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The Attendee Experience

How attendees sign in

Last updated: September 2026 · ~5 min read
In short: Attendees browse without an account wherever your event allows it, and sign in at the moment they do something that belongs to them, saving a session, messaging someone, leaving feedback. Signing in uses a six-digit code sent to their email, the same two-factor method your team uses in the CMS. What changes between events is when they’re asked and who is allowed in at all.

Reading, then doing

The line Eventira draws is between reading and doing. Looking at the programme, a speaker’s biography or a sponsor page is reading, and on a public event that needs no account. The moment an action is attached to a person, it needs a signed-in person to attach it to:

  • Saving or bookmarking a session into a personal schedule
  • Messaging another attendee
  • Leaving feedback or a rating on a session
  • Commenting where a session has comments enabled
  • Opening anything gated to a group they belong to

This matters for your numbers as well as for the attendee. A saved session, a rating and a message are only meaningful if you know whose they are, which is why the sign-in sits at that boundary rather than at the front door.

The six-digit code

  1. The attendee enters their email

    They use the address they registered with. On a private event, it has to be an address you’ve added, see below.

  2. A code arrives in their inbox

    Eventira emails a six-digit, single-use code. There is no app to install and nothing for them to set up in advance.

  3. They enter the code

    That’s it, they’re in, and the action they were trying to take goes through. A fresh code is issued each time; an old one won’t work twice.

What changes with your event’s accessibility

Every event carries an accessibility setting, and it decides how far someone gets before any of this applies.

Three ways to set up access Public events are open to anyone, with sign-in only when an attendee does something. Public events with gated pages are open except for specific pages restricted to chosen groups. Private events are invite-only: the attendee's email must already be on your list. More open More restricted Public Anyone can find it and read everything. Sign-in only when they save a session, message or leave feedback. Public, gated pages Open, except for pages you restrict. The attendee list, a members area, a paid workshop. Set by group. Private Invite only. Nobody else can find a way in. You add their email first. It has to match the one they sign up with.
Three ways to set up access, from most open to most restricted. Only Public and Private are switches; gated pages are Public plus per-page restrictions.

Public

Discoverable from your landing page. All the content is open: anyone can read the programme, the speakers and the pages. Sign-in appears only when they reach an interactive feature. Use this when the event is a shop window as well as a schedule.

Public with gated pages

The event and most of its content stay public, but specific pages need a sign-in and a check that the person is allowed: the participant list, a members area, a closed or paid workshop. Access is granted by group, so the same event can be open to the world and still keep a members-only corner. This is the usual shape for a conference with a membership or paid add-ons behind it.

Private

Invite-only, and the strictest of the three. You add attendee emails to the event first. Each person is invited at the address you added, and when they sign up, Eventira checks that address against your list before showing them anything. The event then appears in their My events. Two-factor by email applies here as it does everywhere, and it does more work: because access is decided by the email address, proving control of that inbox is what proves the person belongs.

On a private event, the email address is the access list. If someone registered with a personal address and you invited their work one, they won’t get in, and the error won’t explain why. Sorting addresses out before invites go is the single best thing you can do to avoid support messages in week one.

If an attendee can’t get in

  • No code arrived. Ask them to check spam or junk first, it’s where most missing codes are. University and corporate mail filters are the usual culprits.
  • “We don’t recognise this address” on a private event. The address isn’t on your list. Check Attendees for a variant of it, a personal address, an old domain, a typo, and add or correct it.
  • The code doesn’t work. They’re probably using an older email. Only the most recent code is valid, so ask for a new one.
  • They can read the site but not a particular page. That page is gated to a group they’re not in. Add them to the group rather than opening the page.
Say so in the invitation. One line, “sign in with this email address and we’ll send you a six-digit code”, removes most of the confusion before it starts. People who are expecting a password get stuck looking for one.

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