Session Waitlist and Room Optimizer

Overview

Two Pro+ features help you manage session capacity: a waitlist for attendees when a session fills up, and a Room Optimizer that suggests room swaps and auto-assigns rooms based on signup counts. Both features are available on Pro+ events only.

Session Waitlist (Attendee-Facing)

Joining the Waitlist

When a session on a Pro+ event reaches its capacity, the sign-up button changes to Join waitlist. Attendees click it to add themselves to the queue. The button then shows their position — “You're #3 on the waitlist” — so they know where they stand.

On Free and Starter events, full sessions show Session is full with no option to join a waitlist.

Leaving the Waitlist

To remove yourself from a waitlist, click the Leave waitlist button that replaces the sign-up button once you're queued. Your spot is released and the next person in line moves up.

How Auto-Promotion Works

When a registered attendee cancels their session signup, the first person on the waitlist is promoted automatically (first in, first out). They receive an email with a link to confirm their spot. Positions for everyone else on the waitlist shift up by one.

Planners do not need to take any action — promotion happens immediately when a cancellation is recorded.

Room Optimizer (Planner-Facing, Pro+ Only)

Setting a Session's Room Mode

Each session has a Room mode field in the session form. Choose one of three modes:

• Fixed — assign a specific room now. The room is locked and the session does not appear in the Room Optimizer.
• Fluid-manual — leave the room undecided. The session appears in the optimizer under Needs room (manual) so you can assign it when you're ready.
• Fluid-auto — let the system assign a room. When you run auto-assign, CompleteEvent picks the smallest available room that fits the session's signup count with a 20% buffer. Until auto-assign runs, the session appears under Pending auto-assign.

Opening the Room Optimizer

Go to Sessions in your event dashboard and click the Room Optimizer tab. Free and Starter orgs see an upgrade prompt instead.

Reading the Stats Row

The stats row at the top of the optimizer shows three counts:

• Swap suggestions — the number of oversubscribed/undersubscribed session pairs the system has identified in the same timeslot.
• Needs room (manual) — sessions set to Fluid-manual that have not yet been assigned a room, plus any Fluid-auto sessions that don't fit any available room after auto-assign runs.
• Pending auto-assign — sessions set to Fluid-auto that haven't been through auto-assign yet.

Row Highlights in the Sessions Table

The sessions table in the optimizer uses color to flag sessions that need attention:

• Yellow rows — the session is oversubscribed (more signups than the room can hold). These are the candidates for a swap to a larger room.
• Blue rows — the session is undersubscribed (room is significantly larger than needed). These are candidates to swap into a smaller room, freeing the larger space for an oversubscribed session in the same timeslot.

Applying a Swap Recommendation

The Swap suggestions section lists pairs of sessions in the same timeslot where swapping rooms would better match capacity to demand. Each suggestion shows the two sessions, their current rooms, signup counts, and room capacities.

To apply a swap:

1. Click Apply swap on a suggestion.
2. A modal confirms which sessions and rooms will be swapped. Check Notify attendees if you want an email sent to registered attendees in both sessions telling them their room has changed.
3. Click Confirm swap.

The rooms are exchanged immediately. If you selected notify attendees, emails go out straight away.

Running Auto-Assign

Click Run auto-assign to assign rooms to all Fluid-auto sessions at once. For each session, CompleteEvent finds the smallest available room in the same timeslot that fits the session's signup count plus a 20% buffer. This keeps sessions from being packed into an undersized room while still avoiding unnecessarily large spaces.

Sessions that don't fit any available room (because all fitting rooms are already taken in that timeslot) are left unassigned. They appear in the Needs room (manual) count so you can handle them yourself.

You can re-run auto-assign after making manual changes. It only processes sessions still set to Fluid-auto without a room assigned — it won't overwrite rooms you've already set manually.

After Optimization

Sessions with Fixed or manually assigned rooms remain unchanged regardless of what the optimizer suggests. Room mode can be changed on any session at any time from the session form.