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Import Attendees

Updated

 

The Goal: Import a list of attendees into an event for recordkeeping purposes (board meetings, past events, or events hosted by an outside vendor such as a webinar).

Before You Begin:

  • Importing attendees will only register the attendees for the event — it will NOT generate invoices. There is currently no way to generate invoicing for an event for imported attendees. If invoicing is needed, best practice is to register the attendees for the event; this creates the appropriate invoice and ties it to the event. Manually created invoices do NOT get associated to the event.
  • Each import has an import limit of 100 attendees. If you have more than 100 attendees, please contact support@growthzone.com for assistance with this import.
  • If your import is for multiple/differing registration types, you will need to break up the import into one list/file per registration type.
  • Have your source ready: either an existing list/committee, or a CSV file containing your attendees.

Tip — Importing Duplicates: Importing duplicates will overwrite the entire registration. You can import attendees, and any duplicates will overwrite their original registration. This includes any attendees who are part of the registration — they will be deleted as well.

Use Case example: Bob and Mary register together. You import another registration for Mary. The result is that Mary and Bob's registration will be deleted.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Go to Events & Learning, Events section, click All Events, and open the event you want to import attendees into.
  2. On the Attendees tab, click the Actions button and select Import Attendees.
  3. Choose one of the two import options — import from an existing list/committee, or import using a CSV file. Both options have an import limit of 100 attendees. (See the List import and CSV File Import details below.)
  4. Click Import when you have made your choices. You will see a summary of the import, as well as any potential errors.

List import

  • To import from a list, select the desired list from the dropdown. (REQUIRED)
  • Specify a registration status (Registered, Attended, No Show). (REQUIRED)
    • IMPORTANT! If your event has a Continuing Education component attached and you need to issue credit for attendance, use “Registered” as the Status for the import; when the import is complete, use the Actual Attendance/No Shows tool to mark attendees as “Attended”. That will trigger the Continuing Education module to send the emails and generate the certificates for attendance.
  • Specify a registration type. (REQUIRED)

NOTE: A Registration Type must be assigned to the imported attendees, but this will NOT perform any billing. The main purpose for the import at this time is to get the names on the attendee list for attendance tracking. The registration type selection simply allows these attendees to come in marked with the correct registration type for reporting purposes.

  • Click Import when you have made your choices.
  • If you have more than 100 attendees, please contact support@growthzone.com for assistance with this import.

CSV File Import

To import from a CSV file, enable the CSV File option.

The column headers available for use are:

  • Email
  • FirstName
  • LastName
  • FullName
  • Organization
  • ContactId

IMPORTANT: The MINIMUM REQUIRED fields are Email + FirstName + LastName, OR Email + FullName.

  • Once your file is compiled, select it using the Choose File button. (REQUIRED) Browse to the file on your computer and upload it.
  • Specify a registration status (Registered, Attended, No Show).
  • Specify a registration type. (REQUIRED) (A Registration Type must be assigned to the imported attendees, but note that this will NOT perform any billing. The main purpose for the import at this time is to get the names on the attendee list for attendance tracking. The registration type selection simply allows these attendees to come in marked with the correct registration type for reporting purposes.)
  • Click Import when you are ready to import your attendees. You will see a summary of the import, as well as any potential errors. The system will try to match the imported attendees to existing database contacts whenever possible (i.e. the imported email address is an exact match to an existing contact). Be sure to match attendees to contacts if needed (especially if Continuing Education credits/hours are being applied)!
  • If you have more than 100 attendees, please contact support@growthzone.com for assistance with this import.

Tip: Using the ContactID in GrowthZone in your import file will ALWAYS match the correct individual in GrowthZone. ContactID is a reportable field in a Contacts Report.

Common Pitfalls

  • Expecting invoices from an import: Importing attendees only registers them for the event — it will NOT generate invoices. If invoicing is needed, register the attendees for the event instead so the invoice is created and tied to the event. Manually created invoices do NOT get associated to the event.
  • Overwriting registrations with duplicates: Importing a duplicate overwrites the entire original registration, deleting every attendee tied to it — not just the duplicated person.
  • Mixing registration types in one import: Break multi-type imports into one list/file per registration type, or the import will not assign types correctly.

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