An exhibitor registration process is the path an organization uses to buy exhibit space at your event. It controls which booths they can choose, which form they complete, whether they must qualify first, and what they see or receive after checkout. An event can have more than one process, such as one for general admission and another limited to sponsors.
What It Controls
A process controls how organizations buy booths for one event, including booth selection, the registration form, eligibility, booth-type pricing, timing, and confirmation. Each process belongs to one event, so you cannot share it with another event.
Prerequisites
Before you can save a process, turn on exhibiting for the event and build a web form for exhibitor registrations. Otherwise, the Registration Form: picker has no forms to choose from.
Where to Find It
Go to Meetings & Shows › Events › (the event) › Setup › Exhibitors › Processes. Select Create Exhibitor Registration Process to start with a blank form, or edit or clone an existing process from its row.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name:, ID:, Status: | Text; Rhythm suggests the identifier from the name and prefixes it with the event; Active/Inactive | Active | Identifies the process. Deactivating it stops Rhythm from offering it without deleting it |
| Registration Form: | One of your Rhythm account's exhibitor registration forms | None | Required. Buyers complete this form |
| Open Date, Close Date | Date and time | Open: now. Close: not set | Required. Rhythm offers the process only between these dates and does not check whether Close Date is after Open Date |
| How do exhibitors select booths? | Select Booths (choose specific booths); Select Booth Types (choose a type, then staff assign the actual booth later); Virtual Show Floor (visual map), when your account has that feature | Select Booths | Controls the buying experience. Select Booth Types also requires at least one booth-type-to-fee mapping below |
| Once a booth is selected, how long should it be held…? | A number of minutes | 5 | Holds a selected booth for the buyer during checkout. This applies only in Select Booths and Virtual Show Floor modes |
| Booth Type Fees (in Select Booth Types mode) | One row per booth type, each with a booth fee | None | Sets what to charge for each booth type sold this way. At least one row is required in this mode |
| Available in Portal, Display in Portal As | Switch; text | On; blank | Offers the process to buyers on the Portal, with an optional display name that differs from Name: |
| Priority Point Restrictions | Switch; a point type; minimum, maximum | Off | Limits the process to organizations whose points for the selected type are within the range |
| Access Restrictions | Switch; eligibility criteria | Off | Limits the process to organizations that meet the criteria you build, such as organization type |
| Show Contact Form, Show Organization Form | Switch; a form; optional header HTML | Off | Asks the buyer to review their contact or organization details before the registration form |
| Custom Confirmation HTML | Switch; HTML | Off | Replaces the standard success text shown after checkout |
| Confirmation Email | Switch; an email | Off | Sends an email after the registration is fulfilled |
| Override Checkout Settings | Switch; a checkout configuration | Off | Uses this process's payment settings instead of the event's exhibitor checkout settings |
Warning
Double-check the year on Close Date. If the close date is accidentally left in a prior year, the process closes immediately. That can hide the whole exhibitor registration path from the Portal, including booth staff registration, even when the rest of the process looks correct.
Warning
When you switch off one of the optional sections above on an existing process, Rhythm does not clear content that was already saved. Any unsaved change you made in that section before switching it off is lost, but previously saved content stays on the record and returns if you switch the section on again. Override Checkout Settings and Access Restrictions are the exceptions: switching either one off deletes its stored content.
Tip
If a booth type appears in the Console but exhibitors do not see it on the Portal registration form, check the booth fee tied to that type. When that booth fee is hidden from the Portal in its own product settings, the booth type does not appear as a choice even though the type is active. Clear that fee's Hide in Portal setting to restore the booth type to the registration form.
A process's Open Date and Close Date are separate from the event's own registration dates, so exhibitor registration can run on its own schedule. For example, you can open exhibitor registration before general attendee registration so exhibiting organizations can register first, or keep it open while general registration is closed.
Warning
In some cases, turning on Access Restrictions for an exhibitor registration process and saving has left Save Changes spinning indefinitely with no error, no matter which criteria you choose. If this happens, reload the page, try to save again, and contact Support if it keeps failing.
Dependencies and Precedence
- Select Booth Types mode needs at least one row in Booth Type Fees. If a buyer chooses a type with no matching row, they cannot complete the purchase.
- Rhythm checks eligibility and priority-point restrictions only when it builds the list of processes a buyer can see. It does not check them again afterward, so an organization that stops qualifying partway through checkout is not stopped.
- Show Contact Form and Show Organization Form use forms from your account's shared forms setup, where Web Forms are designed. You can edit that registration form yourself in Web Forms setup to add, remove, or restore a component such as the booth selector, so you do not need to wait on anyone else to make that kind of change.
- Exhibitor registration forms do not support adding event sessions or functions. If you need to offer something like a meeting room alongside booth space, model it as an exhibitor add-on product rather than an event schedule item.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- Deactivating a process stops Rhythm from newly offering it. A buyer who is already partway through checkout when you deactivate it can still complete checkout.
- Changing the booth-selection mode on a process organizations have already used is allowed. Existing registrations keep the booths or booth types they already have, and Rhythm does not reconcile them to the new mode.
- Turning off Access Restrictions or Override Checkout Settings discards the stored criteria or checkout configuration. If you turn either one back on, you need to start over.
- Deleting a process that exhibitors or registrations still reference is expected to be blocked.
Permissions
You need the permission your Rhythm account grants for exhibitor setup on the event.
Validation and Errors
Rhythm will not save a process without a name, event, open date, close date, registration form, or booth-selection mode. In Select Booth Types mode, Rhythm also requires at least one complete booth-type-to-fee row. If you turn on an optional section, complete its required fields, such as a point type, criteria, a form, HTML, an email, or checkout settings, or switch the section back off before saving.
Warning
In some cases, turning on Override Checkout Settings for an exhibitor registration process and saving has triggered "You haven't entered a valid value for Checkout Settings" even though every visible checkout field is filled in. If this happens, contact Support; it has been reported as a bug specific to exhibitor registration processes.
Values submitted on the original exhibitor registration form may not be editable afterward. You can change them later only if those same fields also appear when you use the registration's own Edit option. Otherwise, there is no way to modify what was entered at registration time.
Use Preview on the confirmation email to send yourself a copy filled in with details from a real, existing registration before you turn the email on. You can send the preview to any address you type, so treat it like you are sending real registration data. When you supply an identifier for testing, use the ID field on the exhibitor record itself, not the exhibitor registration's own identifier. The registration identifier is not what the preview looks up, and in some cases it can produce a RecordNotFound error because the preview for an exhibitor process can look up an event registration instead of the exhibitor record. Unlike many standard event registration confirmations, exhibitor and sponsor confirmation emails do not have a separate resend action, so Preview is the way to resend or test one.
Warning
When you build a confirmation email and choose a merge field for an array, such as a registration's booths or guests, the picker can show only a generic placeholder — something like {{#each registration.booths}} {{field1}}, {{field2}} {{/each}} — to show that subfields exist. It does not show the actual field names. Booth data is meant to be reached through a loop over registration.booths, with properties such as name on each item. Some customers have reported that booth-related merge content did not render as expected in an exhibitor registration confirmation email. If your preview does not show what you expect, check the loop syntax and property names carefully, or contact Support.