Using Event Hub for information only

You might already know that Event Hub offers your customers the option to pre-order event experiences ahead of time, but did you know that you can use Event Hub to offer customers all of the important information they need ahead of their visit?

In this article, we’ll cover how to use Event Hub to send information and resources without enabling pre-orders.

• For guidance on setting up Event Hub with pre-ordering, see How to set up Event Hub.
• To enable Event Hub for all events but only offer pre-ordering on selected ones, see the section How to enable Event Hub for pre-ordering and information-only on mixed events in this article.

Event Hub (Information-Only): The Customer View

When you use Event Hub to share event information and resources, customers first interact with it through their pre-event reminder email.

This email includes a block of text directing them to the Event Hub link, where they can find everything they need ahead of their visit. The text is fully editable, so you can adjust the wording to suit your organisation.

When they click the button for Event Hub, they'll be taken to their Hub of information. In here, they can find:

• The show information, including the date, start time and doors-opening time.
• Their e-tickets (for both the event and any products they have bought), with the option to add them to their digital wallet.
• Event information - a FAQs page with all important information, such as the venue address, opening time, and event-specific information.
• Map to the venue - this is a Google map using the venue's map set in Manage > Venues.
• Share link - so your customer can share this helpful Hub of info with their fellow attendees.

If a customer has tickets for multiple events, the link in their pre-event reminder email will only point to the specific event being reminded - avoiding any confusion over tickets, event details, or maps.

How to set up Event Hub for information-only

When setting up Event Hub to send only visiting information to your customers, there are some steps to review.

1. Enable pre-event automation and add Event Hub to the email template
2. Check the Event Hub message in the pre-event reminder email
3. Update Event Hub event info with your organisation & event details
4. Check that venue maps are correct

Enable pre-event automation and add Event Hub to the email template

First, you need to set up the pre-event alert automation if you don't already use it, so that customers can be sent their Event Hub link. The pre-event alert can be enabled to send out before every event or selected events. If it is disabled from going out for an event, the customer will not receive their Event Hub information.

Once the pre-event alert is enabled, you need to add the Event Hub merge field to your pre-event email template. To do this:

1. Go to Settings > Templates > Upcoming Event Customer Alert.

2. Within this page, click on the MJML tab, so you can see a window of MJML code.

3. You will need to add the merge field {{ event_hub }} in the template. This can not sit within an <mj-section> so we recommend adding it just underneath the event details section, like below:

4. Once you have amended the email template code, click Update to save the change.

5. Now send yourself a preview of the template to check that the code isn't broken by clicking Send Preview. (Don't worry if you don't see an Event Hub link in the email - the preview might be for an event where Event Hub isn't enabled.)

If you need a hand to add Event Hub to your pre-event email template, or the preview email sends a blank email, contact our Support Team.

Check the Event Hub message in the pre-event reminder email

Once the pre-event automation has been set up and the Event Hub merge field added to it, the next step is to check the Event Hub message that appears in the pre-event email. 

1. Go to Settings > Public Website Snippets.

2. Find the snippet "Event Hub Email Description HTML".

3. In this snippet, you will see some pre-computed text that you can use or alter to suit your needs. The snippet allows you to use basic HTML to format the text as needed.

4. Once you've made any changes, click Update to save the changes.

Update the "Event hub event information" setting

This is displayed on the Event Information tab of Event Hub. We recommend including essential info and FAQs such as directions, transport information, accessibility and venue contact details. We've already populated some text here for you to fill in, or feel free to change it as you like!

1. Go to Settings > General Settings.

2. Find the "Event hub event information" setting.

3. Check and amend the text as required and click Update to save.

You can amend the event hub event information setting at account, program, show or event level - so if you need to change any of the FAQs or add some extra show-specific information, you have the flexibility to update the setting at a higher level.

Check venue maps

Lastly, you need to check the map for your venues to correctly pinpoint the venue location. By default, the map is pointing to Dublin, so it's important to update this. 

To check a venue's map:

1. Go to Manage > Venues.

2. Select the venue you are checking so you're taken to the Venue details page. On the right, the Google Map for the venue should be there with a red pin on the venue location. 

If the map pointer is not in the right location:

1. Hover your mouse over the Google Map window and use the scroll on your mouse to zoom in or out of the map. Zoom out until you can see both the map marker and the city/town of your venue.

2. Click on the map marker and drag it over to the venue's city/town.

3. Hover your mouse over the city/town of the venue, and zoom in until you can see the map marker and the venue's address.

4. Click on and drag the map marker over to the venue's location.

5. Click anywhere on the map, hold the button down and move your mouse to move the map around - try to centre the map marker/venue location. This will be what the customer sees when they open the Map tab in Event Hub.

6. Click the update venue button to save the change.

Go live with Event Hub

Once you have set up the pre-event alert automation, settings and snippets ready to use Event Hub, you can now enable Event Hub.

To activate Event Hub across all your upcoming events, all you need to do is enable Event Hub at the Account level. If you only want to activate Event Hub on specific Shows or Events, do not enable it at the Account level; instead, enable it at the Program, Show or Event level.

You can also have your Event Hub set up so that some events are information-only, and some events also have pre-orders available (if you've set this up).

 The instructions for each setup are below:

• Activating Event Hub (information-only) at the Account level
• How to enable Event Hub for information-only on selected events
• How to enable Event Hub for pre-ordering and information-only on mixed events

Activating Event Hub (information-only) at the Account level

1. Go to Settings > General Settings.
2. Find the setting "Event Hub".
3. There will be ready-made contexts and categories in the setting. You will need at least one context and one category in the setting - all others can be deleted as you're not doing pre-orders.
4. Ensure that there are no product tags added to the included or excluded fields. This means that no products will be added for pre-order.
5. Switch the Enable event hub toggle to on (blue).
6. Click the Update button to save the change.

Event Hub is now live across your account! 

You can disable Event Hub at a higher level (program, show, or event) if you wish to turn it off for selected events.

Activating Event Hub (information-only) at Program, Show or Event level only

1. Go to Manage.
2. Either go into the Programs tab or into Shows (> Run > Event), depending on what level you want Event Hub enabled on.
3. Find the "Event hub" setting.
4. There will be ready-made contexts and categories in the setting. You will need at least one context and one category in the setting - all others can be deleted as you're not doing pre-orders.
5. Ensure that there are no product tags added to the included or excluded fields. This means that no products will be added for pre-order.
6. Switch the Enable event hub toggle to on (blue).

Using Event Hub for pre-orders and information-only events

You can use Event Hub to offer pre-orders (with event info) on some events, and keep others as information-only. This keeps the customer experience consistent while encouraging pre-orders where they’re available.

First, decide whether your pre-order menu will be managed at account level or higher. In this example, we’ll assume it’s set at account level, with pre-orders disabled on specific shows.

Set up your pre-order menu

1. Go to Settings > General Settings > "Event Hub".
2. Create your menu of pre-orderable items. See How to Set Up Event Hub for Pre-Orders.

Once your pre-ordering menu is set up, you can enable Event Hub at account level so it’s active (including pre-orders) for all events, then remove products at show level where pre-orders aren’t needed.

Activating Event Hub at the Account level

1. Go to Settings > General Settings.
2. Find the setting "Event Hub".
3. Switch the Enable event hub toggle to on (blue).
4. Click the update button to save the change.

 Ticketsolve Tip

Save time editing the "Event Hub" setting at a show level by utilising the setting at a program level. If you assign shows to a program, you can use the settings at the program level to update a setting across all shows assigned to it.

Disable pre-orders for a specific show

1. Go to Manage > Shows > find your Show.

2. Open the Show Details page and select the Settings tab.

3. Find the "Event Hub" setting - it will open in a small window.

Now we’re going to remove products from the pre-order menu so that only event information remains:

1. Keep one context (e.g. Pre-Show or Interval) and delete the rest.

• To delete a context, click on it, then click the bin icon next to its name.

• Click Confirm to confirm the deletion.

• Repeat until only one context remains.

2. Keep one product category (e.g. Soft Drinks or Snacks) and delete the others.

• To delete a category, click the bin icon next to it.

• Click Confirm to complete the deletion.

• Repeat until only one category remains.

3. Remove all product tags from the remaining category.

• Next to the Included Tags field, click the cross (✖) on each tag.
• Continue until there are no tags left.

At this point, you’ll have just one empty context and one empty product category – meaning no products will be available for pre-order for this show.

Click Update to save your changes.

Want to know more?

• Introduction to Event Hub  (Beta Testing)
• How to Set Up Event Hub (Beta Testing)