Required Sessions

Prerequisites

Events app: The Required Sessions feature is available for Events versions 5.4 and higher.

Capacity: Event Organizers must manually ensure that the configuration of Event/Event Item/Session capacity includes the mandatory Session. For example, if 70 Tickets require a specific Session, but only 60 spots are available for the Session’s capacity, there will be an issue.

Event Items: Product and Donation Event Items cannot be associated with a Session, either as a mandatory or regular one.

About the Required Sessions Feature

The Required Sessions feature allows Event Organizers to mark specific Sessions as mandatory.

Now, if a Session’s related Event Item Session is designated as a requirement, and an Attendee adds the related Ticket (Event Item) to their cart, the Session will be automatically added to the cart and registration.

The Attendee cannot remove the requisite Session from their cart and leave the Ticket. The Session will only be removed if the associated Ticket is removed. The Attendee also cannot unregister for the Session without unregistering for the related Ticket.

Benefits

Event Organizers

• They have greater control over agenda-building.
• They can tailor the Session selection step while eliminating the need to create separate flows that automatically add Sessions.
• They no longer need to manually add a missed Session after an Attendee registers for the Event, reducing post-registration follow-up.
• When running multi-session Events, they can ensure Attendees register for high-priority or compliance-related Sessions. (e.g., universities, training programs, onboarding events)

Attendees

• Attendees enjoy a streamlined and simplified registration experience.
• Designating a Session as compulsory removes extra clicks for Attendees by automatically adding necessary Sessions.
• Attendees are presented with clear expectations during registration, reducing friction and ensuring they do not miss registering for critical Sessions.

Use Case

University ABC is hosting an open house for newly enrolled students and their parents. The Event offers two types of Tickets - one for students and one for parents.

• Ticket 1: Student (Event Item Type = “Main event item”)
• Ticket 2: Parent ((Event Item Type = “Guest”)

Ticket 1 and Ticket 2 each include mandatory and optional Sessions.

For this multi-session Event, students will be automatically registered for the mandatory Sessions, “Welcome Pep Rally” and “Lunch.” Parents will be registered for the mandatory Sessions, “President’s Briefing” and “Lunch.”

Both parents and students can also select and register for any of the optional Sessions related to their Ticket type.

While this use case is for a university’s open house, you can use the Required Sessions feature for any multi-session event.

How it Works

Configure a Required Session

You can mark Sessions as mandatory in two locations.

• Event Item Session Record: The Required (conference360__Required__c) field is located on the related Event Item Session record. Its default setting is “False” or unchecked.
• Event Builder: The Required field is located in the Event Item section of the Event Builder in the step where you relate the Event Item to Sessions and is unchecked by default.

If an Event Item has a related Session and the Event Item Session’s Required field is set to “True” (checked), the Session will automatically be added to an Attendee’s cart when they add the related Event Item.

Note: The field permissions for the Required field are the same as the object permissions of the Event Item Session object.

Register for a Session

An Attendee can register for a mandatory Session or be registered by an Event Organizer in one of three locations.

From the Events Webapp

• Non-elective Sessions are enforced when registering via the Event’s webpage (Event Page URL).
• The Required Sessions registration flow manages capacity on the webapp side only.
• If the capacities of the Event Items and Sessions are not manually configured to include mandatory Sessions, the following issue may occur. Tickets connected to sold-out mandatory Sessions are marked as “Sold out” on the Event website, even if the Ticket has available capacity in Salesforce.

From the AttendeeLink

• Non-elective Sessions are enforced for AttendeeLink Session registrations. An Attendee can’t unregister using their AttendeeLink after registering if the Session is marked as required.
• Attendees can register for a mandatory Session from their AttendeeLink if an Event Organizer sets the Event Item Session’s Required status after the Attendee has completed the Event registration process. However, the Attendee cannot unregister for that Session from their AttendeeLink.

From Salesforce

• The mandatory Session/Event Item relationship is not enforced when adding Attendees from Salesforce. To maintain the relationship, Event Organizers must manually register an Attendee for both the Event Item and the mandatory Session.
• Event Organizers must also manage the capacity for both Event Items and mandatory Sessions to ensure availability when registering Attendees in Salesforce.

Updated Attendee Flow

During registration, the Events app automatically adds a non-elective Session to an Attendee’s cart when the Attendee adds the related Ticket. The Attendee will see the “Added” text in the selector button to indicate the Session was added to the cart.

The Attendee cannot remove that Session from their cart. However, if they remove the Event Item from the cart, the non-elective Session will also be removed.

If a Session is required but is sold out, the associated Event Item will also be marked as sold out.

Required Sessions vs. Min/Max Sessions and Event Items

The Takeaway

• The Required Sessions feature makes it mandatory for an Attendee to register for a specific Session at an Event.
• The Min/Max feature allows Event Organizers to set upper and/or lower limits on the number of Sessions or Event Items an Attendee can select when registering for an Event.