Some sessions cost more than the event registration itself. A session fee is the extra charge a registrant pays for one session. You can add more than one fee when the price should depend on the registration package they bought.
What It Controls
A session fee is a product tied to one session. It has a name, a price, and a rule that decides which registrants pay it. You can add several fees to the same session, such as a lower price for members-only packages and a higher price for everyone else. Rhythm charges the fee that matches the registrant’s package. If the event uses registration deadlines, fees can also increase as deadlines pass, with a separate member price at each step.
A registrant who is not charged for a session is not automatically blocked from it. Session access and billing are controlled separately, so if no fee is linked to a registrant's package, that registrant can attend at no charge. Making a fee inactive or hidden also does not deactivate the session itself; the session can remain available during registration after its fees are turned off. To stop a package from seeing or registering for a session, restrict it through that package's session-track setting in Session Tracks, Session Types, and Schedule Filters. Leaving a session unpriced for a package does not block access by itself. The same rule applies to a $0 companion session or meeting hidden from the Portal. Hiding it keeps Portal registrants from seeing it, but staff can still select it in the Console. If you need to limit who can be given that option at all, add purchase-eligibility restrictions to the fee as well.
Where to Find It
Open Meetings & Shows › Events, choose the event, open the session, and go to its Fees tab. The Fees tab appears only when the session is marked as having fees. From there, select Create Fee to add a fee, or use the edit or delete icon on a row to change or remove an existing fee.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| How should we apply this session fee? | Based on Registration Package, Catch all | Based on Registration Package | Decides which registrants pay this fee. Based on Registration Package charges the fee for the packages you select. Catch all charges the fee for every package that is not covered by another fee on the session |
| Registration Packages | One or more of the event's registration packages | None | Sets which packages this fee applies to when the strategy is Based on Registration Package |
| Name (Abbreviated) | Any text | <session name> Fee | Shows the short name in dropdowns. Rhythm builds the full product name as <event name>/<session name>/<short name> and updates it whenever you change the short name |
| Price and Member Price | A number per currency your business unit supports | None | Sets what a registrant pays, and what a member pays, when no deadline price applies |
| Deadline Pricing | A price and a member price per registration deadline | Blank | Charges a different price based on which event registration deadline is still open when the registrant processes their registration. This appears only when the event uses registration deadlines |
A Catch all fee cannot also name packages. If you select packages, choose Catch all, and then save without clearing the packages, Rhythm refuses the save because those packages are still selected.
Dependencies and Precedence
- At most one catch-all fee per session. Rhythm refuses to save a second one.
- No two fees of the same session can share a package. If you assign the same package to two fees, Rhythm refuses the save and names the package that is already claimed.
- A catch-all fee only applies where nothing more specific matches. If a registrant's package has its own fee, that fee wins. Everyone else pays the catch-all fee.
- A fee saved with no strategy is treated as a catch-all. An older fee that predates this choice, or one saved through the API without a strategy, behaves as though it were Catch all. It also counts against the one-catch-all-per-session limit.
- Deadline prices apply only when the event uses registration deadlines. If you leave a deadline price blank, or the registrant processes their registration after the last deadline, Rhythm uses the price and member price you set above instead.
- Purchasing eligibility on a session fee needs a registration-package path to be evaluated. When more than one registration package can add the same optional session, and the fee choice should depend on more than the package alone, Rhythm does not evaluate purchasing eligibility or advanced-rule criteria as a standalone selector across every fee on the session. The fee needs its own assigned registration package before Rhythm applies its eligibility criteria. Otherwise, registration can fail with an advanced-rules eligibility error, or Rhythm can offer the wrong fee instead of selecting the eligible one. If a session needs separate eligibility rules for different purchaser attributes, map separate session fees by package instead of relying on one shared fee with advanced rules alone.
- The backend control for adding sessions has nothing to offer until the event has sessions or session fees. If the dropdown for selecting a session is empty, confirm the event already has at least one session, and a fee if the workflow expects one, before assuming something else is wrong.
Tip
Deadline pricing for sessions works the same way as deadline pricing for functions and add-ons. It depends on the event's deadline settings and the prices you set on each individual session, function, or add-on. Turn on deadlines for the event first, then set the deadline prices here.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Changing a fee's price, packages, or deadline prices affects registrants who choose that session from that point forward. It does not change what already-registered people were charged. Deleting a fee removes that price from the session. The packages it covered fall back to whichever fee still applies to them, if any, or to no charge if none does.
Permissions
Creating a fee requires permission to create session fees for that session. Editing a fee requires the matching edit permission. The Portal cannot create, edit, or delete session fees; it can only read the prices your account has published.
Validation and Errors
- You must specify a matching registration package. You chose Based on Registration Package but did not select any packages.
- A catch all session fee "<name>" already exists. You cannot create another catch all fee. Choose Based on Registration Package instead, or edit the existing catch-all fee.
- Catch all fees should NOT have a registration package specified. Clear the packages before saving as Catch all: choose Based on Registration Package, remove every selected package, then choose Catch all.
- An existing session fee is already linked to registration package(s)… Another fee for this session already covers one of the packages you chose. Remove the overlap from one of the fees.
Related Tasks
Group sessions into tracks and shared types before you price them in Session Tracks, Session Types, and Schedule Filters. Set up the registration packages a session fee can be assigned to before you price the sessions that use them.