Registering for an event can include more than your own registration. When the event offers them, you can add guests, buy add-ons, choose certification courses, and set badge text during the same checkout. This article explains how those options work and what Rhythm checks before you can finish registering.
Before You Begin
Prerequisites
- The options on the registration form depend on how the organization running the event set it up. You may see guests, add-ons, courses, badge text, a schedule-conflict warning, or only some of those options.
- If you do not see a guests option, the event may not have a guest registration package set up, or that package may not be visible in the Portal. Contact the organization running the event if you expected to add a guest.
- Turning on an add-on for your package is not enough to show it during registration. The event's registration form must also include the add-on selection step, so contact the organization running the event if you expected an add-on and do not see it.
Warning
If the registration form includes two different ways to join or renew a membership, you might be asked about membership twice. Answer only one of them, because answering both can charge you for membership dues twice. Registering for this event also cannot renew an existing membership by itself, so renew separately if your membership is expiring or about to expire.
Add Guests
If the registration form includes a guests section, you can add people under your registration instead of having each person register separately. Use this for someone connected to your registration, such as a spouse or colleague. If you need to register several people from the same organization and each person completes their own form, see Register and Manage a Group in the Portal instead. Event functions do not have separate guest registration, so increase the ticket quantity if you need an extra function ticket.
- On the registration form, select the option to add a guest.
- Choose a registration package for the guest.
- Enter the guest's contact details. The fields you see, such as name, email address, job title, and other details, depend on the event setup.
- Repeat for each additional guest, up to the limit this event allows.
Result
Each guest's package is priced on your order with your own registration.
Tip
The event's registration process sets the maximum number of guests, so the limit can differ by registration type or package. One registration path might allow more guests than another. Rhythm does not support pricing where the first guest is free and later guests are charged; every guest is priced by the package you choose for them, including guests you add later by modifying your registration.
Warning
A guest cannot use your email address or another guest's email address on the same registration. Rhythm refuses the registration when it finds a repeated email address. This check prevents a guest from sharing the registrant's email address and creating a duplicate or incomplete guest registration.
Warning
Depending on this event's setup, you may still need to enter a guest's email address even when the form does not show an obvious email field for that guest. The setting that controls which guest fields appear only controls what you see. It does not make the guest's name optional, because Rhythm always requires it, and it does not let an event show a field, such as email, without requiring it. Some events can require additional guest fields, such as job title, but name and email are the only guest fields Rhythm enforces by default. Removing the email field from an event's guest setup does not always remove the underlying email requirement. If you are stuck on the guest step and cannot find where to enter the email address, check whether another field higher in the guest section is asking for it, or contact the organization running the event. When the event does not require an email address, a guest can complete registration without one and still appear as your guest afterward.
Tip
Depending on the event's settings, a guest you add here might not get their own contact record in the organization's Rhythm account. Some events register guests without creating one. In that case, the guest's registration is linked to your own contact record as a transient guest. Any guest-related question is answered as a custom field on your registration instead of on a separate person record, and any answer taken from your contact information, such as an organization name, reflects your details rather than the guest's.
Tip
If an event allows several guests and needs different answers from each one, such as a meal choice for each guest, the organization may set up separate questions for Guest 1, Guest 2, and so on. Those questions live on your overall registration instead of on each individual guest, so answer each one for the correct guest. Rhythm does not check that for you, and the same guest-numbered questions can appear against every guest when the organization reviews registration data later.
Tip
Guest fields come from a fixed list Rhythm provides, such as name, email address, job title, phone numbers, and organization. The event chooses which of those fields to show you. The guests section cannot collect a question outside that list, such as a dietary restriction, and making additional guest fields required is not always possible. The organization running the event cannot turn this on with a setting; it would require a change to Rhythm itself.
Tip
Some events show guest-related questions only after you add at least one guest, so do not worry if you do not see them before then.
Tip
Rhythm does not restrict a specific package to guests only, such as a spouse rate, so nothing stops you from choosing that package for the wrong person. Check the event's instructions for who each guest package is meant for, or contact the organization running the event if you are not sure which one fits your guest.
Buy Add-Ons
If your package includes add-on products, such as a printed program, parking pass, or T-shirt, the purchase section lets you choose them and set quantities.
- On the registration form, review the available add-ons.
- Choose the add-ons you want and set a quantity for each one.
Result
Your chosen add-ons are added to your order as separate lines and priced individually. If your package already includes certain add-ons at no extra cost, those items appear as included instead of as items you need to buy. In a group registration, you choose add-ons separately for each person, so selecting one for yourself does not add it for the rest of your group.
Tip
An add-on's maximum purchase quantity might not stop you from entering a higher number. If you choose more than the event allows, Next is disabled and an error appears until you reduce the quantity to the limit.
Tip
Whether you see a particular add-on can depend on the event's eligibility rules, including rules based on whether you have already completed a related course. If an add-on you expected does not appear, check with the organization running the event.
Tip
If an add-on becomes unavailable during the event's registration window, the organization running the event may have hidden it or made the product inactive to stop further purchases. For example, they may do this after it sells beyond its intended limit.
Choose Certification Courses
If the event offers certification courses with registration, you can choose the course offerings you want and pay for them in the same checkout.
- On the registration form, choose the course offerings you want.
Result
Each course you choose is added to your order and charged with your registration.
Tip
Buying an add-on or package that includes a course fee does not automatically enroll you in a course offering. Choose the course offering yourself in this section to complete your enrollment.
Warning
Certification credits are for the main registrant only. A guest you register under your registration is never eligible for certification credits, even when this event has certification credits turned on.
Warning
If a course offering you chose fills up before you check out, Rhythm refuses your entire registration, not just that course. Remove the full course from your choices before you complete the rest of your registration.
Set Your Badge Text
If the form includes a badge section, you can enter the text you want printed on your name badge. This text can be different from your official name and organization on file. The organization running the event decides whether this step appears; it is not something you can turn on yourself.
- On the registration form, find the badge section.
- Enter the first name, full name, organization name, job title, or location you want printed, as offered.
Result
Your badge prints with the text you entered here instead of the details from your contact record.
Tip
Badge fields fill in automatically from your own details when you register for yourself. They do not fill in the same way for a guest's badge, so check or enter a guest's badge text yourself if the event prints badges for guests too.
Warning
The badge section always asks for the same fields: full name, organization, job title, and location. Rhythm does not offer a setting to hide individual fields or change the badge layout. If you want different badge content, the organization running the event would need to request that as a product change; it is not a configuration option today.
Warning
If your registration is later transferred to someone else, Rhythm rewrites the badge from the new person's details, and any custom badge text you entered is lost.
Schedule Conflicts
If you choose sessions, functions, or courses that overlap in time, Rhythm warns you before checkout when the registration form includes this check.
- If a conflict warning appears, review the overlapping items it lists.
- Acknowledge the warning to continue.
Result
Rhythm lets you continue checking out either way. The warning tells you about the overlap, but it does not stop you from registering for conflicting items if you choose to continue.
Warning
This warn-and-continue behavior is built into the schedule-conflict check. No setting, including a custom form rule, can turn it into a hard block. Acknowledging the conflict is the only step Rhythm requires before you continue.
If It Fails
- "One of your guest registration emails are the same as the registrant email address." Change the guest's email address to one that is different from your own.
- "Each guest must have a unique email address." Two of your guests are using the same email address, so give each guest their own email address.
- A guest you added appears as an extra, unlinked registration on your own record. This has been reported even when the guest used an email address different from yours. If you see an extra registration that looks like it belongs to you instead of your guest, contact the organization running the event so they can check and correct it.
- Your guest's name shows only a first name, or looks incomplete, afterward. This has been reported when an unexpected name field appears during guest entry and only a first name is entered. Enter the guest's full name in whichever name field the form shows, or contact the organization running the event if the guest's name still looks wrong afterward.
- Checkout fails because a course is full. Remove that course from your selections, then complete the rest of your registration.
- "Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'line_items')" appears during checkout. The event's registration form is missing a required checkout step. Contact the organization running the event so they can check the form setup.
- The second payment method's card fields stay blank. If you are splitting payment between two cards, finish adding the first card completely before entering the second. The second card's fields may not load until the first card is complete.
- You're not sure whether your card was saved before continuing to a second payment method. Clicking the button that completes your first card is what lets you continue to the second payment method, whether or not you also chose to save that card for future use.
- Adding a new credit card gets stuck on "Looking up addresses... just a moment..." This is a known issue under investigation. If it happens, try again later or contact the organization running the event for another way to pay.
- You're asked for a guest's email address you didn't expect to need. This can happen depending on how the event's registration is configured, even when the form does not otherwise show an email field for guests. Look for the field elsewhere in the guest section, or contact the organization running the event.