Waiting list workflow

When an event fills, further registrations join the waiting list automatically. Everything after that is manual. This is the routine.

What is automatic

• A visitor registering for a full event is placed on the waiting list.
• They are told so immediately, on submitting the form.
• Their registration appears in the Waiting list section of the attendee panel.

That is the entire automatic part.

What is not

Before the event fills

Prepare, so the queue does not surprise you:

• Enable the telephone field. Places are released late and email is slow.
• Explain the list in the event's introduction, so people know what to expect.
• Word the button so it reads sensibly for a capacity event.
• Name the owner. One person runs the queue.

The promotion routine

Whenever a place is released — a cancellation, an increased capacity, a no-show confirmed in advance:

1. Open the event.
2. Take the top row of the Waiting list section.
3. Open its Actions control and choose Move to attendants.
4. Contact the person immediately, using the email or telephone link on their row.
5. Tell them they have a place, and repeat the date, time and place.
6. Give them a deadline to confirm, if you need one.
7. Note that you contacted them, somewhere your team can see.
8. If the deadline passes with no reply, move them to Cancelled and take the next.

Steps 4 and 7 are the ones that get skipped, and both cause the same failure: a place occupied by someone who does not know they have it.

Order matters

The panel lists registrations in the order they were stored, so working top to bottom is a defensible first-come-first-served policy.

If you use a different rule — members first, for instance — write it down, because nothing in the interface expresses it and a later dispute will be about fairness.

Keep a record outside the plugin

The plugin does not track:

• who you contacted;
• when;
• whether they replied;
• who declined.

For anything beyond a handful of promotions, keep a simple sheet: name, email, contacted on, replied, outcome. Start it from the export.

Cancellations release places

When someone withdraws:

1. Move their row to Cancelled — not delete; you may need the record.
2. Promote a waiting-list person.
3. Contact them.

Do both in the same session, or the released place quietly disappears from your working count.

Watch the numbers

The Assistants column counts confirmed registrations only. After a session of promotions, compare it with the real capacity — manual moves are not capacity-checked, and it is easy to promote one person too many.

Before the event

• Resolve every pending promotion.
• Decide whether to over-promote against expected no-shows. That is a judgement call; your previous exports tell you the rate.
• Export the list including the waiting list, so you can admit people at the door if confirmed attendees do not arrive.

After the event

Record how many waiting-list people you could not accommodate. It is the clearest signal that the next edition needs a bigger room or a second session — and nothing else in the product tells you.

Verify the routine once

1. Set a capacity of two on a test event.
2. Register three people from a private window.
3. Confirm the third is wait-listed and told so.
4. Cancel one confirmed registration.
5. Promote the wait-listed person.
6. Confirm the counts.
7. Confirm no email was sent by any of it.