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.

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 CRM database (e.g. Salesforce).

When a match is found, they’re logged in to the registration site, and any Contact details you’ve mapped to your Salesforce database (including Contact custom fields) will be already pre-filled in the registration site.

You can also use logic based on pre-populated fields to control who sees what on the site.

When they press “Submit” or “pay” on the registration site, their record will be created in the event.

Setting up

Once your Account Manager has confirmed this feature is available to you, all you need to do is:

Add the Attendee Verification connection (to your CRM, e.g. Salesforce) to your External Connections (in Application Setup).
Add the correct contact field mapping (matching) to your event, in the Contact module (Setup Panel).
Add a Sign-In page to your interactive site and configure Attendee Verification in the Sign-In page settings.

Each organization may have slightly different versions or configuration of their CRM (e.g. Salesforce), so your setup steps 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.

1. Add & configure the Attendee Verification connection in EventsAir

Go to Application Setup (Home screen, Global Tools menu - ‘Menu’ button).

You’ll only see Application Setup if you’re an Administrator.

Look for “External Connections”.

In EventsAir, go to Application Setup

Select External Connections

Look for Attendee Verification and use the + symbol to open up “Attendee Verification Setup”.

Give this specific Attendee Verification connection a name, considering whether you may want to add multiple connections (for example, to different Salesforce databases if you’re a PCO with multiple clients).

For type, choose your CRM (e.g. Salesforce).

For the Client ID, Client Secret, Token URL & Version, you’ll need to have your Development / IT team assist in finding 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

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 one 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. 

Click + to add a mapped field row. 

Click X to delete a mapped field row. 

Save when you’ve finished. 

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.

Note that custom Salesforce fields may appear with “__c” at the end of the field name, as it is referencing Salesforce’s “API Name” for that field. This is just there to distinguish them from standard fields, and they can be mapped as normal. 

We highly recommend you map your CRM’s main unique identifier for each user (e.g. Salesforce Id) to the EventsAir ExternalID field, especially if you use a Smart Connector, or want to use Logic in the Interactive Site to hide/show fields differently for CRM contacts vs public contacts.  

You can’t map fields that are tags/sub-tags, images, HTML, or Document types.

3. Add Attendee Verification to an Interactive (registration) site & configure

Go to the Online Panel, and in your interactive (registration) site builder, add the Sign-In Page component at the very top.

We can’t give legal advice, but we VERY STRONGLY recommend you check relevant regulations, and put the Data Processing Consent component next, before the Contact component. Ensure you have up-to-date Data Processing policies and information for any attendees signing in, unless you already have separate Data Consent from these attendees.

To configure the Sign-In Page Component:

o Click on the cog icon for the Sign In Page component.

o Expand the component with the arrow.

Under the heading “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 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 Verification Settings

Check the box for Enable Attendee Verification

Select a Mapping (that you set up in Step 2)

When both of these are enabled, Enable Email Verification must be enabled (the checkbox cannot be turned off). This is what requires the passcode before an attendee can log in.

Require Password is off by default, BUT you can use it if you wish.

Under Page Text

Adjust any wording you want to change.

Adding the first Contact component to the Interactive (Registration) Site:

Add a Contact Component as the first component after the sign-in page, and make it read-only and not visible.

When using Attendee Verification, if you have a Smart Connector, you would use the ID from your CRM as External Id in EventsAir. This will be the key to determine whether an attendee is registering from the CRM list.  (If there’s a Smart Connector, the system can search on that ID, not name & email.)

You mainly add this External Id field here so you can use it for Logic purposes later.

You may like to add a “Heading” label of “CRM lookup” so that you or your colleagues can see that this Contact component is different to your normal Contact component, and is being used for Attendee Verification.

Only keep other fields you have a special need for, e.g. use them for Logic purposes later also (e.g. if you have custom contact fields for member type and number, as per the screenshot).

Adding second (normal) Contact Component

After completing the above, close and save your site.

Then come back into it. You should see something like this. 

From now on, you can add and configure your usual Contact component(s) as needed, making use of Logic where needed to lock down any pre-filled fields as read-only, only for customers with an External ID, Member Type, etc. 