Every session’s create-and-edit form includes settings for capacity, waitlists, and Portal visibility. You manage these settings on the same form you use to create or update the session. This article covers only those settings; for the rest of the form, see Create and Edit Sessions and Other Events.
Prerequisites
- A waitlist process configured for your Rhythm account, if you want to offer a waitlist when a session fills up.
Limit a Session's Places with a Capacity
- Open the session for editing (Meetings & Shows › Events › [event name] › Sessions, then select the session).
- In the Capacity Tracking & Waitlist Management card, turn the switch on.
- Enter the Capacity.
- Save the session.
Result
Rhythm compares the session’s active places with the capacity you entered, then marks the session sold out when it reaches that number.
Warning
Rhythm does not check capacity at the exact moment someone takes a place, so a session can still be oversold. The sold-out indicator updates in the background, not instantly. If you turn capacity off after a session is already marked sold out, that change does not clear the sold-out marking by itself.
Tip
If you need to stop more Console registrations for a session, set a capacity and leave the waitlist off instead of relying on the fee's status or on Portal-only controls. Once the session reaches that capacity, it stops accepting more registrants.
A session included automatically through a registration package's Include Sessions setting works differently. Rhythm adds the included session to the registrant's agenda regardless of the session's capacity or waitlist, so sold-out and waitlist controls do not apply to registrants who get the session through package inclusion.
Offer a Waitlist When the Session Is Full
You can offer a waitlist only when capacity tracking is turned on for the session.
- With Capacity Tracking & Waitlist Management turned on, check Enable waitlist?.
- Choose a Waitlist Process.
- Save the session.
Result
After the session reaches its capacity, people who try to register can join the waitlist you selected instead.
You cannot delete a waitlist process while any session still uses it. To retire a waitlist process, first change or remove it from every session that names it.
Tip
To test waitlist notifications before using them for a live event, create a session with capacity and the waitlist turned on. Set the capacity to 1, register one attendee, then register a second attendee so they land on the waitlist. Raising the capacity to 2 opens a place and sends the waitlisted attendee their notification, so you can confirm the email goes out as expected.
Rhythm does not offer a setting that forces a registrant to choose only one of two sessions that conflict on the schedule. The Schedule Conflicts form component warns registrants when their choices overlap in time, but it only warns them. Registrants can continue and register for the overlapping sessions anyway, and there is no configuration option that changes this. If you need to stop registrants from continuing when they pick overlapping sessions, use a conditional page transition rule on the registration form with a custom error message instead of relying on the Schedule Conflicts component alone.
Hide a Session from the Portal
Use this when you want to keep a session off the Portal entirely while still keeping it visible and usable in the Console. The session stays out of the schedule, off its own Portal page, and out of the registration form.
- Open the session for editing.
- In the Schedule, Location & Visibility card, check Hide this session from the portal.
- Save the session.
Result
The session no longer appears on the Portal schedule or registration form.
Warning
Hiding a session from the Portal controls where it displays; it is not a security restriction. If someone already has a direct link to the session’s own Portal page, or reaches its details another way, that specific address can still be reachable while the session is hidden from the schedule and registration form.
If you cannot delete a session yet because registrants or other records still depend on it, hide it from the Portal to keep it out of view for attendees. Also change the session's end date to a date in the past, so it stops looking like something people could still attend or register for. When you are ready to remove it for good, see Find, Review, and Delete Sessions for what stops a session from being deleted.
If a session is cancelled but there is no dedicated cancelled status for sessions, combine the settings above as a workaround. Hide the session from the Portal or the schedule, close it to online registration, and consider adding "Cancelled" to the session's title so anyone who still sees it, such as through a direct link, understands its status.
Hide a Session from the Schedule Only
Use this when you want to keep a session off the Portal schedule but still let people register for it directly. For example, you might use it for a session you do not want to advertise broadly, but still want people to sign up for through a direct link.
Warning
Rhythm does not automatically remove a session from the online schedule once it has taken place. Past sessions stay on the schedule until you hide them by hand using the setting below; there is no setting that hides a session from the schedule automatically once it is over.
- Open the session for editing.
- Check Hide this session from the schedule.
- Save the session.
Result
The session is left off the Portal schedule, but its registration options are unchanged.
Close a Session to Online Registration
Use this when you want a session to stay visible on the Portal, but only staff can place someone in it. For example, you might use it for an invitation-only session.
- Open the session for editing. The session must not be hidden from the Portal because this option is only available for sessions people can see.
- Check Do not allow registration for this session in the portal.
- Save the session.
Result
The session still appears on the Portal, but people cannot choose it when registering online. You can still add registrants to it yourself in the Console; see Manage Session Registrations.
If you hide a session from the Portal after closing it to registration, Rhythm keeps the closed-to-registration setting even though it is no longer visible while the session stays hidden.
Tip
If you regularly clone sessions from a base template and want every copy to start out closed to individual registration, turn on Do not allow registration for this session in the portal on the template itself. Sessions cloned from it inherit the same setting.
If a session belongs to a track that a registration package is allowed to choose from, and that one session should not be an option for that package, remove the session from the allowed track in the event's Session Tracks setup instead of trying to exclude it another way. A package only offers the sessions in the tracks it is allowed to see.
Related Reading
For the rest of a session’s settings, including its type, schedule, speakers, and description, see Create and Edit Sessions and Other Events. To add or remove someone’s place in a session by hand, including in a hidden or closed session, see Manage Session Registrations. To understand why a session cannot be deleted, see Find, Review, and Delete Sessions.