Start with the essentials: what is happening, when and where it takes place, and how many people can attend. You can add more detail as you go.
Set up your organiser
Sign in and open Become an organiser (opens in a new tab) to create your organiser. Choose its name, country and timezone, and accept the organiser agreement. This is the profile guests see under “Hosted by” on your events.
If you are already on a team, open your dashboard (opens in a new tab). If you belong to more than one organiser, check the name at the top and use Switch before creating the event.
Create and publish
- Choose New event (opens in a new tab) from your dashboard.
- Add a clear title and description. Choose a cover and theme that suit the event.
- Set the date, start time, end time if needed, and timezone. Add the venue or online details and any arrival instructions. Only guests who are going see an online link. If you later change the name, end time, location, arrival instructions or online link of a published event, guests who are going are emailed about it a few minutes after you save, with an updated calendar invite — several changes made close together go in one email.
- Review the event options. Turn Tickets on if you are charging or want to scan guests in at the door, and Advanced if you need several ticket types, approval, or registration questions.
- Choose Create event to publish, or Save as draft to keep working before guests can register.
Event editor
Choose who can see your event
Each event is Public or Private, chosen from the menu at the top of the event editor. A public event is listed on your page, in search and in your embedded list of events. A private event is unlisted: it appears in none of those and search engines are asked not to index it, but anyone with its link can open it, register, join the waiting list or answer Maybe.
A private event’s link includes a short random code, so it cannot be guessed, and each event in a series gets its own. If the link reaches someone it should not have, open the event’s More tab and choose New link under Private link. The old link stops working for anyone who has not registered; guests who registered, joined the waiting list or answered Maybe keep their access. Share the new link with anyone else you want to invite.
Changing a published event between public and private offers a new link at the same time: going private, you can give it a new private link; going public, you can use a clean link, and the old private link then forwards to it. A draft changes quietly, since nobody has its link yet.
Get embed code on an event’s Overview gives a live card for your own website, and Embed your events in Settings gives a list of your upcoming events. A private event never appears in the list. Its own card works only if you turn on Allow embedding under Advanced, shown while the event is private: anyone who can see the website you put it on can then open the event. Turning it off, or giving the event a new link, stops existing embeds showing it.
To keep a venue’s address from strangers, turn on Restrict precise location to registered guests once a venue is set. Visitors see the city and a rough area on the map; your team and guests who are going see the exact address.
Events you can’t run
Free or paid, RealEvents is not for gambling or betting (including lotteries, raffles and sweepstakes), sexual services or sexually explicit entertainment, pyramid schemes, events that sell illegal drugs or weapons, or events that promote violence or hate. The organiser agreement (opens in a new tab) has the full list, and we may unpublish or cancel an event that breaks it.
Adults-only events are fine, for example one that serves alcohol: say so on the event page and check ages at the door. RealEvents does not check guests’ ages.
Paid tickets can’t be sold for a contest whose winners get money or another prize of value, such as a paid-entry quiz, poker night or gaming tournament. A free event can award prizes, and a medal or gift that everyone taking part receives doesn’t count as one.