Event registration on WhatsApp: from invite to entry pass

Updated 2026-09-19 · 5 min read · By the Convo360 team

Why WhatsApp works well for event registration

For a conference, wedding-adjacent event, or community meetup in India, WhatsApp is often where the audience already is, and checking email for an event invite is far less reliable than a WhatsApp broadcast that people actually open within minutes.

The bigger advantage shows up after the invite: the entire registration-to-entry journey stays in one chat thread the attendee already has open, rather than bouncing between an email, a separate registration website, a payment gateway, and a PDF ticket attachment across four different places.

This matters even more for events with a short lead time. A workshop announced two weeks out doesn't have room for a slow, multi-step registration funnel to work through its own drop-off, so a fast single-thread flow directly affects how many seats actually fill before the date.

The broadcast invite

Using a tagged contact group, a Send Template broadcast goes out with the event details and a call-to-action button, "Register Now", that starts the registration flow the moment it's tapped.

Keep the broadcast message itself short and specific: event name, date, one line on what it's about, and the button. A long paragraph before the call-to-action button reduces tap-through. People scan a broadcast message quickly and decide whether to engage within the first line or two.

Collecting details with a WhatsApp Flow form

Rather than asking name, number of guests and dietary preference as separate chat questions, a native WhatsApp Flow form block presents all fields in one smooth in-app form, which attendees fill and submit in a few taps, a noticeably better experience than a long back-and-forth chat.

Keep the form itself short: name, guest count, and the one or two details you actually need (dietary preference, ticket type), rather than trying to capture everything you might ever want to know about the attendee. A long form, even in the smoother Flow interface, still sees drop-off partway through if it feels like more effort than the event is worth.

Payment and the entry pass

For paid events, a Razorpay payment link block follows the form submission. Once payment succeeds (or immediately, for free events), a Send Media block delivers the entry pass, a QR code image or PDF ticket, directly into the same chat, ready to show at the door.

Send a short confirmation message alongside the pass rather than the file alone: "You're registered for TechMeet Mumbai, 14 Sept, Hall 2. Show this QR at entry, see you there!" A pass with no context sitting in a chat from weeks ago is easy for an attendee to misplace or forget the event details around.

For a family or group registration, send one pass per attendee rather than a single combined one. Entry staff scanning at the gate move faster with individual codes, and it avoids the awkward situation of one member of a group arriving separately without the shared pass.

Building it on Convo360

1. Tag your invite list as a contact group, then send a Send Template broadcast with a registration button.
2. On tap, trigger a flow using the WhatsApp Flow form block for name, guest count and preferences.
3. For paid events, add a Razorpay payment link block after form submission.
4. Generate and send the entry pass with Send Media, storing the registration in Google Sheets or your CRM.
5. Add Wait / Delay reminders at 3 days and 1 day before the event.

See campaigns docs and Flow Builder docs.

If registrations are expected to fill a limited number of seats, add a Condition block that checks the current registration count against capacity before confirming. Closing registration cleanly with a waitlist option is a better experience than accepting a payment for a seat that no longer exists.

Mistakes to avoid

A common mistake is sending the entry pass before payment is confirmed, purely to speed up the flow. This creates a real risk of unpaid attendees showing up with a valid-looking QR code. Always gate the Send Media pass block behind a confirmed Razorpay payment event, not just form submission.

A second mistake is a reminder cadence that's too aggressive for a free event and too sparse for a paid one. Free events can tolerate a single reminder the day before; paid events, where attendees have already committed money, benefit from an earlier reminder too (3 days out) since the financial commitment alone doesn't guarantee they've kept the date free.

A third mistake is not building a cancellation or refund path into the same flow. Attendees who need to cancel will message anyway, and without a clear "Cancel my registration" option in the menu, that request arrives as an unstructured message your team has to handle manually each time.

What it costs

Broadcasts, Flow forms and payment links run on the Starter plan (₹999/month, ex-GST) upward; WhatsApp broadcast messages are billed by Meta at their per-message rate, with no Convo360 markup, and Razorpay's standard processing fee applies to paid registrations. The invite broadcast itself is usually a Marketing template, since it promotes an event to people who have not yet registered, so get it approved by Meta in WhatsApp Studio → Templates before you plan your send date, and only message contacts who opted in.

Step by step

1. Tag your invite listGroup your contacts and send a Send Template broadcast with a registration call-to-action button.
2. Collect details via Flow formUse a native WhatsApp Flow form block to capture name, guest count and preferences in one step.
3. Take payment if neededAdd a Razorpay payment link block right after the form submission for paid events.
4. Send the entry passDeliver a QR image or PDF ticket via the Send Media block once registration is complete.
5. Add reminder dripSet Wait / Delay reminders 3 days and 1 day before the event to reduce no-shows.

Example conversation

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

Available across India — see WhatsApp & AI calling automation by state and city.