New: Cancel your event in three simple steps

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, the show cannot go on as circumstances beyond your control might force you to cancel your event. Over the years, natural disasters, political crises, and, more recently, COVID-19 have all caused many events to be canceled. We know it is, quite possibly, the single most difficult decision any event organizer has to take and a painful one at that.

At Backstage, we'd like to help smooth the process for you, at least a little. And so, we've introduced this new feature that'll automate three of the most important tasks one must consider when canceling events—updating the event website, refunding attendees, and notifying all parties. This way, you can pay attention to other important details that require your active input. Also, only members with portal or brand level permissions can cancel events.

To cancel an event in Backstage, choose the Cancel option from the dropdown to the right of an event. You will then be taken through three steps where you can decide how to proceed with the event's cancellation.

Step one: Updating the event microsite

The microsite is the one place where people can get any and all information concerning your event. So an outdated microsite just won't do here. With Backstage, you can add a banner to the top of your event microsite to inform people about your event's cancellation and the reason for it.

All you have to do is add a message for the banner alert and choose whether to show or hide the event's date, location, and registration button in the microsite. Other elements in the event microsite can be edited in the Design tab as usual.

Step two: Notifying all participants

When you cancel an event, it affects everyone involved—attendees, team members, speakers, sponsors, and even prospects. And they should all be informed about not just the event's cancellation but also about the reason behind it. Send an automated email to everyone so they are notified about this along with what they can expect in the future.

While the email will be sent to attendees and purchasers by default, we recommend that you also include your team, sponsors, speakers, and even prospects in the email—this way you cover everyone. Also, you can edit this email in the Automated emails tab of the event's Manage dashboard.

Step three: Handling refunds and registrations

This is the last step in canceling your event. You've got to cancel all orders, refund the paid ones, and close the registrations for your event. One good thing here is that all orders will be canceled and refunded automatically. You don't have to update your order statuses manually. You can refund online orders through online or offline methods. Offline orders, on the other hand, should be refunded only through offline means. Also, when you choose to refund all orders offline, they'll be marked as refunded automatically. Refund progress is viewable in the Overview tab of the Manage dashboard.

Also, an automated email will be sent to all attendees and purchasers regarding the order cancellation and refund. These emails too can be edited in the Automated emails tab. The event microsite can be unpublished once all refunds are completed. To access your canceled events, go to the Canceled tab in the Events page.

Cancel your events the easy way with Backstage! Let us know what you think in the comments below. Also, do subscribe to our community forum to stay updated with the latest Backstage news. If you have any feedback or questions, you can write to us at support@zohobackstage.com.

Happy organizing!

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