You spent weeks planning an event, booked a great venue, lined up speakers, and built a landing page. People are visiting the registration page. But signups? Lower than you expected.
The problem probably isn't your event. It's your form.
The form is the bottleneck
Every field you add to a registration form is a tiny speed bump. One or two? No big deal. But stack up eight, ten, twelve fields and you've built a wall between interested visitors and actual attendees.
We've seen this pattern across thousands of events on FortiEvents. Shorter forms consistently convert better. It's not even close.
What you actually need at registration
For most events, you need two things from an attendee at signup: their name and their email. That's it. Everything else can wait.
Think about what information you genuinely need before the event versus what's just nice to have. Dietary preferences? Useful, but you can ask for those in a follow-up email a week before. T-shirt size? Same thing. Job title and company? Maybe skip it entirely unless your event specifically requires it.
Common mistakes we see
- Requiring account creation. If someone has to create a username and password just to register for a one-time event, a lot of them won't bother.
- Asking for a phone number. People are protective of their phone numbers. Unless you have a clear reason (like sending SMS reminders), leave it out.
- Adding "How did you hear about us?" at registration. This feels harmless, but it's another field that slows people down. Put it in a post-event survey instead.
- Using dropdowns with dozens of options. A country selector with 200 entries on a local meetup form is friction nobody asked for.
A better approach
Start with the minimum. Name and email. If you absolutely need one more thing — maybe a company name for a B2B conference — add it. But resist the urge to front-load your form with everything you might want to know.
After someone registers, you have their email. Use it. Send a confirmation email. A week before the event, send a short follow-up asking for any additional details you need. People are far more willing to answer extra questions after they've committed to attending.
The numbers back this up
We looked at registration data across FortiEvents and found a clear trend: forms with 2-3 fields had completion rates around 85%. Forms with 6+ fields dropped to roughly 55%. That's a meaningful gap — especially when you're trying to fill a room.
Every field you remove is a few more people who actually show up.
Keep it simple
Your registration form isn't a survey. It's a door. Make it easy to walk through, and more people will. You can always gather additional information later — but you can't convert someone who bounced off your form and never came back.
If you're looking for a registration tool that makes short, clean forms the default, give FortiEvents a try. It's free for events up to 50 attendees.