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Embedded organizer guide

Event Creation Guide

A practical field-by-field guide for creating, copying, publishing, and managing events inside the CARE Events Platform.

Start here

Build clean event forms without guesswork

This guide explains how to create, copy, publish, and maintain CARE event registration forms, including what each important field controls.

1Prepare the basicsTitle, slug, date range, location, and organizer contact email.
2Build the programmeAdd days, schedule rows, and participation questions that match the event plan.
3Publish safelyTest the form, open registration, and archive or delete only when needed.
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Recommended workflow: For repeated CARE formats, copy the built-in template first. For genuinely new formats, create from scratch and then test before opening registration.

1. Before you create an event

You need:

  • a dashboard account
  • permission to the event (or platform_admin role)
  • the programme outline for the event
  • the participant categories you want to collect
  • the contact email that should receive fallback questions

Recommended preparation:

  • final public event title
  • date range as it should appear to participants
  • location text
  • programme per day
  • which participation choices should be asked (for example lunch / retreat / evening / workshop)
  • whether any question should be treated as a binding commitment

2. Create a new event shell or copy a template

You now have two ways to start a new event:

Option A — create from scratch

  1. Open /dashboard.
  2. Use the Create event form.
  3. Enter:
  • Title — full human-readable name
  • Slug — URL-safe short name
  1. Save.

Option B — copy an existing template

  1. Open /dashboard.
  2. In the event picker, find the event you want to reuse.
  3. Click Copy as template.
  4. Enter the new event title.
  5. Enter the new event slug.
  6. The platform creates a full copy and opens the new event.

This is the fastest way to reuse the built-in CARE Autumn Retreat & Early Career Workshop template or any other event you already configured well.

Title

Shown to organizers and participants.

Example:

CARE Autumn Retreat 2026

Slug

Used in the public URL and dashboard URL.

Example:

care-autumn-retreat-2026

Public URL example:

/events/care-autumn-retreat-2026

Use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only.

3. Event Setup screen — top-level event fields

Open the event and go to Event setup.

Event name

Main title shown to participants.

Example:

CARE Autumn Retreat 2026

Eyebrow

A short line above the title. Useful for programme family, series, or section.

Examples:

CARE Cluster
Annual internal event
Doctoral programme

Date range

Human-readable date text shown to participants. Use German-style DD.MM.YYYY formatting whenever dates are shown explicitly.

Examples:

02.11.2026–05.11.2026
12.03.2027
18.06.2027–20.06.2027

Location

Shown on the public event page.

Examples:

Aachen
RWTH Aachen University
SuperC, Aachen

Contact email

Used for the fallback “Send by email instead” option.

Use an address that organizers actually monitor.

Example:

care-events@imb.rwth-aachen.de

Estimated minutes

Approximate time it takes to fill the registration form.

Typical values:

2
3
5

Funding note

Optional line at the top or bottom of the public page, for example sponsor/funder text.

Examples:

Funded by DFG EXC 3115 CARE
Hosted by RWTH Aachen University and TU Dresden

4. Programme explanation legend

The Legend area explains what labels such as Retreat, Lunch, or Evening mean.

Each legend row has:

Chip label

Short tag shown in a blue pill / badge.

Examples:

Retreat
Lunch
Evening
Workshop

Explanation text

Displayed next to the chip to explain it to participants.

Examples:

Retreat means the daytime scientific programme.
Lunch is counted separately for catering.
Evening means the social programme after the daytime sessions.

Use the legend when programme categories could otherwise be unclear.

5. Add days

Each day card represents one day or one programme block.

Date

Calendar date for the day. Enter this as DD.MM.YYYY, for example 02.11.2026. The platform converts it internally for storage.

Day title

Main heading for that day.

Examples:

CARE Inspirational Day
CARE Research Day
Lecture Day
ECR Workshop

Tag

Optional short label shown above the schedule.

Examples:

Early Career Researchers
Main event
Optional
Hybrid session

If you do not need it, leave it empty.

Move up / move down

Changes day order.

Remove day

Deletes the entire day block, including schedule rows and participation questions for that day.

6. Schedule rows

Inside each day, the Schedule section lists the actual programme items.

Each row has three fields:

Time

Examples:

08:30
12:00
17:15

Event name

The actual visible programme item.

Examples:

Lunch
Opening
Project Meetings
Networking Event

Category

A short machine-readable grouping term used to connect schedule rows to participation questions.

Examples:

lunch
retreat
evening
workshop
lecture

Important: use category names consistently.

Example:

  • schedule row category: evening
  • participation question category: evening

This allows the public form to explain that Evening programme refers to the evening schedule items.

7. Participation questions

These are the Yes/No choices participants answer for each day.

Each question has:

Label

Main visible question text.

Examples:

Retreat programme
Lunch
Evening programme
Workshop programme

Short label

Shorter version used in compact dashboard views.

Examples:

Retreat
Lunch
Evening
Workshop

Help text

Shown under the question. Use it to explain exactly what the participant is saying yes/no to.

Examples:

Covers Opening, Inspirational Talks and Project Meetings.
Covers the 13:00 lunch on Tuesday.
Covers the 18:00 Networking Event.

Binding-commitment warning

Optional warning for choices that have logistical consequences.

Example:

Binding commitment — please only say yes if you're sure.

Useful for:

  • evening events with fixed restaurant bookings
  • workshops with limited seats
  • bus transfers
  • catered dinners

Use as this day’s summary column in the dashboard table

Marks one participation question as the main attendance summary for that day in the participant list.

Recommended use:

  • choose the main daytime programme question
  • only one question per day should normally be primary

Stored field name

Internal database field used to store the answer. This is shown for reference. Normally you do not need to edit it.

8. Good design pattern for categories

A very reliable structure is:

Schedule categories

lunch
retreat
evening
workshop

Participation questions

Lunch                → category lunch
Retreat programme    → category retreat
Evening programme    → category evening
Workshop programme   → category workshop

This keeps the participant form easy to understand and reduces ambiguity.

9. Save and test the event

After editing, click Save event configuration.

Then test:

  1. Open the public URL /events/<slug>
  2. Check title, dates, and location
  3. Check each day
  4. Check that participation questions clearly match the schedule above them
  5. Submit one test registration
  6. Confirm it appears in /dashboard/events/<slug>
  7. Export CSV once to verify columns

10. Common mistakes to avoid

Mistake: inconsistent categories

Example:

  • schedule category: Evening
  • question category: evening programme

That breaks the connection. Prefer one consistent category term such as evening.

Mistake: unclear help text

If participants cannot tell what “Retreat programme” includes, add clearer help text.

Mistake: leaving contact email empty

Then the fallback mail option disappears.

Mistake: forgetting the primary summary question

If none is marked, the dashboard summary can be less intuitive.

Mistake: deleting a day accidentally

Removing a day also removes its schedule and questions.

11. Suggested workflow for organizers

  1. Create the event shell (title + slug)
  2. Fill event details
  3. Add legend entries
  4. Add days
  5. Add schedule rows
  6. Add participation questions per day
  7. Save configuration
  8. Test on the public side
  9. Submit one test registration
  10. Review dashboard and CSV export
  11. Open the event to participants

12. Opening, closing, and archiving events

Platform admins can manage event status under /dashboard/admin → All events.

  • Open registration: participants can submit the public form.
  • Close registration: the event remains visible but the form is disabled.
  • Archive: hides the event from normal lists without deleting data.
  • Unarchive: restores an archived event.

The built-in Autumn Retreat & Early Career Workshop template starts as Registration closed. Clone it first if you want to create a new editable event from it. You may also open the template itself if it should become the actual registration event.

13. When to clone an event

Use Clone event when the new event is very similar to an earlier one.

Good cases:

  • annual retreat with similar structure
  • workshop series with similar steps
  • repeated ECR programme

After cloning, always review:

  • dates
  • public title
  • contact email
  • schedule rows
  • participation questions
  • binding-commitment warnings

Cloning saves time, but last year’s lunch should not accidentally survive into next year’s symposium unless you have truly committed to tradition.

Registration status

Events can be:

Registration open
Registration closed
Archived

Registration open

The event is visible on / and participants can submit the form.

Registration closed

The event is visible on /, but the registration button is disabled and the event form explains that registration is closed.

Archived

The event is hidden from normal public and dashboard lists but remains in the database.

Use closed for templates or events not ready for participants. Use archived for old events that should no longer appear in normal workflows.

Selected event visibility in the dashboard

When you open an event from the dashboard, the selected event name is shown:

  • in the left sidebar under the event-specific navigation
  • in the event context banner above the dashboard content
  • in the Overview, Participant list, and Event setup page titles

This helps organizers avoid editing or exporting the wrong event. An absurdly basic feature, and therefore naturally important.

Home page and event visibility

The home page at / shows all non-archived events.

  • Open events show an Open registration button.
  • Closed events remain visible but show Registration closed.
  • Archived events are hidden from the normal public list.

Use this behavior for templates: keep the template visible but closed, then copy it in the dashboard when a new real event is needed.

Archive vs delete

Use Archive when an event should disappear from normal workflows but may still be needed later.

Use Delete only when the event and all associated records should be permanently removed. The platform asks twice before deletion, including a typed DELETE confirmation.

Starter template date correction

The built-in CARE Autumn Retreat & Early Career Workshop template uses the canonical event range:

02.11.2026–05.11.2026

The seeded programme days are:

Mon 02.11.2026 — CARE Inspirational Day
Tue 03.11.2026 — CARE Research Day
Wed 04.11.2026 — CARE Lecture Day
Thu 05.11.2026 — CARE Workshop Day

On startup, the platform also synchronizes the built-in starter template days in place if the template already exists from an older local test database. This fixes earlier test databases that accidentally had the template days shifted to 01.11.2026–04.11.2026.

PostgreSQL DATE parsing note

The platform formats event day dates without using Date.toISOString() for PostgreSQL DATE values. This avoids timezone-based one-day shifts where 2026-11-02 could display as 2026-11-01 on the registration form.

The canonical starter-template schedule is:

Mon 02.11.2026 — CARE Inspirational Day
Tue 03.11.2026 — CARE Research Day
Wed 04.11.2026 — CARE Lecture Day
Thu 05.11.2026 — CARE Workshop Day for Early Career Researchers
CARE Events Platform · Internal organizer guide