Some waitlists run automatically: when a place opens, Rhythm offers it to the next person in line. Other waitlists are manual, so you choose who gets the next open place. This article explains how to offer a place by hand on a manual waitlist.
Before You Begin
Prerequisites
- You need Console access to Meetings & Shows and the event, session, or function open.
- You do not need any permission beyond general Console access.
- The person should already be on the waitlist. If they are not, see Manage a Waitlist in the Console to add them first.
Why Nothing Happens on Its Own
With a manual waitlist process, activation stops before Rhythm sends any offers. Open places still appear in the count, and everyone remains on the waitlist until a staff member takes action. If you expected Rhythm to work through the list automatically and nothing is happening, the waitlist is behaving correctly for a manual process. Do not wait longer; offer the place by hand.
Tip
If automatic offers are not working the way you expect on a waitlist, you can use the same steps below. Then let people know outside Rhythm that a place has opened for them.
Offer a Place by Hand
- Go to the waitlist — for an event, Meetings & Shows › Events ›
<event name>› Waitlist; for a session or function, open it and select its Waitlist tab. - Find the person you want to offer a place to, then select their entry to edit it.
- Change their Status to Eligible to Register.
- Save.
Tip
Because Rhythm does not track manual offers for you, work the waitlist in queue order and keep your own count of places offered against places open.
Result
The person’s waitlist entry now shows Eligible to Register. They can register for the event, session, or function even though it is sold out, because the registration form now lets them through.
Warning
Rhythm does not send an email or notification when you make this change. If the person needs to know a place has opened, you need to tell them yourself. This is different from someone who joins a waitlist automatically through registration; manual waitlist actions do not necessarily trigger the same notifications as registration-driven waitlist entries.
Warning
Marking someone eligible this way does not check whether there is actually room. A manual offer made this way has no window or count attached to it, so it never expires on its own. Nothing stops you from marking more people eligible than there are places available, so you need to track how many offers you have made.
If this waitlist runs under an automatic process instead, marking someone eligible by hand still reduces the number of places the automatic process treats as open. That keeps your manual change from conflicting with the automatic process.
You can also use this method to restore someone’s access to a full session after they modify their registration or a package change moves them off it. Add them to the session’s waitlist, then mark that entry Eligible to Register. They can then modify their registration and select the session again, paying for it if it has a fee.
A Reminder Might Still Go Out
Even on a manual waitlist, Rhythm can still send a final reminder if reminder emails are switched on and an offer was already in progress before the process was set to manual. New offers you make by hand from this point forward do not trigger reminder emails on their own. Only an offer that was already running when the switch happened can produce one.
Warning
Switching a waitlist from Automatic to Manual does not automatically stop automatic handling for contacts who had already been offered a place under the earlier automatic process. To fully stop that handling, remove those contacts from the waitlist and add them back. Re-adding someone changes their position in the queue, so re-enter them in their original order, or adjust their priority afterward, if you need to preserve queue order.
If It Fails
- "Unable to save waitlisted contact." Reopen the entry and try again.
- The person still can't register after you marked them eligible. Confirm that you saved the change and edited the correct entry for the correct event, session, or function. The same person might be waiting on a different one.