How many patrons will attend your upcoming library programs and who will they be? Getting a handle on program registration in advance is a great benefit to program coordinators in planning space, materials, and staff requirements, but the methods of gathering and recording this information have not always been easy. In order to simplify this process, WhoFi now has added registration into Community Calendar’s functions allowing program attendees to view upcoming events and register for them directly from your website’s integrated calendar.

Benefits of Program Registration:

1. Staying in Touch with Patrons

Once registered, patrons will receive confirmation as well as a reminder email 24 hours before the event takes place. This not only serves to boost program attendance, but also provides program hosts with patron info should the need to contact them arise. In addition to providing libraries with attendee contacts, you can now add program coordinator or event co-host information to events. Using this feature will allow patrons to get in touch with the right person for their program on their first try, improving their overall experience.

 

2. Space Planning & Preparation

Having the right materials and proper space are critical to every library program’s success. It can be frustrating for patrons and staff if there isn’t enough seating at the Summer reading program or if way too many handouts and supplies were purchased for a candle-making event. Taking the guesswork out of program preparation eliminates this possibility and ensures that a program can run to the best of its ability. Libraries can get a bird’s eye view of all upcoming events through their Registered Events report showing all events, spaces reserved, and numbers on attendance.

 

3. Reporting Made Easy

After an event you can input final attendance numbers into the system and WhoFi will auto generate monthly board and director reports. The director report contains a section at the bottom that aligns with the programming and attendance questions being requested on your state annual report. This single reporting method eliminates administrative redundancies allowing libraries to spend more time using the insights and less time compiling them. In addition, the registration feature allows those that use it to see both the total attendance over the programs that require registration and the number of unique community members attending the programming. Whether it is in person or online, the data is always at your fingertips ready to access whenever you need it for State or board reports throughout the year.

 

Registration on Community Calendar captures important information to help libraries plan and execute events more successfully. The reminder emails as well as coordinator contact info provide additional points of contact for patrons to engage with library programs and their coordinators to boost attendance and engagement. Automatically generated reports make a long process much shorter and free up time to interact with patrons in other meaningful ways.

Public library feedback led to the creation of the registration feature. Existing methods for program registration including phone calls, email collection, and of course paper forms all take staff resources away from patrons. If you would like to learn more about the Community Calendar or how to use registration please contact support@whofi.com for more information.