if you have a special need for them, e.g. you want to use them for Logic purposes later also. For example, as per the screenshot, you may have set up custom contact fields for, say, membership number and industry sector that you can use later to show or hide other information, via logic.
After completing the above, close and save your site.
Then come back into it. You should see something like this.
Add the second (normal) Contact Component
Now add your second Contact component, that your attendees will be able to see and/or edit.
From now on, you can add and configure your usual Contact component(s) as needed. If you need to add another Contact component so you can make one (all the pre-filled fields) read-only, then have another for editable details, this is also possible.
You can also create other logic based on mapped fields from the Attendee Verification "CRM Lookup" Contact Component you added first. These don't have to be fields in the visible Contact Component(s).
For example, the below shows how to display a registration type only if the Membership Number custom field is not blank, i.e. the logic is based on a custom field in a read-only "CRM Lookup" Contact Component:
Data in non-visible fields will be added to/updated in the contact record when the site is submitted.
You can continue to add whatever other logic operations your site requires.
What it looks like to an attendee:
General Brand or styling settings for the site will be honored.
Verification email is sent (see below) and screen changes to something like the below:
Email address is displayed for user to check.
The verification email is similar to the below - you can also make changes via Localization (the tab, under Details, on your Interactive site) in the Sign-In (New) section.
An error appears if incorrect verification code is entered (see screenshot below):
After login, Data Processing Consent is prompted and Next button is visible:
Logged in user sees their data pre-populated, including for Custom Contact fields if these have been mapped (and are visible to attendees).
NOTE: When an attendee is matched via an external database (e.g. CRM), the registration site can pre-fill the correct information in Contact Custom Field (sub-tag) dropdown box. This will happen if there’s an exact match (case-sensitive) on the Contact Custom Field options in EventsAir and the information in the external database.