Easy WordPress Workshop Registration

May 16, 2017•Scott DeLuzio

Collecting information from event attendees can be a pain in the neck with some of the WordPress workshop registration plugins. They all seem to have either a confusing setup process or require an expensive add-on plugin to collect detailed information about your attendees. With most WordPress registration plugins, you can’t even sell additional products like course materials to the customer without using a separate e-commerce plugin.

This is where Conditional Checkout Fields can help.

Easy WordPress Workshop Registration

Chances are, if you’re still reading this you’re running a website on WordPress. That’s great news because you’re already set up to easily start collecting registrations for your workshop or class.

Plugins you will need:

Which e-commerce plugin should I use for WordPress workshop registration?

The choice is really up to you.

If you ever intend on selling physical products, such as a book for your course, which may need to be mailed to the customer, WooCommerce likely is your best bet. It has shipping options already built in and is pretty easy to get set up for that purpose.

However, if you ever intend on selling digital products, such as an e-book for your workshop, Easy Digital Downloads is probably better suited for your WordPress workshop registration e-commerce platform.

With that said, WooCommerce is capable of selling digital products, and Easy Digital Downloads has an add-on for simple shipping options. So, if you choose one e-commerce plugin over the other you won’t end up being stuck if you ever decide to sell a different type of product.

How to create a workshop

Since this tutorial can be used with either WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, we won’t dive into setting up those plugins. Shipping options, payment gateways, taxes, etc. are set up differently in each plugin. You can read more about setting up WooCommerce here, and Easy Digital Downloads here.

Regardless of the e-commerce plugin that you decide to work with, you will need to create a product for the workshop registration. The product’s title should indicate what the workshop will cover. For example, a few example titles could look like:

  • How to Hire Your First Employee (Webinar 10:00 am 6/1/2017)
  • Slicer’s Annonymous – A Golfer’s Guide to the Middle of the Fairway (6/1/2017)
  • Financial Planning for Millenials (6/1/2017 at 6:00 pm)

It isn’t always necessary to include the location, date, or time in the title. But, if you have the same workshop available on multiple locations, dates, or times it’s good to list the difference early on to avoid confusion.

Make sure the product’s description lists all of the relevant information about the workshop, such as:

  • Workshop location. You should provide a street address if the workshop will be held in person. If the workshop is an online webinar, let the customer know that up front and that they will get a link to the webinar by email.
  • Date and time the workshop begins and estimated duration. Include time zone if it will be a virtual workshop.
  • Workshop description. Let the customer know what they can expect to get out of the workshop. Will there be any special speakers who have a special skill set that they could learn from? Provide a course outline and any prerequisites. Include a list of materials they should bring to the workshop.

The workshop should also get a price in the product settings. That price could be free if you want, but it’s important to be aware of the pricing field. You don’t want to accidentally set it to be free when you really wanted to charge $1,000 per person!

How to create WordPress workshop registration form

Now that you have your workshop product set up, you will want to collect additional information from your workshop attendees.

Install the Conditional Checkout Fields plugin for WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads. The setup options are similar for both plugins, but their settings page is located in different places.

For WooCommerce, visit WooCommerce > Conditional Fields page, then click the Conditional Fields tab.

For Easy Digital Downloads, visit Downloads > Conditional Fields page, then click the Conditional Fields tab.

Click the Add New button at the top to create a new field.

Flexible field types for workshop registration

The type of field you use will depend on what sort of information you want to collect for your workshop.

You can use a simple text box if you just want the basic name, email, or phone number information.

You can use a select menu or radio buttons to have the workshop attendees select one of the several available options. For example, have the customer select their role in their company (owner, marketing manager, accountant, etc.). This can help you understand who your audience is before the workshop begins.

Make sure to select a product or product category from the available fields. This is what triggers the field to show up on the checkout page. If a customer has the product in their cart (in this case the workshop product we created earlier), the conditional field will show up. If they don’t have that product in their cart, they won’t see the conditional fields you set up. Each workshop can have their own unique conditional fields, or you can reuse fields by simply entering multiple products in the product field.

Add as many fields as you’d like. You can duplicate the fields based on the quantity that is in the customer’s cart and group the fields in a logical manner. This way you don’t have to anticipate how many people will be registering at once. One set of fields will collect all the information you need for all of the workshop registrations.

What Workshops Do You Sell?

Let’s hear about some of your workshops or classes. How are you selling them? What challenges are you facing?

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Scott DeLuzio