Your organization
The association, museum, club, or team responsible for the show. It owns the workspace and team access.
01
Welcome to Show Register
Show Register is built around the way recurring shows actually work: one lasting show, with a new occurrence each time it returns.
Your show
The long-lived series—its identity, people, dealer history, documents, and memory stay with it.
An occurrence
One edition of the show, with its own dates, venue, registration, finances, tasks, and public pages.
Before you begin
- The public name and short name of your show
- Start and end dates in the show’s local time zone
- Venue name, address, and an approximate capacity
- The registration choices and prices you plan to offer
- One person who will be the workspace owner
02
Quick start
Follow this path to take a new workspace from blank to ready. You can refine every detail later.
About 20 minutesfor a basic published show
- 1
Create the workspace
Sign up, name your organization, then add the show’s public name and short name. Choose the time zone where the show takes place.
- 2
Add the first occurrence
Enter the dates, venue, capacity, and recurrence pattern. These details can be edited without changing the show’s permanent history.
- 3
Create registration types
Add each admission choice, price, role, and optional capacity. Use clear public names such as “Weekend attendee” or “Dealer table.”
- 4
Review the public website
Add a short description, schedule, hotel details, FAQs, and contact information. Preview the page before publishing.
- 5
Publish and open registration
Publish the occurrence first, then open registration when types, capacity, confirmation email, and payment settings are ready.
READY TO LAUNCH?
Use the five-minute preflight check
Preview as an attendee, complete one test registration, check the confirmation, and verify the balance in Reports.
03
Set up your show
Start with the stable identity of the series, then add the details that belong only to this occurrence.
SettingsGeneralShow & occurrence
Show-level details
These follow the series from one occurrence to the next.
- Public name, short name, and URL slug
- Local time zone and usual cadence
- Public contact email
- Organization ownership and team
Occurrence-level details
These describe one specific edition of the show.
- Title, dates, venue, and address
- Capacity and registration state
- Public content and schedule
- Tasks, finances, dealers, and check-ins
04
Build the public website
Give attendees one trusted place for the information they otherwise have to find across flyers, emails, and social posts.
OrganizerWebsite
Start with the essentials
Add a clear tagline, a two- or three-sentence description, dates, venue, and public contact. Visitors should understand the show without opening another page.
Publish the day-by-day schedule
Use specific labels and local times. Put high-interest sessions, public hours, and registration deadlines first.
Add practical visitor details
Include hotels, parking, accessibility, FAQs, news, sponsors, and any public documents attendees may need.
Recommended publishing order
1Basics
2Venue
3Schedule
4Registration
5FAQs
6Publish
05
Open registration
Registration connects admission choices, people, capacity, payments, confirmations, and check-in in one record.
SettingsRegistration typesAdd type
Create a type for every distinct choice
FieldHow to use itExample
NameUse the words attendees expect to see.
Weekend attendeeRoleControls how the person appears in records.
attendeePriceSet zero for a free choice.
$35.00CapacityLeave empty only when there is truly no limit.
400Capacity & waitlists
When a limited type fills, the waitlist preserves the order of requests without overselling.
Why someone is waitlistedPayments & refunds
Track Stripe card payments alongside cash and checks. Refund from the registration’s payment history.
Payment questionsGroups & roles
One registration can include additional people with attendee, dealer, exhibitor, volunteer, speaker, helper, or guest roles.
06
Manage dealers & tables
Keep dealer history at the show level while reviewing applications and table needs for the current occurrence.
1Submitted
2Review
3Accepted
Assigned
Review the complete request
Check the business name, contact, number of tables, helpers, electric request, placement notes, and any balance before changing status.
Assign the floor intentionally
Use the Tables view to pair accepted applications with numbered tables. Keep accessibility, electricity, entrances, and long-standing preferences in mind.
Preserve context for next time
Record enduring preferences on the dealer profile and occurrence-specific decisions in Show Memory. That distinction keeps next year’s setup useful.
07
Run show-day check-in
Use QR scanning when it is fast, search when it is flexible, and keep every action in the same check-in record.
Prepare
- Charge the check-in devices
- Allow camera access for QR scanning
- Review unpaid and duplicate records
- Confirm who may accept payment
Admit
- Scan the confirmation QR code
- Search by name, email, or code
- Confirm any amount due
- Mark each person checked in
Recover
- Search if the camera cannot scan
- Check for another group record
- Use walk-in registration once
- Undo an accidental check-in
08
Send communications
Build reusable messages, choose the smallest useful audience, and keep consent and delivery status visible.
- 1
Choose a purpose
Show announcement, dealer update, volunteer opportunity, or sponsor message.
- 2
Start from a template
Keep the repeated structure; update dates, calls to action, and occurrence-specific details.
- 3
Review the audience
Send only to contacts with the relevant active topic subscription.
- 4
Schedule and verify
Review the subject and links, then monitor delivery, bounce, complaint, open, and click events.
Marketing messages
Consult topic consent and suppression status. Each message includes unsubscribe controls and the required sender details.
Transactional messages
Registration, dealer, payment, and account messages are operational and do not use marketing opt-out state.
09
Capture Show Memory
Write down what the team will wish it remembered when planning starts again.
OPERATIONSCaptured after the 2027 show
“Open a third volunteer check-in station for the first 90 minutes. The east entrance had room and reduced the line.”
Useful because it is specificOwner: Show operationsStatus: Open
Write this
“Move the hotel cutoff two weeks later; 18 rooms were booked after the deadline.”
Not this
“Hotel could have gone better.”
Use a clear category, describe the evidence or reason, and assign an owner when follow-up is needed. Resolve the item once the lesson has been built into a task, setting, or plan.
10
Organize documents
Keep contracts, insurance, permits, maps, hotel agreements, packets, and prior versions with the show.
Heritage Stamp ShowPermanent show library
2027 occurrenceContracts · permits · floor plans
Public resourcesDealer packet · visitor map
A reliable file-naming pattern
2027-04-09_venue-contract_signed.pdfDate · purpose · state11
Create the next occurrence
Rollover is the moment Show Register turns this year’s work into a head start for the next one.
SettingsCreate next occurrence
2027Review & closeResults · lessons · archive
2028Start preparedStructure · context · tasks
What carries forward
Suggested datesBased on cadence and local time
Registration structureTypes ready for review
Recurring task templatesScheduled for the new dates
Dealer contextProfiles and preferences remain
Public contentCopied as an editable starting point
Show MemoryOpen lessons stay visible
12
Team roles & access
Give volunteers the smallest role that lets them do their job. Owners and managers can see the full workspace.
13
Membership Portal feed
Sponsored shows can expose a tenant-bound, read-only event projection through a signed request.
GET
/api/v1/integrations/membership-portal/events/{externalGrantId}The request uses a Unix timestamp and a hex HMAC-SHA256 signature over {timestamp}.{externalGrantId}. Requests expire after five minutes, and responses are private and never cached.
Example request
curl "https://showregister.com/api/v1/integrations/membership-portal/events/{externalGrantId}" \
-H "x-showregister-timestamp: 1786059000" \
-H "x-showregister-signature: <hex-hmac-sha256>"Response at a glance
contractVersionCurrent feed contract versionsponsorshipStatus and active windowshowStable show identity and URLsevents[]Up to 25 occurrences, newest first14
Troubleshooting
Start with the state of the occurrence, then check the individual record. Most issues can be narrowed down in under a minute.
Why does the public page say registration is closed?
Confirm that the occurrence is published, registration is switched on, the selected registration type is active, and the workspace license can operate. All four conditions must be true.
Why was an attendee waitlisted?
The selected type or the occurrence reached its capacity while the request was being submitted. Check the current confirmed quantity before moving someone off the waitlist.
A confirmation email is missing—what should I check?
Verify the address on the registration, then review delivery status in Communications. A bounce, complaint, or provider suppression may prevent delivery. Do not repeatedly resend to a known bad address.
The QR scanner cannot read a code.
Allow camera access, improve lighting, and hold the code steady inside the frame. If the browser does not support camera detection, search the confirmation code, name, or email instead.
How do I correct an accidental check-in?
Open the attendee’s record in Check-in and use Undo check-in. The person returns to the not-checked-in list without changing their registration or payment.
Where should I record a lesson for next year?
Use Show Memory for context or a decision. If the lesson is a repeatable action, also create a recurring task template so rollover can schedule it next time.
READY TO EXPLORE?
See the complete workflow with realistic show data.
The organizer demo is safe to click through and includes registrations, dealer applications, tables, payments, tasks, documents, and Show Memory.