An attendee joins your event with a join code or a join link, then completes a short onboarding in the app. How they get the code depends on whether the event is public or invite-only, and on whether Brella or your own email tool sends it.
Before you start
You need to be an event admin or an organization admin.
Decide the access model first: Details > Visibility > Set event visibility, Public event or Invite only. See Invite-only or public: event visibility, join codes and join links.
The two access models
Public event | Invite-only event | |
What attendees use | One Join Code and Join URL for everyone | A personal join code and link per registrant, or a registration link with a usage limit |
Who can join | Anyone who has the code or link | Only people you added under People > Registrants |
Who sends it | You, with your own tools | Brella (invitation emails and in-app invites) or you |
Where you see who joined | People > Registrants lists joined people | People > Registrants shows Joined and Not joined |
Step 1: Get the code or link to the attendee
Public event
Copy the Join Code or Join URL from Home or from People > Registrants and put it in your own email, website or registration confirmation. The join URL has the form <web app address>/join/<code>. Brella sends nothing for public events.
Invite-only event, sent by Brella
Add registrants under People > Registrants by hand, by CSV or through an integration.
Select Publish in the Publish invites box. Brella emails every registrant who has an email address and hasn't received an invitation yet. From then on every new or updated registrant with an email address is emailed automatically.
To email specific people, select their rows and choose Send emails. This works whether or not invitations are published.
The email contains the personal join code and a join link. If Enable One-Click Authentication is on (Details > Onboarding settings), the link signs the person in and joins them without the account creation step. This needs a registered email address, first name and last name, and no other registrant with the same email address. Otherwise the link asks the person to sign in or create an account.
Turn on Show invites in Brella apps (People > Settings > Event access > Invites settings) to also show the invite in the app. Registrants who sign in with the email address you registered see the event in My events with "You have 1 invite" and a View button. Claim on the invite card joins them. The event must not be over, and the registrant's list must have Show invites in app on.
Invite-only event, sent with your own email tool
Add the registrants in Brella first, so each has a personal code.
Open People > Settings and select Export registrants (.csv). Brella emails you the file; the subject is "[Event name] join codes".
Use the
join_tokencolumn (the personal code) and thejoin_urlcolumn (the personal link) as merge fields in your email tool. Match rows byregistered_email.Leave invitations Not published so Brella doesn't email the same people.
In your email service, preview at least 2 recipient records. Check that each email address has its own matching code and link before scheduling the full send.
Warning: Opening a personal join link can use its seat. Use an organizer-controlled test registration for a live joining test, and never open an attendee's one-click link to check it. See Turn on one-click links for invitations.
Put the link in the email as a clickable link. A personal link joins the person directly; a code has to be typed into the app.
Step 2: The attendee signs in and joins
Attendees use the Brella mobile app, the web app or your organization's own branded app. The screens are the same.
With a link: the link opens the event's welcome screen. The attendee selects Get started and signs in or creates an account. Brella then joins them to the event. If the attendee is already signed in, the link joins them at once and opens the welcome screen. If they finished onboarding earlier, it opens the event. A personal link prefills the first name and last name on the account creation screen and saves the registered company on the new account.
With a code: the attendee signs in, selects Join new event (or Join event) under My events, selects I have a join code, enters the code and selects Join. Codes aren't case-sensitive.
From an in-app invite: the attendee selects Claim on the invite card.
A personal code works once. Whoever uses it first takes the seat; Brella doesn't check that the account's email matches the registered email. If the person's profile has no company or title yet, Brella copies them from the registration. For sign-in details, see Sign in to Brella on the web app or the mobile app and Join an event with a join code.
Step 3: Onboarding in the app
The steps depend on Details > Onboarding settings > Choose onboarding mode.
Fast onboarding shows two screens:
The welcome screen. The attendee selects Get started.
Personal information: First name, Last name, Company / Organization and Job title, plus any onboarding questions you added to this step. The attendee selects Complete profile and lands in the event.
With Fast onboarding the attendee lands in the event with networking opted out. People > Registrants shows Opted out in the Networking column until they set up their networking profile in the app.
Networking-Oriented onboarding adds the networking profile after Personal information:
Set up your event profile: the attendee selects Get started. If Attendees can opt out of networking is on, they can select I'll do it later and confirm the Skip networking? question. The mobile app asks with Skip for now and Continue setup; the web app uses the browser's own confirmation dialog. After confirming, they land in the event without a networking profile.
Personalize your profile: the persona, industry and function you set up, plus the onboarding questions you added to this step. Shown only if the event uses identity together with interests, or has questions for that step.
Select your interests: at least one interest. Shown only if the event uses interests.
Tell others about yourself: the introduction and Where do you operate?.
Choose days when you're free to network: shown only for multi-day events that use meeting slots and have networking time on more than one day.
The attendee selects Continue on each step. The days step's button reads Join the event when it is the last step, and Continue when Your pre-booked meetings follows. Without a days step, the last button reads Continue. After the last step they land on the event home.
If you arranged meetings for the attendee in the admin panel, Your pre-booked meetings ("You have <n> meetings") appears after the last step. It appears in either mode, even if they skipped networking. Its button reads Join the event.
If Enable networking resolves to off for the attendee's lists, the app skips the networking steps and the attendee lands in the event after Personal information. For onboarding questions, see Ask onboarding questions with custom fields.
Choose the onboarding mode
Open Details and scroll to Onboarding settings.
Under Choose onboarding mode, select Networking-Oriented onboarding or Fast onboarding.
For Networking-Oriented onboarding, turn Attendees can opt out of networking on or off. Fast onboarding has no switch: attendees always join without a networking profile.
Select Save changes.
New events use Networking-Oriented onboarding. Check Attendees can opt out of networking before attendees start joining.
The mode applies to people who join after you save. People who already joined keep their networking status, with one exception. If you turn off Attendees can opt out of networking, everyone who skipped networking must finish the setup steps the next time they open the event. This includes people who joined with Fast onboarding. The mobile app shows Complete onboarding to get started until they finish.
Attendees without a networking profile
Attendees who joined with Fast onboarding, or selected I'll do it later, have networking opted out. They can't chat or have meetings, and Your matches stays hidden on their People page (or the name you gave it). The app offers the setup in these places:
The event home shows a card with Start networking. The attendee can close it.
The People page shows Get your first matches with Get started.
The Networking tab and other attendees' profiles show Start networking.
Account > Event settings > Start join process again.
Each one opens Set up your event profile and the networking steps.
What you see afterwards
The registrant's status changes to Joined. In People > Registrants the Joined user column shows the profile and the Join code is struck through.
Brella sends no default email when someone joins. To send one, create a custom email with the Attendee joined trigger. See Brella's default emails.
The name, company, job title and photo on a joined attendee's profile come from their Brella account and are the same in every event. You can't edit them in the admin panel, and changes you save on Registration details don't change them. Only the attendee can, in the app.
The introduction, identity answers, interests and availability belong to this event only. The attendee edits them in the app under Account > Event settings (Edit event information, Edit my interests, Edit my availability).
Limits
Joining closes 1 day after the event's end date. Attendees then see "The event is over".
If a joined person enters a second code for the same event, Brella opens the event and leaves the second code unused.
Troubleshooting
An attendee says the code "isn't valid"
The code has a typo, belongs to another event, or the registrant was deleted. Compare it with the Join code column and send the link instead of the code.
"This join link or code has already been used"
Someone else used the personal code, or the attendee is signed in with a different account than the one they joined with. Check the Joined user column for the account that used it.
An attendee doesn't see the invite under My events
Show invites in Brella apps is off, or the registrant's list has Show invites in app off. Other causes: the attendee signed in with another email address than the registered one, or the event is over. Send the personal link instead.