Set up a conference booking interface

The website allows you to set up a conference booking interface. This is useful if you have multiple events at the same time, like sessions in a conference, and require your attendees to only book one at a time, with no conflicts. It's also useful if you just want an easy way for users to pick and manage multiple events within the same day or few days.

The functionality offers:

• Conflict prevention: Automatically prevents users from booking events at the same time.
• Access control: Restricts booking to users who have purchased the main "Conference" product.
• Booking interface that can be included on any landing page: allowing users to browse, book and cancel sessions in an easy way, including across multiple days.
• Self-service: Users can cancel and reschedule sessions (subject to availability) and view their schedule.
• Cascading cancellation: If the main conference ticket is cancelled, all associated session bookings are automatically cancelled.

You will set up a 'conference product' for people to book/purchase to provide access to the conference, and then create 'session events' using the normal What's On events tool, tagged specifically for the conference.

You can see a 30 second demo of the booking interface at Conference demo.mov

Setup instructions

1. Create session events

Create the individual sessions/events for the conference.

• Create them as normal events.
• Tagging: Give them all the same, conference-specific tag (e.g., "Widget Conference 2025").
• Pricing: Sessions should be Free. The cost is covered by the main conference product.
• Capacity: Add stock to limit capacity if needed.
• Timing: Set the date and time. The system handles concurrent session conflicts.
• Advanced options: recommended to check the 'Hide from What's On calendar' for sessions if you don't want the individual sessions shown.

2. Create the conference product

Create a product that users must buy to access the conference. This gives access to book sessions.

• Type: Create a 'default' commerce product, or a ticketed event.
• Tagging: Important: Do not give this product the same tag as the sessions.
• Price: Set the price for the conference ticket here.

3. Configure the landing page

This page will serve as the booking interface. 

1. Create a new Landing Page or edit an existing one.
2. Add the Conference booking table block (search for "Conference booking table").
3. Edit Block Settings (click the cog icon):
   • Tag Field: Select the tag you used for the session events (from Step 1).
   • Product Field: Select the conference product you created (from Step 2).
   • Must book session in timeslot: Check this if users are required to fill every slot with a session before booking any session.
4. Save/Publish the page.

User experience

1. Purchase: The user purchases the conference product. You can direct people there, or just to the landing page - the landing page will link them to the product if they haven't purchased it yet.
2. Book: The user visits the landing page. The system only lets them book sessions if they have the conference product.
3. Select: The user views the schedule and books their desired sessions.
   • Note: Users cannot book two sessions that overlap in time.
4. Manage: Users can view their schedule on the page and cancel/rebook sessions if needed, by returning to that page at any time.
5. Tickets: Users will have tickets for each event session, so admin can track who is attending each session on the session event's "Sales & Bookings" tab like you otherwise would.

Administration

• Sales & Bookings: View bookings for specific sessions via the event's "Sales" tab.
• Cancellations:
  • If an admin cancels the user's main conference product order, the system will automatically cancel all of that user's session bookings for the conference. This will free up stock across any of those sessions.