Exhibiting starts like any other purchase: an organization checks out and pays for one or more booths. After the order is paid, Rhythm creates one exhibitor record for that organization at the event. If the organization already exhibits at that event, Rhythm uses the existing record instead of creating another one. From then on, that exhibitor record holds the organization’s booths, add-ons, booth staff, and purchase history for the event.
One Exhibitor Record per Organization per Event
Rhythm keeps one exhibitor record for each organization at each event, no matter how many times the organization buys booths, add-ons, or upgrades for that event. Each purchase adds to the same record instead of creating a separate exhibitor entry. If an exhibitor record needs to belong to a different organization or event, you cannot reassign it. You need to delete it and create it again, so plan corrections to the exhibitor’s organization or event around that limit. You also cannot create an exhibitor registration record and link it later to an order that was placed separately; the registration and order need to be created together.
Canceling an exhibitor registration order does not always remove the exhibitor profile. If the organization places a new order later, Rhythm can relink that order to the existing profile instead of creating a new one. Because the first purchase creates the exhibitor record, the order linked on the exhibitor record can be that earlier order rather than the organization’s most recent purchase. When a second purchase adds another booth for an organization that already exhibits, both purchases appear on the same Exhibitor 360 record. Use that record’s Booths tab to assign the additional booth instead of looking for a second exhibitor entry.
An exhibitor’s display name comes from the organization selected when the order was placed in the Portal. If staff rename that organization later elsewhere in Rhythm, the Exhibitor 360 record and exhibitor listing can continue to show the name selected at purchase.
A paid exhibitor registration order should create the exhibitor record so you can assign booths to it. Support has seen a few causes when a paid order did not create one. Some online exhibitor registration orders did not correctly create or keep the link between the organization and the exhibitor record under the event, which kept that organization from appearing as an exhibitor in event queries; this has not been observed with more recent exhibitor registrations. Some orders were created without the matching exhibitor registration or Exhibitor 360 record, occasionally after choosing to bill the organization or pay later. Some exhibitor registrations also completed without the underlying Exhibitor 360 record being created, which let the same booth be purchased more than once and kept the exhibitor from being selected for booth status changes.
If the purchase clearly went through but the exhibitor record does not appear, raise it with Support instead of trying to fix it yourself. The usual fix is to cancel the affected order and have the exhibitor complete a new registration. You can issue store credit toward the new registration instead of a refund. Manually creating an exhibitor record does not create the matching order or invoice, so it is not a substitute for reprocessing the registration.
Tip
If you need to collect part of an exhibitor’s payment at booking and the rest later, use an installment plan as the closest standard option for splitting an exhibitor purchase into more than one payment.
What a Paid Booth Purchase Sets Up Automatically
Once Commerce reports a booth purchase’s order fulfilled, Rhythm handles these updates for you:
- The registration is marked fulfilled and linked back to the order line that paid for it.
- Purchased booths are reserved for the exhibitor when the purchase names specific booths. If the purchase is for a booth type instead of a specific booth, Rhythm does not reserve a booth automatically. Staff place the exhibitor in an actual booth afterward. See Booths, Numbers, and Statuses Explained for how a booth’s status changes when it is reserved this way.
- New booth staff named during the purchase get contact records and are added to the exhibitor. Rhythm does not compare the new contact’s email address with your existing contacts before creating the record. If the buyer enters someone who is already in your Rolodex under a slightly different entry, Rhythm can create a second, separate contact instead of reusing the existing one.
- Custom field values entered on the purchase are carried onto the exhibitor. If the exhibitor already has a value for one of those fields from an earlier purchase, the new purchase replaces it. A later purchase can overwrite information entered on an earlier one.
- A confirmation email is sent to the buyer when the registration process has confirmation switched on with a template, the order requests a customer confirmation, and the buyer’s contact has an email address. A registration rebuilt from an order that does not have its own process does not get a confirmation, because there is no process to provide the email. This confirmation email cannot include a direct invoice payment link; send a payment link through an invoice email instead.
A registration type or price that depends on being an exhibitor, such as a lower exhibitor-attendee rate, checks the individual registrant rather than only their organization. Rhythm processes registration person by person, whether it is an individual or group registration. Someone qualifies for exhibitor-only eligibility or exhibitor-attendee pricing only after they are directly connected to the exhibitor registration, for example as a contact on it. If someone from an exhibiting organization is not recognized this way, the registration form can charge the standard price or not offer an exhibitor-only registration type at all.
Finding an Organization's Exhibitor Registrations
You can find the registrations behind an exhibitor’s purchases from the Registrations panel on the exhibitor record. You can also find them by organization or by order elsewhere in Events. If someone asks what an organization bought, you can start from the organization, the order, or the exhibitor itself.
Example
An organization buys two specific booths at this year’s conference and names one new booth-staff contact during checkout. Because this is their first purchase for the event, Rhythm creates the exhibitor record once the order is fulfilled. Rhythm reserves both booths for the organization, adds the new booth-staff contact to the exhibitor, and sends the buyer a confirmation email using the registration process’s template.
A month later, the same organization buys an add-on and enters a custom field value that differs from the first purchase. Rhythm adds the add-on to the same exhibitor record, and the new custom field value replaces the earlier one. The exhibitor does not end up with two separate records or two conflicting values.