As an event organizer, few things are more frustrating than half the registrants for an event you promoted never showing up. You can easliy reduce your "No Show" rate at your online events by learning how to send a calendar invite to each registrant and be less likely to forget about your event.
In this article
The use case
By default, each registrant receives a confirmation email with their personal access link. This email includes buttons to manually add the event to their calendar. The explanations below do not replace this confirmation email but provide an additional layer to automate the creation of a calendar invite for the registrant.
In this article, we will show you a way to automate the sending of a calendar invite to your registrants. Each registrant will receive an individual calendar invite with themselves as the only guest.
To accomplish this, we will use automation tools like Zapier or Make.
Use Zapier to automate
Zapier is an automation tool very popular on the web. Check out here how to connect Livestorm and Zapier.
Note: you need first to create a Zapier account (if you do not have one already) to use the steps mentioned in this article..
Google Calendar
If you are using Google Calendar, you can easily automate the calendar invite for your registrants. Let's see together how in few steps.
The worklow with Zapier is pretty straightfoward: for each registrant you shall use the trigger provided by Livestorm and then connect it to an action step to create a Google Calendar event. The registrant will have the calendar event automatically created in his calendar.
To make your life easier we have created for you a prebuilt template ready-to-use. Just click on the card below to use it in one click (you need to be connected to your Zapier account):
Or you can also follow the detailed steps below:
- 1
- Select Livestorm as app, choose the trigger "New Registrant" in the list and connect your Livestorm account. You can filter on specific event if needed.
- 2
- As action, use the app Google Calendar and select "Create Detailed Event" with the configuration below:
- 3
- And voilà! The registrant will receive a calendar invite generated from the Google account you have connected (in the example below the account connected is "Marketing ACME").
Outlook Calendar
If you are using Outlook Calendar, you can easily automate the calendar invite for your registrants. Let's see together how in few steps.
The worklow with Zapier is pretty straightfoward: for each registrant you shall use the trigger provided by Livestorm and then connect it to an action step to create a Outlook Calendar event. The registrant will have the calendar event automatically created in his calendar.
To make your life easier we have created for you a prebuilt template ready-to-use. Just click in the card below to use it in one click (you need to be connected to your Zapier account):
Or you can also follow the detailed steps below:
- 1
- Select Livestorm as app, choose the trigger "New Registrant" in the list and connect your Livestorm account. You can filter on specific event if needed.
- 2
- As action, use the app Outlook Calendar and select "Create Detailed Event" with the configuration below:
- 3
- And voilà! The registrant will receive a calendar invite generated from the Outlook account you have connected.
FAQ
Which organizer for the calendar event my registrant will see in his calendar?
The registrant will see the email address of the Google (or Outlook) account connected to Zapier as the organizer. This is why we recommend connecting a generic account without personal information (such as marketing@acme.com).
Can the calendar invite be sent retroactively?
Unfortunately, no. Only registrants who sign up after your automation is configured will receive a calendar invite. Those who registered earlier will not. The same logic applies if you deactivate your automation: during the deactivation period, no calendar invites will be sent to registrants.
Can I customize the content of the calendar invite (description, title, ...)?
Yes, you can fully customize the content of the calendar invite. In Zapier, we have prefilled most of the fields in the provided Zap template to help you, but you can change any field as needed. However, we recommend keeping the registrant’s personal access link in the calendar event location.
Can I add the event to a specific calendar (such as a shared company calendar)?
Yes, of course. By default, the event will be added to your primary calendar linked to your Google (or Outlook) account. However, you can choose which calendar to populate, including shared calendars. In Zapier, this is the first field you can edit in your action (see screenshot below)
Will it work if I don’t use the Livestorm registration page or the pre-built Livestorm confirmation email?
Yes, it does work! No matter how you register people for your session, the trigger will be activated on Zapier (or Make) with each registration, and the flow described in this article will work.