Run Events That Fill Themselves

Set up reunions, careers nights, events and open days in minutes – with ticketing, registration, guest bookings and payments handled for you – and open them beyond your alumni to parents, staff and the wider school community by embedding them on your own website.

Overview

The Events module turns your alumni site into a complete event-management tool – not just a listings page. You can run in-person, online, or externally ticketed events, take payments straight into your own account, collect exactly the attendee information you need, and let people register, pay and bring guests in a few taps.

Events are created through a simple three-step process – Details, Type, and Registration – and published on your schedule. Each live event gets its own page with a countdown, social sharing, an event discussion, and live ticket availability. And with the website embed, you can display events on your school's own website so non-alumni – current parents, staff and students – can register too.

Why use Events

Events are the heart of alumni engagement but running them across spreadsheets, email and a separate ticketing tool is where the time goes. This module brings the whole thing inside Alumnly.
 

• 🎟️ Ticketing done properly Set prices, capacity and a registration window, and take payment directly into your own account – no commission taken.
   
• 🏠 Any kind of event In-person, online, or externally ticketed – each set up the way it needs to be.
   
• 👥 Guest tickets Let attendees bring partners and friends, so your reunion fills properly.
   
• 🍽️ Collect what you need Dietary requirements, seating preferences, or any custom field – captured for every attendee.
   
• 🏷️ Coupons & discounts Offer a special rate to a milestone year group, early-bird pricing, or a thank-you for volunteers.
   
• 🌐 Reach beyond your alumni Embed events on your school's website so parents, staff and students can register without logging in.
   
• ⏳ Built-in momentum Live countdown, waitlists when sold out, and remaining-ticket counts that create a sense of occasion.
   

Accessing the Events page

Log in as an admin and open Events from the main menu. At the top of the page you'll find:

• Add Event – create a new event.
• Setup – configure notification emails and the external website widget (see next section).
• Total Revenue – the revenue generated across your paid events.

Below that, your events are organised across four tabs – Upcoming, Draft, Past, and Archived – and you can search by event name and sort by event date. Each row shows the event, type, date and time, location, registration status, tickets booked, ticket price, revenue, and a set of action buttons.

Event Setup (notifications & the all-events widget)

Before adding events, click Setup to configure how notifications are handled and whether your events appear on external websites. In the Event Setup pop-up:
 

1. Event Notification Email – receives booking updates. If left blank, all active admins are notified.
    
2. Reply-To Email – used as the sender address for event-related emails to attendees.
    
3. Payment Invoice Email – receives a copy of event payment invoices (e.g. your finance team).
    
4. Comments Email – receives a notification when someone posts a new event comment.
    
5. Enable Event Widget on External Websites – turn this on to allow your upcoming events to display in the widget on external websites. When off, events won't appear externally or through the widget API.
    
6. Website Embed Code – copy this code and paste it onto your website to show all your upcoming events there, where visitors can register without logging in. (To embed a single event instead, see section 13.)

Click Save to apply.

Adding an event – Step 1: Details

Click Add Event. You'll move through three steps using Save + Next to progress, or Save to keep your work and return later.

In Details, set what the event is and when:
 

1. Event Name – the title attendees will see.
2. Description – the content shown on the event page. Use the editor to format text and add detail.
3. Image – a cover image (recommended 1200 × 628px, max 15MB), shown on the event card and page.
4. Event Date – the day it takes place.
5. Event Time – start and end time.
6. Featured Event – toggle on to highlight it at the top of your events list.

Click Save + Next.

Adding an event – Step 2: Type

Choose how people take part:
 

1. In Person – a physical event. Set the venue, ticket price, and ticket capacity.
2. Online – a virtual event. Add the meeting link (e.g. Zoom) attendees receive on registration.
3. Third Party – externally ticketed. Link attendees out to another platform to register.

Display & Booking Options (in-person and online) let you set:
 

1. Currency – the payment currency for this event.
2. Allow guest tickets – let attendees buy additional tickets for guests.
3. Enable waitlist when sold out – automatically waitlist people once tickets are gone.
4. Show event countdown – display a live countdown to the start.
5. Show remaining tickets – show how many tickets are left as people view or book.

Registration Window – by default, registration opens when the event is created and closes one minute before it starts. Set your own opens and closes dates and times here to change that.

This step also holds the Coupons section (see section 10). Click Save + Next.

Adding an event – Step 3: Registration

This step controls the information you collect and when the event publishes.

It contains Booking Fields and Custom Fields (see next section), plus:

Publishing Schedule – set a Publish Date and Publish Time to schedule when the event goes live to your community. Leave unset to publish immediately.

When ready, click Publish to make it live, or Update to save changes. An event left unpublished sits under the Draft tab until you publish it.

Booking fields & custom fields

Decide exactly what information people provide when they register.

Booking Fields are the standard details. For each, choose whether it's Enabled (shown) and Mandatory:

• Name and Email are mandatory system fields – always collected, can't be disabled (marked **).
• Mobile, Address, City/Suburb and Postcode can each be switched on/off and set mandatory or optional.

Custom Fields let you collect anything else: 

• Add a pre-built field in one click – ready-made fields including Dietary Requirements, Date of Birth, Age, Name, Email and Mobile.
• Add your own field – create a custom field (e.g. Seating preference, Table group), choose its type (short text, email, single select, multi select, and more), and set enabled/mandatory.

For every custom field, the Collect For setting matters:

• Each Attendee – asked for every person in the booking, including guests. Use for dietary requirements, seating, or anything where each guest's answer matters.
• Once per booking – asked once for the whole booking. Use for information that applies to the group.

Drag fields to reorder and use the edit/delete actions to manage each one.

Coupons & discounts

For paid events, create discount coupons from the Coupons section. Click Add Coupon and set:
 

1. Code – what attendees enter at checkout.
2. Discount – a fixed amount or a percentage.
3. Type – fixed or percentage.
4. Usage limit – how many times it can be used.
5. Expiry – when it stops working.
6. Active – switch it on or off.

Coupons apply only to paid tickets – ideal for milestone-year discounts, early-bird pricing, or thank-you codes for committee and volunteers.

Managing your events

Events are organised across four tabs:

• Upcoming – published events still to come.
• Draft – events saved but not yet published.
• Past – events that have taken place.
• Archived – events you've archived.

Every event shows a status badge so you can see where it stands at a glance:

• Opening Soon – published, but registration hasn't opened yet.
• Open – registration is open and people can book.
• Sold Out / Fully Booked – ticket capacity reached. If a waitlist is enabled, people can still join it.
• Closed – registration has closed.

The action buttons on each row let you View the event, see its Attendees, open it in a new tab, get its embed code (the </> icon – see section 13), Edit it, or manage it further. You can also select events with the checkboxes to archive, clone or delete in bulk – cloning is ideal for recurring events like annual reunions.

Per-event management tools

Open any event with View to reach its Management Tools, where you can:
 

1. Attendees – see everyone registered, and export or save the list. Registrations made through the website widget are distinguished from alumni registrations, so you can tell community members apart from alumni.
2. Email Attendees – send an email to everyone booked.
3. Invite Attendees – send invitations to prompt registrations.
4. Website Embed Code – get the embed code for this single event (see next section).

The view page also shows live stats – tickets booked, revenue, page views, and a countdown – alongside the event's coupons, booking and custom fields, and discussion.

Embedding events on your own website

One of the most powerful parts of the module: you can display Alumnly events on your school's own website, so people who aren't registered alumni – current parents, staff, students and the wider community – can view and register for events without logging in.

There are two ways to do it:

All your events – from Setup. In Events → Setup, turn on Enable Event Widget on External Websites, then copy the Website Embed Code and paste it onto a page on your website. This shows all your upcoming events there, kept up to date automatically.

A single event – from the event list or view page. Sometimes you want to promote just one event (say, your open day) on a specific webpage, rather than all of them. You can grab the embed code for an individual event in two places:
 

• From the events list, click the embed-code icon (</>) in the Action column for that event.
• From the event's View page, open Website Embed Code under Management Tools.

Paste that code onto the relevant page of your website, and only that event appears – with registration open to non-alumni visitors.

This is how schools open reunions, career nights, and open days to their whole community – parents, staff and current students included – while still managing everything from one place in Alumnly.

How it works for your attendees

When an event is live, people see it – on your Alumni site, and (if embedded) on your school's website – as a card showing the date, time, location or meeting type, ticket price and status.

Opening an event takes them to its page, where they can:

1. See the full detail – image, description, date, time and location.
2. Book now – register and, for paid events, pay securely. Where guest tickets are enabled, they can book for friends and family and complete each guest's details.
3. Watch the countdown – a live "Event Starts In" timer counting down days, hours, minutes and seconds.
4. See ticket availability – where enabled, a "Tickets Remaining" bar shows how many are left.
5. Share the event – one-tap sharing to Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or email.
6. Get directions – for in-person events, a direct link to the venue.
7. Join the conversation – an Event Discussion where attendees comment, like and reply in the lead-up.

Below the event, an Upcoming Events carousel helps people discover what else is on.

Frequently asked questions

1. What kinds of event can I run? 
   Three: in-person (physical venue), online (virtual, with a meeting link), and third-party (externally ticketed, linking out).
    
2. How do payments work? 
   Payments for paid events flow directly into your own connected account – Alumnly takes no commission.
    
3. Can people bring guests? 
   Yes, when you enable Allow guest tickets. They can buy additional tickets and provide each guest's details.
    
4. Can non-alumni register – like parents or staff? 
   Yes. Embed the event (or all events) on your school's website using the widget, and visitors can register without logging in. Widget registrations are flagged separately in your attendee list.
    
5. What's the difference between the two embed options? 
   The Setup embed shows all your upcoming events on a page. The per-event embed (the </> icon on the list, or Website Embed Code on the view page) shows just one event. Use whichever suits the page.
    
6. How do I collect dietary requirements or seating? 
   Add them as custom fields in Step 3, set to collect for each attendee. Dietary Requirements is available as a one-click pre-built field.
    
7. Can I limit numbers? 
   Yes – set a ticket capacity in Step 2. When reached, the event shows Sold Out, and if the waitlist is enabled, people can still join it.
    
8. Can I schedule an event to publish later? 
   Yes – use the Publishing Schedule in Step 3. Until then it stays under the Draft tab.
    
9. When does registration open and close? 
   By default, it opens when the event is created and closes one minute before the event starts. Set your own window in Step 2.
    
10. Can I offer discounts? 
    Yes – create coupon codes for paid events (fixed or percentage, with usage limits and expiry).
     
11. Can I reuse an event? 
    Yes – select it and Clone it. Perfect for annual reunions and recurring events.
     
12. Can I highlight an important event? 
    Yes – mark it a Featured Event to show it at the top of your list.

Events - Alumni Experience - Video

Events - Admin Tutorial - Video